CompTIA Linux+ Guide to

Linux Certification
Fourth Edition

Chapter 4
Linux Filesystem
Management
 Objectives

• Find files and directories on the filesystem

• Understand and create linked files
• Explain the function of the Filesystem Hierarchy
Standard
• Use standard Linux commands to manage files and
directories
• Modify file and directory ownership

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 Objectives

• Define and change Linux file and directory

permissions
• Identify the default permissions created on files and
directories
• Apply special file and directory permissions
• Modify the default access control list (ACL)
• View and set filesystem attributes

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 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

• Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS): standard set

of directories for Linux and UNIX systems
– Standard file and subdirectory contents
– Simplifies the task of finding specific files
– Gives Linux software developers ability to locate files
on any Linux system
• Create non-distribution–specific software

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 Table 4-1: Linux directories defined by the
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
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 Managing Files and Directories

• mkdir command: creates new directories

– Arguments specify directory’s absolute or relative
pathname
• mv command: moves files
– Minimum of two arguments:
• Source file/directory (may specify multiple sources)
• Target file/directory
– Pathnames can be absolute or relative
• For multiple files, can use wildcards in pathname
– Also used to rename files or directories
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 Managing Files and Directories

• cp command: copies files

– Same arguments as the mv command
– Also used to make copies of files
• To copy a directory full of files, you must tell the cp
command that the copy will be recursive
– Recursive copy command copies the directory and
all subdirectories and contents
– Recursive search includes all subdirectories in a
directory and their contents
– Use –r option
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 Managing Files and Directories

• If the target is a file that exists

– Both the mv and cp commands warn the user that
the target file will be overwritten and will ask whether
to continue
– A feature of the default configuration in Fedora Linux
because the BASH shell contains aliases to the cp
and mv commands
• To see the aliases present in your current shell,
type alias at the prompt

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 Managing Files and Directories

• Interactive mode: Prompts user before overwriting

files
– –i option (when you type the cp command, the cp
-i command is actually run)
– –f option (force): Overrides interactive mode
• rm command: Removes files
– Arguments are a list of files
– Can use wildcards
– Interactive mode by default
• Use -f option to override
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 Managing Files and Directories

• rmdir command: removes directories

– Arguments are a list of files
– Can use wildcards
– Interactive mode by default
• Use -f option to override
– Cannot be used to remove directory full of files
• To delete directory and all its contents (subdirectories
and files), use rm –R command

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 Managing Files and Directories

Table 4-2: Common Linux file management commands

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 Finding Files

• locate command: Search for files on system

– Receives full or partial filename as argument
– Looks in a premade indexed database of all files on
system
• To update the database use the updatedb command
– Information returned may not fit on screen
• Use with more or less commands

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 Finding Files

• find command: recursively search for files

starting from a specified directory
– Slower than locate command, but more versatile
– Format: find <start directory> -criteria
<what to find>
• e.g., find /root –name project
– If using wildcard metacharacters, ensure that they
are interpreted by the find command
• Place wildcards in quotation marks
– To reduce search time, specify subdirectory to be
searched
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 Table 4-3: Common criteria used with the find command
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 Finding Files

• PATH variable: lists directories on system where

executable files are located
– Allows executable files to be run without specifying
absolute or relative path
• which command: search for an executable file
– Searches the PATH variable
– If the file is not found, lists the directories that were
searched

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 Linking Files

• Files can be linked to one another in two ways:

– Symbolic link (symlink): one file is a pointer or
shortcut to another
– Hard link: two files share the same data
• To better understand how files are linked
– You must understand how files are stored on a
filesystem

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 Linking Files

• A filesystem has three main sections:

– Superblock: Contains general information about the
filesystem
• e.g., number of inodes and data blocks, size of each
data block
– The inode table: consists of several inodes, each of
which describes a file or directory and contains a
unique inode number for identification
• The inode stores file size, data block locations, last
date modified, permissions, and ownership
– Data blocks: Data making up contents of a file
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 Linking Files

• Hard linked files share the same inode and inode

number
– Must reside on the same filesystem
• To create a hard link, use the ln command and
specify two arguments
– The existing file to hard-link and the target file that
will be created as a hard link to the existing file
• To remove hard linked files, delete one of the
linked files
– Reduces the link count for the file
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 Linking Files

Figure 4-1: The structure of hard linked files

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 Linking Files

• Symbolic linked files do not share the same inode

and data blocks with their target file
• Symbolic linked file is a pointer to the target file
– Data blocks in the linked file contain only a
pathname to the target file
• Linked file and target file have different sizes
– Editing a symbolic linked file actually edits the target
file
• If the target file is deleted, symbolic link serves no
function
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 Linking Files

Figure 4-2: The structure of symbolically linked files

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 Linking Files

• To create a symbolic link, use the -s option with

the ln command
– Two arguments: existing file to link and target file to
create as a link to existing file
– Arguments can be relative or absolute pathnames,
as with hard links
• Use the ls -l command to view both hard link
and symbolic link files
• Symbolic links need not reside on the same
filesystem as their target
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 File and Directory Permissions

• All users must login with a username and password

• Users identified by username and group
memberships
– Access to resources depends on username and
group membership
– Must have required permissions

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 File and Directory Ownership

• Primary group: user’s default group

• During file creation, that user’s name and primary
group becomes the owner and group owner of the
file
– Same for directory creation
• whoami command: view current user name
• groups command: view group memberships and
primary group
• touch command: create an empty file

