Introduction

Unix treats every object in the operating system as a file. We can find the files associated with every action performed and can make use of them for different system or process-related manipulations. For example, the command terminal that we use is associated with a device file. We can write to the terminal by writing to the corresponding device file for that specific terminal. Files take different forms such as directories, regular files, block devices, character-special devices, symbolic links, sockets, named pipes, and so on. Filename, size, file type, modification time, access time, change time, inode, links associated, and the filesystem the file is on are all attributes and properties that files can have. This chapter deals with recipes that handle operations or properties related to files.