The Linux File System

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File and Directory
• In linux and most of OS data are stored in files
• File
– Contains data
– Stored in (hard) disk
• Directory
– Contains files
– Stored in (hard) disk
– Makes easy for data organizing
• Hierarchy of directories and files = file system
• Single file system for all logical disks
Figure 3-3

A Directory Hierarchy

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 Directory Types
• Root Directory: /
– The first directory in any UNIX file structure
– Always begin with the forward slash (/)
• Home Directory: $HOME or ~
• Created by system administrator
• This is where you are when you first log in!
• Under $HOME, you may create your own directory structure
• Type: cd [Return] takes you $HOME
• Current Working Directory: .
– The Directory you are currently working in
– Also called Current Working Directory (cwd)
• Parent Directory: ..
– The directory immediately above your current working directory.
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 Path

Two ways of locating a file or a directory:

• By Using Absolute Path
– Full path
– Traces a path from root to a file or a directory
– Always begins with the root (/) directory!
– Example: /home/ux/krush/unix/assignments/assign1.sp04
• By Using Relative Path
– Traces a path from the ‘cwd’ to a file or a directory
– No initial forward slash (/)
– Two dots (..) goes up one level on file structure
– Dot (.) points to current working directory (cwd)
– Example: unix/assignments/assign1.sp04
– ../usr/stafff/joan/file1
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Figure 3-4

Absolute Path for file3

Absolute Pathname:

/usr/staff/joan/file3

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 File System

Relative Paths for file3

Figure 3-12

Directory Operations

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Display Current Directory’s Full Pathname
• To determine the full pathname of the current
working directory, use the command named “pwd”
• pwd stands for print working directory
Example: To display the full pathname of the current
working directory
ux% pwd
/home/ux/krush/unix

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Figure 3-14

The ls Command

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 ls
• ls
List the content of the current directory
• ls path_name
List the content of the directory in path_name.
• ls –l
Long list
• ls –a
List all hidden files
• ls -la
Combine two options –l and –a together
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Figure 3-15

Long List Option

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 List Contents of a Specific Directory
Listing contents of a subdirectory named
ux% ls -l unix/grades “unix/grades”
total 10
-rwxr-xr-x 3 krush csci 72 Jan 19 19:12 330assign-graderun
-rwxr-xr-x 1 krush csci 70 Jan 19 19:13 330exam-graderun
-rwxr-xr-x 2 krush csci 70 Jan 19 19:12 330quiz-graderun
-r-x------ 1 krush csci 468 Feb 1 11:55 test-330grade
-r-x------ 1 krush csci 664 Feb 1 11:55 test-330grade,v

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 File Name Expansion & Wildcards
Allows you to select files that satisfy a particular
name pattern (wildcards)
Character Description Example

* Match zero or more char. ls *.c

? Match any single character ls conf.?

[list] Match any single character in list ls conf.[co]

[lower-upper] Match any character in range ls lib-id[3-7].o

str{str1,str2,…} Expand str with contents of { } ls c*.{700,300}

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Figure 3-17

The mkdir Command

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 Directory Names
• Use the following characters:
– Uppercase letters (A-Z)
– Lowercase letters (a-z)
– Numbers (0-9)
– Underscore ( _ )
– Period/dot ( . )

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 Directory Names
• When naming a directory, avoid the following
characters:

& * \ | [] {}

$ <> () # ? /

“ ‘ ; ^ ! ~

Space Tab

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Example: Create a Directory Creation

dev etc home usr

tty null skel mp ux bin local ucb
z036473
You are here
csci330 .cshrc .logout Temp

Data

Create a directory called Data under csci330

a) Using Absolute Pathname:
mkdir /home/mp/z036473/csci330/Data
b) Using Relative Pathname:
mkdir csci330/Data
c) Make also missing parent directory, directory Data does not exist.
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mkdir -p csci330/Data/subData
Figure 3-18

The cd Command

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 Changing Directory

dev etc home usr

tty null skel mp ux bin local ucb
z036473

csci330 .cshrc .logout Temp

You are here Data

In the Data directory, go to $HOME directory

a) Using Absolute Pathname:
cd /home/mp/z036473
b) Using Relative Pathname:
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cd $home cd ../.. cd cd ~ cd ~z036473
 Remove Directories
• To remove an empty directory – a directory that
does not contain user-created files, use the
command named “rmdir”
Example: To remove a directory called “test”,
which does not contain user-created files.
ux% rmdir test

