Linux® Programming by Example

Chapter 5. Directories and File Metadata

In this chapter

• 5.1 Considering Directory Contents page 118

• 5.2 Creating and Removing Directories page 130

• 5.3 Reading Directories page 132

• 5.4 Obtaining Information about Files page 139

• 5.5 Changing Ownership, Permission, and Modification Times page 155

• 5.6 Summary page 162

• Exercises page 163

This chapter continues the climb up the learning curve toward the next plateau: understanding directories and information about files.

In this chapter we explore how file information is stored in a directory, how directories themselves are read, created, and removed, what information about files is available, and how to retrieve it. Finally, we explore other ways to update file metadata, such as the owner, group, permissions, ...