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BROWSING THE FILE-SYSTEM
THE LINUX / UNIX FILE-SYSTEM
The Linux file-system is hierarchical and is made of
directories, sub-directories and files.
Directories can contain sub-directories and/or files; this
is a structure used by other file-systems, such as
Microsoft-based ones however the concept originated in
UNIX.
In Linux/Unix, everything is represented as a file; this
includes processes, devices, applications, I/O sockets,
etc.
Directories are a file as well, they contain the information
of any files directly under them, hierarchically.

LINUX FILE-SYSTEM STRUCTURE
The Linux file-system structure is tree like.
The file-system begins at a directory named /, which is
also referred to as the root directory.
The drives representation is different than in Windows.
There are no C: or D: drives; each drive has a Mount
Point, which is a location under the root (/) directory in
which it is represented.
Mount points can be created by the sys-admin that serve
as connection points of sort to physical devices and/or
other file-systems
Most Unix systems has the default /mnt directory for
arbitrary mounts. Linux systems, has the /media as an
additional default directory for removable storage
devices
LINUX FILE-SYSTEM STRUCTURE
Below is a visual representation of the basic Linux file-
system structure:
ABSOLUTE DIRECTORY PATHS
Absolute: the root of Linuxs file-system is represented
as /; this slash mark will always be present when we
use absolute pathnames to navigate the file-system, for
example: /var/log/messages.log
The first / in the example above represents the root dir,
var is a directory sitting directly under the root dir and
log is a directory under var. Finally, messages.log
is the name of a file which resides in /var/log/.
RELATIVE DIRECTORY PATHS
Relative: relative pathnames refers to the current
location in the file-system as the point of origin and not
the root directory. Lets assume we are in the /var/
directory right now, in order to reach messages.log file
we will use the following path: log/messages.log
Note that there is no / at the beginning of the pathname
and that it begins with the log directory, since we are
already inside /var/
HOME DIRECTORIES
Every Linux user has a home directory; the home dirs
reside in /home/<username>
The home dir has a few uses and advantages to its
owner:
It is the directory a user goes to after logging into the system.
It becomes the current working directory after login.
The owning user can freely create files and/or directories in it.
Other users do not have permissions to access a home directory
not owned by themselves, with the exclusion of the user root
which is the administrative user of the system or other users that
have been granted special permissions by the admin.
The home dir contains customization files which are loaded upon
login. (.bash_profile / .bashrc and others)
Contains the history of the shell commands executed by the
specific user (.bash_history)
NAVIGATING THROUGH DIRECTORIES
There are two commands that aid us with navigating
through the file-system:
PWD Print Working Directory; displays the absolute pathname
of the current working directory:
# pwd
/home/nir

CD change directory; make the specified pathname our current
working directory. can be used with either absolute or relative
pathnames:
# cd /var/log
# pwd
/var/log

NAVIGATING THROUGH DIRECTORIES
CD with a relative pathname:
# pwd
/var
# cd log
# pwd
/var/log
CD without any pathname will make the users home dir
the current working directory:
# pwd
/var/log
# cd
# pwd
/home/nir

NAVIGATING THROUGH DIRECTORIES
Pathname navigations has a few shortcuts to make
things simpler:
. : represents the current working directory, for example: if the
current working dir is /var/log/ ls . will display the log files in
this dir.
.. : represents the parent directory, one level above the current
working directory; following the above example, ls .. will
display the contents of /var/
~ : represents the home directory, each user and their own
home. example: cd ~ will take the user nir into /home/nir/
- : return to the previous working directory; cd will return to
the working directory we were in before the last cd command
weve performed.
LISTING DIRECTORY CONTENTS
The ls command is used to list the contents of
directories. It has numerous options that allow the
displaying and sorting of information in a few different
ways.
ls command syntax is as follows:
ls [-option] [pathname[s]]
If no options or arguments are given, ls by itself will list
the current working directorys contents, for example:
# ls
file1 file2 file3


LISTING DIRECTORY CONTENTS
ls has a few additional options to control the listing
results and sorting:
-a : display hidden files
-i : display inode numbers
-R : list sub-directories contents recursively
-d : list the directory details, not the files inside of it
-l : display long list
-t : sort by modification time
-r : sort in reverse order
There are numerous additional options, run: ls --help to view them.


