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File and Directory Operations

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In this section, we will cover the essential commands for managing files and directories in Bash. These commands are fundamental for navigating and manipulating the filesystem.

Key Concepts

  1. File and Directory Creation
  2. Listing Files and Directories
  3. Copying and Moving Files
  4. Removing Files and Directories
  5. Viewing File Contents

  1. File and Directory Creation

touch Command

The touch command is used to create an empty file or update the timestamp of an existing file.

touch filename.txt

mkdir Command

The mkdir command is used to create a new directory.

mkdir new_directory

Practical Example

# Create a new file named example.txt
touch example.txt

# Create a new directory named example_dir
mkdir example_dir

  1. Listing Files and Directories

ls Command

The ls command lists the contents of a directory.

ls

Common Options for ls

  • -l: Long listing format
  • -a: Include hidden files
  • -h: Human-readable file sizes

Practical Example

# List all files and directories in long format
ls -l

# List all files, including hidden ones, in human-readable format
ls -lah

  1. Copying and Moving Files

cp Command

The cp command copies files or directories.

cp source_file destination_file

mv Command

The mv command moves or renames files or directories.

mv source_file destination_file

Practical Example

# Copy example.txt to example_copy.txt
cp example.txt example_copy.txt

# Move example.txt to example_dir/
mv example.txt example_dir/

  1. Removing Files and Directories

rm Command

The rm command removes files or directories.

rm filename.txt

rmdir Command

The rmdir command removes empty directories.

rmdir empty_directory

Practical Example

# Remove a file named example.txt
rm example.txt

# Remove an empty directory named example_dir
rmdir example_dir

  1. Viewing File Contents

cat Command

The cat command displays the contents of a file.

cat filename.txt

less Command

The less command allows you to view the contents of a file one page at a time.

less filename.txt

Practical Example

# Display the contents of example.txt
cat example.txt

# View the contents of example.txt one page at a time
less example.txt

Exercises

Exercise 1: Create and List Files

  1. Create a file named testfile.txt.
  2. Create a directory named testdir.
  3. List all files and directories in the current directory.

Solution

touch testfile.txt
mkdir testdir
ls -l

Exercise 2: Copy and Move Files

  1. Copy testfile.txt to testfile_copy.txt.
  2. Move testfile_copy.txt to testdir/.

Solution

cp testfile.txt testfile_copy.txt
mv testfile_copy.txt testdir/

Exercise 3: Remove Files and Directories

  1. Remove the file testfile.txt.
  2. Remove the directory testdir (ensure it is empty first).

Solution

rm testfile.txt
rmdir testdir

Summary

In this section, we covered the basic file and directory operations in Bash, including creating, listing, copying, moving, and removing files and directories. These commands are essential for managing the filesystem and will be used frequently in your Bash scripting journey.

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