103.3 Perform basic file management

103.3 Perform basic file management

1. Introduction

   • Everything in Linux is a file,
     • copy files
     • delete files
     • cover the commands associated with file management.
     • A file is an entity that stores data and programs.
       • consists of content and meta data
         • file size, owner, creation date, permissions
     • types of files
       • Regular files
       • Directories
       • Special files

2. Manipulating Files

   • Using ls to List Files
     • ls
       • -l
         • -,:Regular file d,: directory file l: lnk file
       • -lh
         • human
       • -a
         • hidden files
   • Creating, Copying, Moving and Deleting Files
     • Create File
       • touch file1 file2 file3
       • touch -am file3
         • -a option changes only the access time, while the -m option changes only the modification time.
   • Copying Files with cp
     • cp file1 dir2
   • Moving Files with mv
     • mv myfile.txt /home/frank/Documents
       • mv old_file_name new_file_name
     • -i: interactive -f:forza
   • Deleting Files with rm
     • rm file1
       • rm -i file1
         • rm -f file1
           • rm file1 file2 file3

3. Creating and Deleting Directories

   • Creating Directory
     • mkdir dir1
       • mkdir dir1 dir2 dir3
         • mkdir -p parents/children

4. Removing Directories

   • rmdir dir1
     • rmdir dir1 dir2
       • rmdir -p parents/children

5. Recursive Manipulation of Files and Directories

   • ls -R mydirectory
     • ls -R animal
       • ls -R animal/

6. Recursive Copy with cp -r

   • tree mydir
   • mkdir newcopy
   • cp -r mydir newcopy
     • -r all the contents of mydir including itself are copied into newcopy.
   • Recursive Deletion with rm -r
     • rm newcopy/
       • rm -ri mydir/
         • Recursive Interactive

7. File Globbing and Wildcards

   • file globing
     • File globbing is a feature provided by the Unix/Linux shell to represent multiple filenames by using special characters called wildcards.
   • Wildcards
     • are essentially symbols which may be used to substitute for one or more characters
       • *
         • rm *: Delete all files in current working directory.
       • ?
         • ls l?st
           • List all files with names beginning with l followed by any single character and ending with st.
       • []
         • rmdir [a-z]*
           • Remove all directories whose name starts with a letter.
   • The Asterisk
     • find /home -name *.png
     • ls lpic-*.txt
     • cp -r animal/* forest
     • rm *ate*
     • The Question Mark
       • ls l?st.txt
       • ls ??st.txt
       • Bracketed Characters
         • ls l[aef]st.txt
         • ls l[a-z]st.txt
         • ls student-[0-9][A-Z].txt
         • Combining Wildcards
           • ls [plf]?st*
           • ls f*[0-9]+.txt

8. Guide Exercises

   • touch dog cat
   • mkdir animal
     • mv dog cat -t animal/
   • cd ~/Documents
     • mkdir backup
       • cp -r animal ~/Documents/backup
         • mv animal/ animal.bkup
   • ls db-[1-3].tar.gz
   • rm cne*.pdf