Working with files and directories

Remember that everything in Linux is a file. A directory is a file too. As such, it is essential to know how to work with them. Working with files in Linux implies the use of several commands for basic file and directory operations, file viewing, file creation, file location, file properties, and linking. Some of the commands, which will not be covered here, have uses closely related to files. These will be covered in the following section.

Understanding file paths

Each file in the FHS has a path. The path is the file’s location represented in an easily readable representation. In Linux, all the files are stored in the root directory by using the FHS as a standard to organize them. Relations between files and directories inside this system are expressed through the forward-slash character (/). Throughout computing history, this was used as a symbol that described addresses. Paths are, in fact, addresses for files.

There are two types...