DISPLAYING LONG LISTING
To see detailed information about the contents of a
directory use the ls -l command.
The various fields of this table contains most of the
information about a file, its permissions and times:
# ls -l
drwxrwxr-x 2 nir nir 4096 Jul 19 13:58 directory
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nir nir 135 Jul 19 13:42 file1
-rwxrwxr-- 1 nir nir 35 Jul 19 13:42 file2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nir nir 200 Jul 19 13:42 file3

METACHARACTERS
Metacharacters are characters which are interpreted by
the shell as more than just any regular character.
These characters include: ! ; * | % $ ? <> []
It is highly recommended to Avoid using metacharacters
when naming files and/or directories; it will work but is
also likely to cause trouble.
When executing a command in the shell, the shell scans
the whole command for metacharacters; if any are
found, the shell expands these characters to their
actual meaning before the execution of the command,
for example, when running the command: ls la ~ the
shell will first interpret the ~ mark into its actual meaning,
which is the current users home dir and then execute:
ls la /home/<username>.
METACHARACTERS
The Asterisk * characters special meaning is: zero or
more characters; this character is also known as the
Wildcard character, example:
# ls
dfile1 dfile2 directory file1 file2 file3 kfile9 mfile1

# ls k*
kfile9

Filenames with a leading dot ( . ), such as
.bash_profile are categorized as hidden by the file-
system
METACHARACTERS
The question marks ? special meaning is: match any
single character (except a leading dot in hidden files).
example:
# ls
afile1 afile2 afile123 afile directory file1 file2 file3 kfile9
mfile1

# ls afile?
afile1 afile2
METACHARACTERS
The square brackets [] special meaning is: match a
set or a range of characters in a single position.
example:
# ls
dfile1 dfile2 directory file1 file2 file3 kfile9 mfile1

# ls [mk]*
kfile9 mfile1
BASIC FILE MANAGEMENT
cp copy a file to a new file or a list of files to a directory

Syntax:
cp [options] file(s) file|directory

Options:
-i run interactively, ask before overwriting files
-f force copy, overwrite automatically
-r recursively copy files and sub-directories

$ cp file file_new
$ ls -l file file_new
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 Jul 23 21:02 file
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 Jul 23 22:11 file_new

BASIC FILE MANAGEMENT
mv move or rename a file or move a list of files to a
directory

Syntax:
mv [options] file(s) file|directory

Options:
-i run interactively, ask before overwriting files
-f force copy, overwrite automatically

$ mv file file_new
$ ls -l file file_new
ls: file: No such file or directory
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 Jul 23 22:11 file_new

BASIC FILE MANAGEMENT
ln creates a new link for a file

Syntax:
ln [options] file link

Options:
-s create a symbolic link
-f force linking, overwrite automatically

$ ln -s file file_new
$ ls -l file file_new
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5 Jul 23 22:25 file
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jul 23 22:26 file_new -> file

BASIC FILE MANAGEMENT
rm removes a file or files list

Syntax:
rm [options] file(s)

Options:
-r recursively remove files and sub-directories
-f force copy, overwrite automatically

$ rm file_new
$ ls -l file file_new
ls: file: No such file or directory
ls: file_new: No such file or directory

BASIC FILE MANAGEMENT
mkdir create a new directory

Syntax:
mkdir [options] directory

Options:
-p create parent directories, if needed

$ mkdir dir1
$ ls -l
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 23 22:20 dir1

Note: mkdir is the only command from the above that can create a
new directory. cp and mv will only copy existing directories with
given -r




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