Navigating the FileSystem

NAVIGATING THE FILESYSTEM AND SIMPLE COMMANDS
( only for the very fresh starters with Linux )

As we are doing the bare minimum these are the most often used commands:

cd = change directory
mkdir = make directory
rmdir = remove directory
rm = remove file
cp = copy
mv = move or rename
ls = lists directories and files
cat = show contents file

O.K. let's play:
Open an console on desktop 1, open the home directory by clicking on it on desktop 2 ( there you can see and verify the commands executed on desktop 1 )

CODE

$ mkdir One ( without the $ ) ( makes a dir One in your home dir )
$ mkdir one ( Linux is case sensitive so "One" and "one" are not the same ! )
$ cp tessst One ( copies the file tessst, that we made in previous Tip, to dir One )
$ mv ssset one ( moves the file ssset, that we made in previous Tip, to dir one )
$ mv one One ( moves dir one in dir One )
$ cd One ( see how the promt puts the current dir in in the prompt ) ( puts you in dir One )
$ ls ( shows you what is inside One )
$ cat tessst ( shows contents file tessst )
$ rm tessst ( removes file tessst from One dir )
$ cd .. ( puts you back in your home dir )
$ rm tessst ( removes tessst from home dir )
$ rm -rf One ( now all files and directories we played with are removed )

We have a look in the filesystem:

CODE

$ cd /
$ ls

This shows you the directories in “/“ (root filesystem): /boot, /etc, /initrd, /lost+found, /opt, /root, /tmp, /var, /bin, /dev, /home, /lib, /mnt, /proc, /sbin, /usr.

CODE

$ cd /mnt
$ ls

This shows you the mounted devices, cdrom, cdrom2, floppy, (win_c)

CODE

$ cd ( Brings you back to your /home )
$ ls ( What is in your home )
$ ls -a ( What really is in home !! The argument “-a” shows the hidden files. Hidden files start with “.” )
$ touch .tessst ( Makes an empty hidden file called .tessst in /home )
$ ls ( You don't see .tessst )
$ ls -a ( You do see .tessst )
$ rm .tessst ( Removes the hidden file .tessst )
$ ls -al ( Shows you all the files in /home with their “permissions” more about that later. )

To know more about these commands and the arguments you can give them, see: "man cd" "man cp" "man mv" etc. etc.

Bruno

-- Apr 23 2003 ( Revised Dec 12 2005 ) --