We have seen the differences between files under DOS and Linux. As for
directories, under DOS the root directory is \, under Linux
/ is. Similarly, nested directories are separated by \
under DOS, by / under Linux. Example of file paths:
DOS: C:\PAPERS\GEOLOGY\MID_EOC.TEX
Linux: /home/guido/papers/geology/middle_eocene.tex
As usual, .. is the parent directory and . is the current
directory. Remember that the system won't let you cd, rd, or
md everywhere you want. Each user starts from his or her own directory
called 'home', given by the system administrator; for instance, on my PC my
home dir is /home/guido.
Directories, too, have permissions. What we have seen in Section
Permissions and Ownership applies to directories
as well (user, group, and other). For a directory, rx means you can
cd to that directory, and w means that you can delete a file in
the directory (according to the file's permissions, of course), or the
directory itself.
For example, to prevent other users from snooping in
/home/guido/text:
$ chmod o-rwx /home/guido/text
DIR: ls, find, du
CD: cd, pwd
MD: mkdir
RD: rmdir
DELTREE: rm -R
MOVE: mv
DOS Linux
---------------------------------------------------------------------
C:\GUIDO>DIR $ ls
C:\GUIDO>DIR FILE.TXT $ ls file.txt
C:\GUIDO>DIR *.H *.C $ ls *.h *.c
C:\GUIDO>DIR/P $ ls | more
C:\GUIDO>DIR/A $ ls -l
C:\GUIDO>DIR *.TMP /S $ find / -name "*.tmp"
C:\GUIDO>CD $ pwd
n/a - see note $ cd
ditto $ cd ~
ditto $ cd ~/temp
C:\GUIDO>CD \OTHER $ cd /other
C:\GUIDO>CD ..\TEMP\TRASH $ cd ../temp/trash
C:\GUIDO>MD NEWPROGS $ mkdir newprogs
C:\GUIDO>MOVE PROG .. $ mv prog ..
C:\GUIDO>MD \PROGS\TURBO $ mkdir /progs/turbo
C:\GUIDO>DELTREE TEMP\TRASH $ rm -R temp/trash
C:\GUIDO>RD NEWPROGS $ rmdir newprogs
C:\GUIDO>RD \PROGS\TURBO $ rmdir /progs/turbo
Notes:
rmdir, the directory to remove must be empty. To
delete a directory and all of its contents, use rm -R (at your own
risk).
~' is a shortcut for the name of your home
directory. The commands cd or cd ~ will take you to your home
directory from wherever you are; the command cd ~/tmp will take you
to /home/your_home/tmp.
cd - ``undoes'' the last cd.