Unit 03 - File and Directory Management

1. File and Directory Management

So now this unit is going to carry on past what we've already done, which is working with the Shell, working with the Gui's, and looking at what the current one of the objectives, anyway, of the actual operating system is. And that's file and directory management. very important to us. We're going to talk about the directory hierarchy; how to create, edit, and delete the directories; to be able to create, edit, copy, and delete your files; and to be able to mount other types of drives like optical discs, CDs, DVDs, and your USB drives; and how to merge those into our file hierarchy. Now, one thing you are going to see—I'm going to say it now because you're going to see it over and over again—is that almost everything that you work with in this structure is considered a file. You're not going to see file extensions, you're not going to talk about executables or Word documents. Everything is generally going to be a file or a directory. And so that's what we're going to manage. And I hope to be able to not only make that clear and simple, but also show you how to utilise all of these tools to work with those files and directories.

2. Topic A: Directory Organization

So to start off with, we're going to talk about the directory organization. And that makes sense because we often look at the directory as a method of having containers and subdirectories, all designed for the organisation of our files. So we'll start with that first discussion about that organisation and that hybrid hierarchy.

3. Filesystem Hierarchy Standard Part1

Now we often refer to this as the FLS, or the file system hierarchy standard. Now, in almost every version of Linux you'll see, a standard set of directories has already been created. The first one you should know about is represented by that, and it's called the root directory. Basically, that's the top of our hierarchy. Everything else is just a subdirection from there. Now some of the common directories you'll see and that you should be familiar with because you're going to utilise them very frequently are the bins. Now that's short for binaries, and that's where you'll find your system commands and your binary files. It doesn't mean all executables have to be there,but that's generally where you see, as I said before, system commands, not necessarily a programme you made and executed on your own boot. That's where you'd find your bootloader files. device,short for devices or device files. That's where all the device files will be located. The devices are those things, those pieces of hardware that you're going to interact with. Etc is where you'll find all your computer specific configuration files. Some people call it etsy, some people, I've heard, say slash, etc.

That's not the abbreviation for ETCAnecessarily, but whatever you want to call it, computer specific configuration files. Home. Almost always, you're going to be dealing with this. Every user has a home directory. The home directory is somewhere under home, usually the name of the user. And so that's where your user files are located. Lib, short for library, programming libraries, files that are similar to your Windows DLLs, MNT, which is an abbreviation for mount or mounting. That's where you're going to find your temporary mounting points. So, when we talk about how to mount a USB drive or an optical drive into your file system, this is where you'll see a lot of it under the MNT.

4. Filesystem Hierarchy Standard Part2

Okay, now when we talk about these devices, just a side note, devices that are mounted, like a USB stick or some new drive, they're not going to show up as a new route directory. That's what you're used to in Windows for you in Windows. And I say that like I'm saying in derogatory use of Windows too. But in Windows, the root drive is often the letter C, and that's the root directory. And if I add a new drive or partition, then that one gets the new route D colon. And so there's technically not a route that covers all of those partitions, but each one has its own root drive and they have their own file system with each of those. In this case, the devices that are mounted, like a USB stick or a new drive, are not going to become new volumes like I just described, but they're going to be merged into our existing hierarchy or into the existing volume, and those files would be merged into the file system hierarchy standard.

Now, we'll talk about some watch outs, some got has about doing the mounting into existing directories that have files already there or into some of these existing system directories that you've got to be careful about. But basically, as you add these drives, you are just expanding the structure that you have with everything falling under the same root directory. That drives a lot of people crazy because they're used to going from this partition to this partition and making their changes. And it can drive them nutty because they're thinking to themselves, "Well, am I on drive C or am I on drive D?" I can't tell which physical driveam I'm pulling things off of. And honestly, you can't tell because you're working from a root directory. Now, you could create a naming convention for your directories that could certainly help alleviate that confusion, but otherwise it's all merged into one.

5. Directory

Now to navigate these different structures, these different directories, we're going to utilise what we call the CD command or the change directory. Now CD is just your way of going from whatever directory you're in to some other directory. You have to remember that it is provided you have the permission to go to those directories. For right now, we're going to assume that you are the root and that you have the permission to go to any directory where you want. So when you type in the CD, one of the things you can do is put in the absolute path. Now this is hard to say in words, and it's easier to show you by demonstration, but imagine you're in the bin directory for whatever reason, and you want to go to the home directory. Well, you can sit there and type in "Cdhomeand that puts you absolutely on that path." That was pretty straightforward. Let's say you wanted to go to the home directory. Actually, you want to go to userhome or I'm sorry, in this case, the home user, which let's say is user ken and you're in the bin directory. Maybe you're in the bin. Whatever path you're on, type in CD home ken and that puts you right in there because you put in what we would call the absolute path. Now if I'm already in the home directory and I want to go to Ken's directory, I don't have to retype CD home ken because I'm already in that path. I just need to say CDKIN and it will take me to that subdirectory based on the path I'm already on. The two different scenarios I just gave you were the differences between an absolute path and a relative path. An absolute path means you name the entire path each time with the CD command. In a relative path, all you're doing is putting inbasically the subdirectory of where you want to go. If you want to move up, you can still enter the absolute path or use entries like the dot dot. So if you type in CD space, you're going to start moving back up towards the root directory or that forward slash. If you use just a single dot, what you'll be doing is basically saying use the current. Where I am right now is the beginning of this path, and then slash here's the rest of it, which is kind of a combination of a relative path and the absolute path where you want to go from that point. So you have some other methods of directory navigation as well. Those are some other examples.

Prepared by Top Experts, the top IT Trainers ensure that when it comes to your IT exam prep and you can count on ExamSnap CompTIA Linux+ certification video training course that goes in line with the corresponding CompTIA XK0-004 exam dumps, study guide, and practice test questions & answers.