How to File Manipulation in Linux
This guide is only going to show an overview of the commands. To find out more about each command you can run the following command:
man [command]
The following is the test directory structure we’ll be using throughout the upcoming examples:
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone
-rw-r--r-- 1 another root 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt
ll is just an alias for ls -l.
cp
cp is used to copy files and directories.
[root@c7 test]# cp fileone.txt copyfileone.txt
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:46 copyfileone.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone
-rw-r--r-- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt
As you can see here, the file fileone.txt was copied to copyfileone.txt; however the permissions were set to be owned by root and part of the group root.
[root@c7 test]# whoami
root
This is because we’re logged in as the root user. If you want to maintain the permissions, you need to use the -p flag.
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 copyfileone.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone
-rw-r--r-- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt
You can copy directories in the same manner but running just cp directoryone copydirectoryone will just copy the directory itself but none of its contents. To copy the contents as well you need to pass the -R flag. The -p and -R flag can be combined to the -a flag.
[root@c7 test]# cp -a directoryone copydirectoryone
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:54 copyfileone.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone
-rw------- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt
mv
The move command is used to move or rename a file.
[root@c7 test]# mv filetwo.txt directoryone
[root@c7 test]# ll directoryone/
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt
Here filetwo.txt has been moved to directoryone.
[root@c7 test]# mv copyfileone.txt renamedcopy.txt
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:58 directoryone
-rw------- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:54 renamedcopy.txt
Here the file copyfileone.txt has been renamed to renamedcopy.txt
rm
rm is used to delete files and directories.
[root@c7 test]# rm renamedcopy.txt
rm: remove regular empty file 'renamedcopy.txt'? y
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:58 directoryone
-rw------- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
Here the file renamedcopy.txt is deleted. As you can see, there is a prompt for this. This can be overridden with the -f flag.
[root@c7 test]# rm -f renamedcopy.txt
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:58 directoryone
-rw------- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
To delete a directory you need to pass the -R flag.
[root@c7 test]# rm -R directoryone
rm: descend into directory 'directoryone'? y
rm: remove regular empty file 'directoryone/filetwo.txt'? y
rm: remove directory 'directoryone'? y
Again, this prompts you. You can override this by using -Rf.
[root@c7 test]# rm -Rf directoryone/
[root@c7 test]# ll
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone
-rw------- 1 another another 0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser 0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt
It is possible to add the * on the end of the rm -Rf command; however, we would advise you never to do this as if this command is run in the / folder on your server, this will cause all the contents of the server to be deleted. Instead, if you want to delete a directory, you should specify the directory.
[root@c7 ~]# rm -Rf /root/test
