Lesson 9

Unix File Directories Conclusion

In this module, you learned:

How UNIX treats regular files and directories differently from other operating systems
How to identify the special properties of device files
How to use symbolic links to simplify software maintenance

In addition, you learned some useful tricks for working with files, including:

Using the options available with the ls command
Using the find command, its predicates, and other utilities to create more targeted finds

Key terms

In this module, we used the following terms:

device: A device is a piece of hardware used by the system, such as hard drives, CD-ROMs, and so on. Devices are treated as a special type of file.
file: A file is any resource accessible on a UNIX system, including "regular" files, directories, and devices. 2) The file command displays information about a file's.
symbolic link: A symbolic link is an alias for a file.

In this module, we discussed the following commands:

Command	Purpose
`file`	Determines the file type.
`find`	Searches the filesystem for files meeting certain criteria.
`head`	Displays the first part (10 lines by default) of each given file.
`ln –s`	Creates a symbolic link.
`ls –F`	Lists file type information.
`wc`	Displays a character, word, or line count for a specified file.
`tail`	Displays the last part (10 lines by default) of each given file.
`xargs`	Arranges for the command to read arguments from standard input. This command is used to pipe output from `find` into other commands.

Click the Quiz link below to take a multiple-choice quiz covering what you learned in this module.
File Types - Quiz