Introduction to Unix and Shell Programming

2

FILES AND FILE ORGANIZATION

Chapter Objectives

• Files in Unix
• Categories of Files
• Hidden Files—Dot Files
• The file system—Organizing the Unix files
• Reaching a required File—Path names
• Home directory and directory commands
• The Dot (.) and Double Dot (..) File Names
• File related commands
• Wildcards—File name generation
• Displaying the contents of a file
• Printing of files
• Comparing files

Unix sees everything including devices as a file. Thus, in Unix there are a large number of files. From the management and accessing point of view, all these files are organized in an inverted tree like structure. This chapter deals with files, rules for their naming, the methods used for organizing and accessing these files. The basic commands that are ...