• To remove a non-empty directory, use the command

named “rm –r”
Example: To remove a non-empty directory called
“old-data”
ux% rm –r old-data
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 File System

Exercises
• In your home directory (usually /home/students/2017xxxx)
create directory folder1 then folder2 inside folder1
• List the contents of folder1 then of folder2
• Move to folder2
• Print the current working directory
• Get back to your home directory
• Print the current working directory
• Remove folder1 and folder2
• list the content of your home directory again.
Figure 3-22 Operations Common to Directories and
Regular Files

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 Copying Files
• To copy a file, use the command named “cp”
• Syntax: cp source-file new-file
• Commonly used options:
-i if “new-file” exists, the command cp prompts for
confirmation before overwriting
-p preserve permissions and modification times
-r recursively copy files and subdirectories

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 Copying Files
• “source-file” must have read permission.
• The directory that contains “source-file” must have
execute permission.
• The directory that contains “new-file” must have
write and execute permissions.
• Note that if “new-file” exists, you do not need the
write permission to the directory that contains it,
but you must have the write permission to “new-
file”.

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 Moving Files
• To move files from one directory to another
directory, or to re-name a file, use the command
named “mv”.
• The directory that contains the source file and the
destination directory must have write and execute
access permissions.

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 Moving Files
• Syntax: mv source-file destination-file
• If the destination file exists, “mv” will not
overwrite exiting file.

Example: Move “assign1.txt” a different directory

and rename it to “assign1.save”
ux% mv assign1.txt ~/archive/assign1.save
ux% mv assign1.txt ~/archive

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Figure 3-31

Moving a File

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 Rename Directories
• To change the name of an existing directory, use
the command named “mv”
Example: To rename the file called “unix” to
“csci330”
ux% mv unix csci330

• For the above example, what happens if “csci330”

already exists in the current directory and it is the
name of a directory?

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Figure 3-30

The mv Command

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 Removing/Deleting Files
• You should remove un-needed files to free up disk
space.
• To remove/delete files, use the command named
“rm”.
• Syntax: rm file-list
• Commonly used options:
-f force remove regardless of permissions for “file-
list”
-i prompt for confirmation before removing
-r removes everything under the indicated directory

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 Removing/Deleting Files
• If “file-list” contains pathname, the directory
components of the pathname must have execute
permission.
• The last directory that contains the file to be
deleted must have execute and write permissions.

Example: Remove the file named “old-assign”

ux% rm unix/assign/old-assign

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Examples

$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 tuananh user1 16 Feb 10 19:12 test.txt
drwxr-xr-- 2 tuananh user1 512 Feb 10 19:14 mydir
$ cp test.txt mydir
$ ls -l mydir
-rw-r--r-- 1 tuananh user1 16 Feb 12 20:03 test.txt
$ rm –R mydir
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 tuananh user1 16 Feb 10 19:12 test.txt
$ rm test.txt
$ ls -l
$
Recap: Common Operations on Files

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 Finding Files

• The command named “find” can be used to locate

a file or a directory.
• Syntax: find pathname-list expression
• “find” recursively descends through pathname-list
and applies expression to every file.
• Expression
• -name file_name
• -perm permission_mod
• -type d/f/...
• -size N: N is the minimum number of block (512B)
• -atime N, -mtime N, -ctime N, where is by defaut the number of
day. 35
 Finding Files

Example 1: Find all files, in your directory hierarchy,

that have a name ending with “.bak”.
ux% find ~ -name *.bak
Example 2: Find all files, in your directory hierarchy,
that were modified yesterday.
ux% find ~ –mtime –1

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Example
• $find /usr -name toto

• $find /usr -name " *.c »

• $find / -mtime 3

• $find / -size 2000

• All files with size more than 1 MB (= 2000 block 512 B)
•
• $find / -type f -user olivier -perm 755
 File System

Exercise
• Write command for:
• Search for the files with name test in your personal folder
• Search for the files with name .c in the whole disk
• Search for the files with name ending with .conf in /etc
• Search for the files with size greater than 100 MB in disk
• Search for the files with name .lib and size greater than 5MB in the
whole disk
 The “ln” command

• Allows file to listed in multiple directories

• 2 types:
– Hard link
– Symbolic link

• First: understand Unix file storage and organization

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 Unix file organization

• Computer has one or more physical hard drives

• Hard drive is divided into partitions

• Partition holds file system

– File system is set of data blocks
– Data blocks contain
• general information
• actual file data
• directory information