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 File and Directory Ownership

• chown (change owner) command: change

ownership of a file or directory
– Two arguments:
• New owner
• File or directory to change
– Can use –R option to change permissions
recursively throughout the directory tree
• chgrp (change group) command: change group
owner of a file or directory
– Same arguments and options as for chown
command
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 Managing File and Directory
Permissions
• Mode: inode section that stores permissions
• Three sections, based on the user(s) that receive
the permission:
– User permissions: owner
– Group permissions: group owner
– Other permissions: everyone on system
• Three regular permissions may be assigned to
each user:
– Read
– Write
– Execute
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 Interpreting the Mode

Figure 4-3: The structure of a mode

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 Interpreting the Mode

• User: refers to owner of a file or directory

• Owner: refers to users with ability to change
permissions on a file or directory
• Other: refers to all users on system
• Permissions are not additive
– The system assigns the first set of permissions that
are matched in the mode order: user, group, other
• Linux permission should not be assigned to other
only

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 Interpreting Permissions

Table 4-4: Linux permissions

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 Changing Permissions

• chmod (change mode) command: change mode

(permissions) of files or directories
– Takes two arguments at minimum
• Criteria used to change permissions
• Filenames to change
– If the permissions to be changed are identical for the
user, group, and other categories, you can use the
“a” character to refer to all categories
• Permissions are stored in a file’s or a directory’s
inode as binary powers of two
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 Changing Permissions

Table 4-5: Criteria used within the chmod command

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 Changing Permissions

Figure 4-4: Numeric representation of the mode

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 Changing Permissions

Table 4-6: Numeric representations of the permissions in a mode

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 Default Permissions

• New files are given rw-rw-rw- permissions by

default
• umask: a special variable that takes away
permissions on new files and directories
• umask command: displays the umask
• Changing the umask
– Use a new umask as an argument to the umask
command

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 Default Permissions

Figure 4-5: Performing a umask 022 calculation

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 Default Permissions

Figure 4-6: Performing a umask 007 calculation

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 Special Permissions

• Three more optional special permissions for files

and directories
– SUID (Set User ID)
– SGID (Set Group ID)
– Sticky bit

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 Defining Special Permissions

• SUID
– If set on a file, user who executes the file becomes
owner of the file during execution
• e.g., passwd command
– No functionality when set on a directory
– Only applicable to binary compiled programs
• Cannot be used on shell scripts

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 Defining Special Permissions

• SGID
– Applicable to files and directories
– If set on a file, user who executes the file becomes
member of the file’s group during execution
– If a user creates a file in a directory with SGID set,
the file’s group owner is set to be the directory’s
group owner and not the user’s primary group

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 Defining Special Permissions

• Sticky bit
– Previously used to lock files in memory
– Currently only applicable to directories
– Ensures that a user can only delete his/her own files
when given write permissions in a directory

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 Setting Special Permissions

• Special permissions require execute

– They mask the execute permission when displayed
by the ls –l command
• May be set even if file or directory does not have
execute permission
– Indicating letter in the mode will be capitalized
• Add special permissions via chmod command
– Add an extra digit at front of permissions argument

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 Setting Special Permissions

Figure 4-7: Representing special permissions in the mode

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 Setting Special Permissions

Figure 4-8: Representing special permissions in the

absence of the execute permissions
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 Setting Special Permissions

Figure 4-9: Numeric representation of regular

and special permissions
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 Setting Custom Permissions in the
Access Control List (ACL)

• Access control list (ACL): a list of users or groups

that you can assign permissions to
• setfacl (set file ACL) command: used to modify
ACL entries for a particular Linux file or directory
– Use the -m option to modify the ACL
– e.g: setfacl -m u:bob:r-- doc1
– Use the -b option to remove all extra ACL
assignments on a particular file or directory
• getfacl (get file ACL) command: used to list all
ACL entries for a particular Linux file or directory
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 Managing Filesystem Attributes

• Linux has file attributes that can be set

– These attributes work outside Linux permissions and
are filesystem-specific
• lsattr (list attributes) command: used to list
filesystem attributes for a Linux file
• chattr (change attributes) command: used to
change filesystem attributes for a Linux file
• Immutable attribute (i): prevents the file from being
modified in any way
– Not even root user can modify
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 Summary

• The Linux directory tree obeys the Filesystem

Hierarchy Standard
– Allows system files to be located in standard
directories
• Many file management commands exist
• You can find files using different commands
– locate: search preindexed database
– which: search PATH variable
– find: search for file based on criteria

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 Summary

• Files can be linked two different ways

– Symbolic link: a file serves as a pointer to another
– Hard links: one file is a linked duplicate of another
• Each file and directory has an owner and a group
owner
– Owner can change permissions and grant ownership
• Permissions can be set on the owner of a file,
members of the group of the file, and everyone on
the system (other)

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 Summary

• Three regular file and directory permissions (read,

write, execute) and three special file and directory
permissions (SUID, SGID, sticky bit)
• Permissions can be changed using chmod
• New files and directories receive default
permissions from the system
• The root user has all permissions to all files and
directories on the Linux filesystem
– Root user can change the ownership of any file or
directory on the Linux filesystem
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 Summary

• The default ACL on a file or directory can be

modified to include additional users or groups
• Filesystem attributes can be set on Linux files to
provide low-level functionality such as immutability

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