🗃️ Linux/Unix: File & Directory Operations – Manage Files, Folders & Links Efficiently

🧲 Introduction – Why Learn Linux File & Directory Commands?

Mastering file and directory operations in Linux/Unix is a must for developers, system administrators, and power users. Whether you’re navigating file systems, manipulating files, or understanding symbolic and hard links—Linux provides concise, powerful commands for every task.

🎯 In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How to copy, move, and remove files
• How to navigate and manage directories
• How to use file system utilities like df, du, ln, and touch
• How file types, permissions, and usage statistics are handled

---

📘 Topics Covered

🔵 Subtopic	📖 Description
Linux/Unix: File Management	Use of cp, mv, rm for file operations
Linux/Unix: Directory Handling	Commands like ls, cd, mkdir, rmdir for folder navigation and management
Linux/Unix: File Links & File System Basics	Create links (ln), view usage (df, du), get metadata (stat, file)

---

🔵 Linux/Unix: File Management (cp, mv, rm)

🔹 cp – Copy Files or Directories

cp file1.txt backup/

✅ Copies file1.txt into the backup folder.

---

🔹 mv – Move or Rename Files

mv report.txt old_report.txt

✅ Renames or moves report.txt.

---

🔹 rm – Delete Files or Directories

rm temp.txt
rm -r folder/

✅ Deletes a file or recursively removes a directory.

🛑 Caution: rm permanently deletes files—no recycle bin!

---

🔵 Linux/Unix: Directory Handling (ls, cd, mkdir, rmdir)

🔹 ls – List Directory Contents

ls -l /etc

✅ Shows detailed contents including permissions, owners, sizes.

---

🔹 cd – Change Directory

cd /var/log

✅ Navigates to /var/log.

---

🔹 mkdir – Create New Directory

mkdir new_project

✅ Creates a folder named new_project.

---

🔹 rmdir – Remove Empty Directory

rmdir old_folder

✅ Deletes a folder if it’s empty.

📌 Use rm -r to remove non-empty directories.

---

🔵 Linux/Unix: File Links (ln), File System Basics (df, du, stat, file, touch)

🔹 ln – Create Links

• Hard Link:

ln original.txt link.txt

• Symbolic (Soft) Link:

ln -s original.txt shortcut.txt

✅ Hard links share the same inode; symbolic links point to the file path.

---

🔹 df – Disk Free Space

df -h

✅ Shows available and used disk space in human-readable format.

---

🔹 du – Directory Usage

du -sh *

✅ Summarizes disk usage per file/folder.

---

🔹 stat – File Metadata

stat file.txt

✅ Displays file size, permissions, timestamps, and inode info.

---

🔹 file – Detect File Type

file filename

✅ Identifies if a file is ASCII text, binary, script, etc.

---

🔹 touch – Create/Update File Timestamp

touch newfile.txt

✅ Creates a new empty file or updates the modification time.

---

📌 Summary – Recap & Next Steps

File and directory operations form the core foundation of any Unix/Linux workflow. These commands are fast, scriptable, and give full control over files and system resources.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

• Use cp, mv, rm for file management
• ls, cd, mkdir, rmdir help manage directories
• ln creates links; df, du, stat, and file help inspect and audit
• touch is great for scripting placeholder files or resetting timestamps

⚙️ Practical Use Cases:

• Backup and rename log files with cp and mv
• Clean up space using du and df
• Organize projects using mkdir and symbolic links

---

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

❓ What is the difference between rm and rmdir?
✅ rm removes files or directories (use -r for folders), while rmdir only removes empty directories.

---

❓ What are symbolic vs hard links?
✅ Hard links share the same inode; symbolic links are pointers to the original file path.

---

❓ How do I check disk usage?
✅ Use:

df -h       # For filesystem-level usage
du -sh *    # For per-directory usage

---

Share Now :