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Figure 3-5

Blocks in a file system

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 inode
• Index (or information) node: one inode per file
• Each inode has unique number
• contents:
– File type, access permissions, link count
– UID, GID
– Date and time of the file’s last
• Data access (read and execute)
• Data modification (written)
• I-node modification (permission change)
– Data blocks assigned to the file

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Figure 3-6

Inodes in a filesystem

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inode Contents: where is the file data ?
Inode may store:
– 10 addresses of data blocks that belong to file
– 1 address of a block that contains data block addresses
– 1 address of a block that contains addresses of blocks
that contain data block addresses
– 1 address of a block that contains addresses of blocks
that contain addresses of blocks that contain data
block addresses

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 File System

Inode structure
I-node Structure

I-node blocks blocks

Access, Links, and other

information
1
2
blocks
. blocks
.
9 indirect
block
10
11 double indirect
block blocks
12
blocks
13

blocks
triple indirect 42
block
 Directory representation
Directory is a file:
– Has inode like regular file, but different file type
– Data blocks of directory contains simple table:

Name Inode number

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 File System

Example structure

.
I-node
list 2763
Contents of dir1
2764
. 1076
2765

.. 2083 .
myfile 2764 .

Data blocks
on disk

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Example: user view vs. system view

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 File System

Output: ls -li

ux% ls -li crontab.cron

118282 -rw-r--r-- 1 krush csci 80 Feb 27 12:23 crontab.cron

I-node

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 Linking Files

• To share a single file with multiple users, a link can

be used.
• A link is:
– A reference to a file stored elsewhere on the system.
– A way to establish a connection to a file to be shared.
• Two types:
– Hard link
– Symbolic link (a.k.a. “soft link”)

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 Hard Link

Advantages Disadvantages
Allow access to original file name
via the file name or the I-node Cannot link to a file in a different
number file system
The original file continues to exist
as long as at least one directory
contains its I-node Prevents owner from truly deleting
it, and it counts against his/her disk
Checks for the existence of the quota
original file

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 Hard
Hard Link
Link

home Syntax: ln shared-file link-name

z036473
From dir3, link to the file ‘aa’ in dir1
name it ‘bb’:
dir1 dir2
% ln /home/z036473/dir1/aa bb
aa dir3

bb

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Figure 3-32

The ln Command

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Figure 3-8

A Hard Link

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Figure 3-8

A Hard
Hard Link
Link

Contents of dir1
.
home
. 1076
2406
z036473 .. 2083 2407
2408
aa 2407
dir1 dir2 .

aa Contents of dir3 .
dir3

. 1070
bb
.. 2050

bb 2407
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 File System

Exercise
• Use nano or gedit for creating a file in your personal
folder, name it file1
• Make a hardlink to file1, name the new file file2
• Show the content of file2 on screen by using
• $ cat file2
• Modify the content of file2 by using nano
• Check the content of file1 with cat
• Delete file1
• Check the content of file2.
 Symbolic Link

Advantages Disadvantages
Allow access to original file name Created without checking the
existence of the shared file
Can use either relative or absolute
path to access the original file Cannot access the shared file if its
path has restricted permissions
Can cross partition and drives
Can be circular linked to another
symbolic linked file
Allows the creation of a link to a
directory

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 Symbolic Link
• A hard link may not be created for a file on a
different file system
• Use symbolic link
• The linked files do not share the same I-node
number
• link-path: relative path to the shared-file

Syntax: ln –s shared-file link-path

Also called source-file Also called target-file

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Figure 3-10

Symbolic Links to Different File Systems

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Examples
$ echo « Test content » > test.txt
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 tuananh user1 8 Feb 10 1:12 test.txt
$ ln test.txt link1
$ ln -s test.txt link2
$ ls -l link*
-rw-r--r-- 2 tuananh user1 16 Feb 10 1:12 link1
lrw-r--r-- 1 tuananh user1 16 Feb 10 1:13 link2->test.txt
 User’s Disk Quota

• A disk quota is set for each user account

• The command: quota –v
displays the user’s disk usage and limits
• 2 kinds of limits:
– Soft limit: ex. 3MB
• Maybe exceeded for one week
• System will nag
– Hard limit: ex. 4MB
• Cannot be exceeded

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 File System

Exercise
• Use nano or gedit for creating a file in your personal
folder, name it file1
• Make a symbolic link to file1, name the new file file3
• Show the content of file3 on screen by using
• $ cat file2
• Modify the content of file3 by using nano
• Check the content of file1 with cat
• Move file1 to another folder
• Check the content of file3.
• Move file1 back
• Check the content of file3