Linux files and directories

Tushar B. Kute,
http://tusharkute.com
Linux files

• You can name a file using any letters, underscores, and

numbers. You can also include periods and commas.
Except in certain special cases, you should never begin a
filename with a period.
• Other characters, such as slashes, question marks, or
asterisks, are reserved for use as special characters by
the system and should not be part of a filename.
• Filenames can be as long as 256 characters. Filenames
can also include spaces, though to reference such
filenames from the command line, be sure to encase
them in quotes. On a desktop like GNOME or KDE, you do
not need quotes.
Linux files

• Special initialization files are also used to hold shell

configuration commands.
• These are the hidden, or dot, files, which begin with
a period. Dot files used by commands and
applications have predetermined names, such as the
.mozilla directory used to hold your Mozilla data and
configuration files.
• Recall that when you use ls to display your
filenames, the dot files will not be displayed. To
include the dot files, you need to use ls with the -a
option.
Linux files

• The ls -l command displays detailed information

about a file.
• First the permissions are displayed, followed by
the number of links, the owner of the file, the
name of the group the user belongs to, the file
size in bytes, the date and time the file was last
modified, and the name of the file.
• Permissions indicate who can access the file: the
user, members of a group, or all other users.
Linux files

• All files in Linux have one physical format—a byte

stream. A byte stream is just a sequence of bytes.
• This allows Linux to apply the file concept to every
data component in the system.
• Directories are classified as files, as are devices.
Treating everything as a file allows Linux to organize
and exchange data more easily.
• The data in a file can be sent directly to a device such
as a screen because a device interfaces with the
system using the same byte-stream file format as
regular files.
Linux files types

• Five common types of files exist:

– ordinary files,
– directory files,
– first-in first-out pipes,
– character device files, and
– block device files.
The file command

• The Linux file command helps you determine what a file

is used for.
• It examines the first few lines of a file and tries to
determine a classification for it.
• The file command looks for special keywords or special
numbers in those first few lines, but it is not always
accurate.
The od command

• If you need to examine the entire file byte by byte, you can do so
with the od (octal dump) command.
• The od command performs a dump of a file. By default, it prints
every byte in its octal representation. However, you can also
specify a character, decimal, or hexadecimal representation.
• The od command is helpful when you need to detect any special
character in your file or if you want to display a binary file.
The file structure

• Linux organizes files into a hierarchically connected

set of directories.
• Each directory may contain either files or other
directories. In this respect, directories perform two
important functions.
• A directory holds files, much like files held in a file
drawer, and a directory connects to other directories,
much as a branch in a tree is connected to other
branches.
• Because of the similarities to a tree, such a structure
is often referred to as a tree structure.
The file structure
Home directory

• When you log in to the system, you are placed within

your home directory.
• The name given to this directory by the system is the
same as your login name.
• Any files you create when you first log in are organized
within your home directory.
• Within your home directory, however, you can create
more directories.
• You can change the working directory by using the cd
command to designate another directory as the
working directory.
Pathnames

• The name you give to a directory or file when you

create it is not its full name.
• The full name of a directory is its pathname.
• In Linux, you write a pathname by listing each directory
in the path separated from the last by a forward slash.
• A slash preceding the first directory in the path
represents the root.
• The pathname for the rashmi directory is
/home/rashmi. The pathname for the reports directory
is /home/rashmi/reports.
Pathnames

• The absolute pathname from the root to your home

directory can be especially complex and, at times, even
subject to change by the system administrator.
• To make it easier to reference, you can use a special
character, the tilde (~), which represents the absolute
pathname of your home directory.
System Directories

• The root directory that begins the Linux file structure

contains several system directories.
• The system directories contain files and programs used
to run and maintain the system.
• Many contain other subdirectories with programs for
executing specific features of Linux.
• For example, the directory /usr/bin contains the various
Linux commands that users execute, such as lpl.
• The directory /bin holds system-level commands.
Standard system directories
Displaying file contents

• The cat and more commands display the contents of a file on

the screen. The name cat stands for concatenate.
• The cat command outputs the entire text of a file to the
screen at once. This presents a problem when the file is large
because its text quickly speeds past on the screen.
• The more and less commands are designed to overcome this
limitation by displaying one screen of text at a time.
• You can then move forward or backward in the text at your
leisure.
Listing, Displaying and Printing files
Creating directory

• You create and remove directories with the mkdir and

rmdir commands.
• In either case, you can also use pathnames for the
directories.
• In the next example, the user creates the directory
reports. Then the user creates the directory letters using
a pathname:
Removing directory

• You can remove a directory with the rmdir command

followed by the directory name.
• To remove a directory and all its subdirectories, you use the
rm command with the -r option.
• This is a very powerful command and can easily be used to
erase all your files. If your rm command is aliased as rm -i
(interactive mode), you will be prompted for each file.
• To simply remove all files and subdirectories without
prompts, add the -f option.
Directory Commands
Directory Commands
Searching directory: find

• Once you have a large number of files in many different

directories, you may need to search them to locate a
specific file, or files, of a certain type.
• The find command enables you to perform such a search
from the command line.
Copy and move
Copy and move
Symbolic Link

• You might want to reference a file using different

filenames to access it from different directories. The
added names are often referred to as links.
• Linux supports two different types of links, hard and
symbolic.
• Hard links are literally another name for the same file,
whereas symbolic links function like shortcuts
referencing another file.
• Symbolic links are much more flexible and can work over
many different file systems, whereas hard links are
limited to your local file system.
Symbolic Link

• To set up a symbolic link, you use the ln command with the -s

option and two arguments: the name of the original file and
the new, added filename.
• The ls operation lists both filenames, but only one physical
file will exist.
• $ ln -s original-file-name added-file-name
Hard Link

• You can give the same file several names by using the ln command
on the same file many times.
• To set up a hard link, you use the ln command with no -s option and
two arguments: the name of the original file and the new, added
filename.
• The ls operation lists both filenames, but only one physical file will
exist
• $ ln original-file-name added-file-name
 Thank you
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