Linux® For Dummies®, 8th Edition

Files and Filesystem

No matter which operating system you’re using, it’s hard to do anything without being able to find your way through and work with the filesystem. The following utilities help you find your way:

File organization

Boxing, packing, sorting, shipping — I’m always shuffling files around on my system. File organization commands provide tools for moving files and filesystem units around, as shown in Table A-4.

Table A-4. File Organization Tools

Command	Purpose
cd	Changes directories.
cp	Copies a file.
df	Shows partitions and how much space they have.
du	Shows how much disk is being used in the current directory and below.
ln	Creates a shortcut.
ls	Lists the contents of a directory or information about a file.
mkdir	Creates a directory.
mv	Moves or renames a file.
pwd	Shows the path for the directory you’re currently in.
rm	Deletes a file.
rmdir	Deletes an empty directory.

File attributes

Files are much like candy bars. The wrappers provide information about the ingredients, size, and package date — all descriptive of the tasty nugget inside. (Perhaps the wrapper is even childproof.) Files keep all this wrapper information in an inode. Along with the capability to change file inode information, these commands can return data about the content of the file, as shown in Table A-5.

Table A-5. File Attributes Commands

Command	Purpose
chgrp	Changes the group associated with a file
chmod	Changes a file’s permissions
chown	Changes who owns a file
file	Shows what type of file you’re dealing with
stat	Shows ...