Unix File Management

UNIX FILE MANAGEMENT
Submitted by
Samuel Jonathan Dinesh

(SRN – R20EF140)
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Rukmini Knowledge Park, Kattigenahalli, Yelahanka, Bengaluru – 560

064
2022
INDEX
• Introduction
• Listing files
• Prefix & description
• Metacharacters
• Hidden files
• Creating files
• Editing files
• Displaying file content
• Copying files
• Renaming files
• Deleting files
• Acknowledgement
• Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
When you work with Unix, one way or another, you spend most of your time working
with files. This tutorial will help you understand how to create and remove files, copy
and rename them, create links to them, etc.
In Unix, there are three basic types of files –

• Ordinary Files − An ordinary file is a file on the system that contains data, text,
or program instructions. In this tutorial, you look at working with ordinary files.
• Directories − Directories store both special and ordinary files. For users familiar
with Windows or Mac OS, Unix directories are equivalent to folders.
• Special Files − Some special files provide access to hardware such as hard
drives, CD-ROM drives, modems, and Ethernet adapters. Other special files are
similar to aliases or shortcuts and enable you to access a single file using
different names.
LISTING FILES
To list the files and directories stored in the current directory, use the following
command –
$ls
Here is the sample output of the above command –
$ls
bin hosts lib res.03

ch07 hw1 pub test_results
ch07.bak hw2 res.01 users
docs hw3 res.02 work
The command ls supports the -l option which would help you to get more information
about the listed files.
Here is the information about all the listed columns –

• First Column − Represents the file type and the permission given on the file.
Below is the description of all type of files.
• Second Column − Represents the number of memory blocks taken by the file
or directory.
• Third Column − Represents the owner of the file. This is the Unix user who
created this file.
• Fourth Column − Represents the group of the owner. Every Unix user will have
an associated group.
• Fifth Column − Represents the file size in bytes.
• Sixth Column − Represents the date and the time when this file was created
or modified for the last time.
• Seventh Column − Represents the file or the directory name.
In the ls -l listing example, every file line begins with a d, -, or l. These characters
indicate the type of the file that's listed.
PREFIX & DESCRIPTION
Prefix Description
- Regular file, such as an ASCII text file, binary executable, or hard

link.
b Block special file. Block input/output device file such as a physical

hard drive.
c Character special file. Raw input/output device file such as a physical
hard drive.
d Directory file that contains a listing of other files and directories.
l Symbolic link file. Links on any regular file.
p Named pipe. A mechanism for inter-process communications.
s Socket used for inter-process communication.
METACHARACTERS
Metacharacters have a special meaning in Unix. For example, * and ? are

metacharacters. We use * to match 0 or more characters, a question mark (?)
matches with a single character.
For Example − $ls ch*.doc

Displays all the files, the names of which start with ch and end with .doc –
ch01-1.doc ch010.doc ch02.doc ch03-2.doc
ch04-1.doc ch040.doc ch05.doc ch06-2.doc
ch01-2.doc ch02-1.doc c
Here, * works as meta character which matches with any character. If you want to
display all the files ending with just .doc, then you can use the following command –
$ls *.doc
HIDDEN FILES
An invisible file is one, the first character of which is the dot or the period character
(.). Unix programs (including the shell) use most of these files to store configuration
information.
Some common examples of the hidden files include the files –

• .profile − The Bourne shell ( sh) initialization script
• .kshrc − The Korn shell ( ksh) initialization script
• .cshrc − The C shell ( csh) initialization script
• .rhosts − The remote shell configuration file
To list the invisible files, specify the -a option to ls –

$ ls -a
. .profile docs lib test_results

.. .rhosts hosts pub users
.emacs bin hw1 res.01 work
.exrc ch07 hw2 res.02
.kshrc ch07.bak hw3 res.03
$
• Single dot (.) − This represents the current directory.

• Double dot (..) − This represents the parent directory.
CREATING FILES
You can use the vi editor to create ordinary files on any Unix system. You simply need
to give the following command –
$ vi filename
The above command will open a file with the given filename. Now, press the key i to
come into the edit mode. Once you are in the edit mode, you can start writing your
content in the file as in the following program –
This is unix file....I created it for the first time.....

I'm going to save this content in this file.
Once you are done with the program, follow these steps −
• Press the key esc to come out of the edit mode.
• Press two keys Shift + ZZ together to come out of the file completely.
You will now have a file created with filename in the current directory.
$ vi filename
$
EDITING FILES
You can edit an existing file using the vi editor. We will discuss in short how to open
an existing file –
$ vi filename
Once the file is opened, you can come in the edit mode by pressing the key i and
then you can proceed by editing the file. If you want to move here and there inside
a file, then first you need to come out of the edit mode by pressing the key Esc. After
this, you can use the following keys to move inside a file –
• l key to move to the right side.
• h key to move to the left side.
• k key to move upside in the file.
• j key to move downside in the file.
So using the above keys, you can position your cursor wherever you want to edit.
Once you are positioned, then you can use the i key to come in the edit mode. Once
you are done with the editing in your file, press Esc and finally two keys Shift + Z
together to come out of the file completely.
DISPLAY CONTENT OF A FILE

You can use the cat command to see the content of a file. Following is a simple
example to see the content of the above created file –
$ cat filename
This is unix file....I created it for the first time.....
I'm going to save this content in this file.
$
You can display the line numbers by using the -b option along with the cat command
as follows –
$ cat -b filename
1 This is unix file....I created it for the first time.....
2 I'm going to save this content in this file.
$
COPYING FILES
To make a copy of a file use the cp command. The basic syntax of the command is –
$ cp source_file destination_file
Following is the example to create a copy of the existing file filename.
$ cp filename copyfile
$
You will now find one more file copyfile in your current directory. This file will exactly
be the same as the original file filename.
RENAMING FILES
To change the name of a file, use the mv command. Following is the basic syntax –
$ mv old_file new_file
The following program will rename the existing file filename to newfile.
$ mv filename newfile
$
The mv command will move the existing file completely into the new file. In this case,
you will find only newfile in your current directory.
DELETING FILES
To delete an existing file, use the rm command. Following is the basic syntax –
$ rm filename
Caution − A file may contain useful information. It is always recommended to be
careful while using this Delete command. It is better to use the -i option along with
rm command.
Following is the example which shows how to completely remove the existing file
filename.
$ rm filename
$
You can remove multiple files at a time with the command given below –
$ rm filename1 filename2 filename3
$
CONCLUSION
We have learnt how to manage files in Unix. We have seen how to perform each of
the operations using the shell commands in Unix with the help of examples and
corresponding images. This concludes the report on the topic of ‘Unix File
Management’.
Thank you.

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UNIX FILE MANAGEMENT

Samuel Jonathan Dinesh

SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Rukmini Knowledge Park, Kattigenahalli, Yelahanka, Bengaluru – 560

In Unix, there are three basic types of files –

bin hosts lib res.03

Here is the information about all the listed columns –

- Regular file, such as an ASCII text file, binary executable, or hard

b Block special file. Block input/output device file such as a physical

d Directory file that contains a listing of other files and directories.

l Symbolic link file. Links on any regular file.

p Named pipe. A mechanism for inter-process communications.

s Socket used for inter-process communication.

Metacharacters have a special meaning in Unix. For example, * and ? are

For Example − $ls ch*.doc

Some common examples of the hidden files include the files –

To list the invisible files, specify the -a option to ls –

. .profile docs lib test_results

• Single dot (.) − This represents the current directory.

This is unix file....I created it for the first time.....

DISPLAY CONTENT OF A FILE

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