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Files and Directories

File Interaction​

  • find - Finds a specific file within a tree of directories.
  • grep - Searches the contents of a file.
  • touch - Create file.
  • mkdir - Makes new directory.
  • cp - Copy files.
  • mv - Move files.
  • rm - Remove files.
  • file - Displays information about the file type.
  • cat - Read from a file.
  • head -n 20 <FILE_NAME> - Read first 20 lines from a text file.

File Permissions​

  • -r - Read permission.
  • -w - Write permission.
  • -x - Execute permission.

Common Directories​

  • / - Parent for all the directories in linux.
  • /root - Home directory for root user.
  • /etc - Etcetera - Common place for storing system files. Etc folder contains the following important files.
    • sudoers - Contains the list of users and groups allowed to run as sudo (Admin previleges).
    • passwd - Contains the passwords for all the users. Encrypted in SHA512.
    • shadow - Supporting file for passwd implemented as a security mechanism.
  • /var - Variable data - Stores the data which is frequently accessed by files and services running in the system.
    • /var/log - Stores the log files from applications and services.
  • /tmp - Contains only the temporary data. When the computer is restarted the contents of this folder are cleared out.

Search Files​

  • Find files by name. 
    find / -type f -name <FILE_NAME>
  • Find files by name ignoring error messages. 
     find / -type f -name user.txt 2> /dev/null