Changing Directory
Unix
The Unix File System
In Unix like operating system the files are organized in a hierarchical directory structure which is similar to a tree like structure. The first directory in this directory structure is called the root directory and it contains all the other files and subdirectories.
The root directory is reprented by /
Print Current Directory
At any point of time, we are inside some directory and it becomes the current working directory for us. The current working directory will contain some files and path to its parent directory which lies above it and may contain some subdirectories which lies below it in the hierarchical directory structure.
In order to know the current working directory we use the pwd (print working directory) command.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ pwdListing Directory Content
In order to list the content of a directory we use the ls command.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ lsIf we want to list the content of a specific directory, say content of the etc directory which is inside the root directory we write the following.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ ls /etcIf we want to list the content of a multiple directories, say content of the etc and usr directory which is inside the root directory we write the following.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ ls /etc /usr
/etc:
---- content of /etc directory ---
/usr:
---- content of /usr directory ---
If we want to list the content of a directory in long format we type the following command.
[yusufshakeel@linux GitHub]$ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 13 yusufshakeel staff 442 May 15 2015 C-Project
drwxr-xr-x 7 yusufshakeel staff 238 Mar 24 2015 Php-Project
drwxr-xr-x 12 yusufshakeel staff 408 Sep 4 18:14 UglifyJS2
drwxr-xr-x 18 yusufshakeel staff 612 Mar 24 2015 Web-App
drwxr-xr-x 21 yusufshakeel staff 714 Aug 15 2015 bootstrap-datetimepicker
drwxr-xr-x 9 yusufshakeel staff 306 Aug 23 21:22 chartjs
drwxr-xr-x 8 yusufshakeel staff 272 Jul 24 2015 database-tutorial
drwxr-xr-x 14 yusufshakeel staff 476 Aug 14 2015 datetimepicker
drwxr-xr-x 13 yusufshakeel staff 442 Jun 29 2015 fonts
drwxr-xr-x 8 yusufshakeel staff 272 Jun 13 2015 gcm
drwxr-xr-x 9 yusufshakeel staff 306 Jan 9 14:16 google-services
drwxr-xr-x 21 yusufshakeel staff 714 Nov 24 18:22 jQuery-File-Upload
drwxr-xr-x 23 yusufshakeel staff 782 Oct 3 15:56 jquery_jeditable
drwxr-xr-x 31 yusufshakeel staff 1054 Aug 14 2015 moment
drwxr-xr-x 38 yusufshakeel staff 1292 May 29 2015 phpredis
drwxr-xr-x 14 yusufshakeel staff 476 Sep 6 10:29 yusufshakeel.github.io
drwxr-xr-x 43 yusufshakeel staff 1462 May 30 2015 zguide
Long format fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| drwxr-xr-x | Access right to the file or directory. If the first character is a dash - then its a regular file. If the first character is d then its a directory. Next 3 characters defines the access rights of the owner. The next 3 characters defines the access rights of the group. Finally the last three characters defines the access right for everyone else. |
| 13 | Number of hard links. |
| yusufshakeel | Username of the owner. |
| staff | Name of the group to which the file or directory belongs. |
| 442 | Size of the file in bytes |
| May 15 2015 | Last modified timestamp. |
| C-Project | Name of the file or directory |
Options and Arguments
Commands are often followed by some option which alters the behaviour of the command, and further, by some arguments upon which the command takes some action.
Following is a general format of a command.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ command -options argumentsWe saw the ls option -l which listed the content of a directory in long format.
Commonly used options of ls command
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -a | List all the files including the hidden files which normally start with a dot. For example .log |
| -F | This will put a / at the end listed names that are directories. |
| -h | This will display the file size in human readable format rather than in bytes. |
| -r | This will display the result in reverse order. |
| -S | This will sort the result by file size. |
| -t | This will sort the result by last modified time. |
Changing directories
To change from one directory to the another we use the cd command.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ cd /etcIt will change the current working directory to etc directory inside the root directory.
Absolute and Relative Pathname
We can use absolute and relative pathname to change directory. An absolute pathname for a file or directory will start from the root directory /. So if we want to change our current working directory from /home/yusufshakeel to etc directory inside the root directory, we will use the following absolute path.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ cd /etcA relative pathname starts from the current working directory. So if we consider the following directory structure.
yusuf
|
+--doc
| |
| +-- sample.txt
|
+--happy.c
|
+--sheet
|
+--v1
| |
| +--a.csv
|
+--main.csv
If our current working directory is yusuf then if we want to change the directory to doc, we will type in the following command.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ cd docSimilarly, if we want to change the directory from yusuf to v1 which is inside the sheet directory, we will type the following relative pathname
[yusuf@linux ~]$ cd sheet/v1Moving to parent directory
To move to the parent directory of the current working directory, we use the following command.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ cd ..The file command
The file command is used to get a brief description of file.
[yusuf@linux ~]$ file test.php
test.php: PHP script textADVERTISEMENT