{"id":10811,"date":"2024-12-12T06:46:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T06:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.trustedhosting.in\/?p=10811"},"modified":"2024-12-12T06:46:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T06:46:55","slug":"how-to-file-manipulation-in-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/how-to-file-manipulation-in-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"How to File Manipulation in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How to File Manipulation in Linux<\/h1>\n

This guide is only going to show an overview of the commands<\/a>. To find out more about each command you can run the following command:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
  man [<\/span>command]<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The following is the test directory structure we\u2019ll be using throughout the upcoming examples:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 4<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 another  root        0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
ll<\/span><\/code>\u00a0is just an alias for\u00a0ls<\/span>\u00a0-l<\/span><\/code>.<\/p>\n
\n
cp<\/span><\/code><\/h2>\n
cp<\/span><\/code>\u00a0is used to copy files and directories.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>cp fileone.txt copyfileone.txt\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 4<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:46 copyfileone.txt<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
As you can see here, the file\u00a0fileone.txt<\/span><\/code>\u00a0was copied to\u00a0copyfileone.txt<\/span><\/code>; however the permissions were set to be owned by\u00a0root<\/span><\/code>\u00a0and part of the group\u00a0root<\/span><\/code>.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>whoami\r\nroot<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This is because we\u2019re logged in as the\u00a0root<\/span><\/code>\u00a0user. If you want to maintain the permissions, you need to use the\u00a0-p<\/span><\/code>\u00a0flag.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 4<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 copyfileone.txt<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You can copy directories in the same manner but running just\u00a0cp<\/span>\u00a0directoryone<\/span>\u00a0copydirectoryone<\/span><\/code>\u00a0will just copy the directory itself but none of its contents. To copy the contents as well you need to pass the\u00a0-R<\/span><\/code>\u00a0flag. The\u00a0-p<\/span><\/code>\u00a0and\u00a0-R<\/span><\/code>\u00a0flag can be combined to the\u00a0-a<\/span><\/code>\u00a0flag.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>cp -a directoryone copydirectoryone\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 8<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:54 copyfileone.txt<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
\n
mv<\/span><\/code><\/h2>\n
The move command is used to move or rename a file.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>mv filetwo.txt directoryone\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll directoryone\/\r\ntotal 0<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 11 14:41 filetwo.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Here\u00a0filetwo.txt<\/span><\/code>\u00a0has been moved to\u00a0directoryone<\/span><\/code>.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>mv copyfileone.txt renamedcopy.txt\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 8<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:58 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 root     root        0 Aug 11 14:54 renamedcopy.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Here the file\u00a0copyfileone.txt<\/span><\/code>\u00a0has been renamed to\u00a0renamedcopy.txt<\/span><\/code><\/p>\n<\/section>\n
\n
rm<\/span><\/code><\/h2>\n
rm<\/span><\/code>\u00a0is used to delete files and directories.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>rm renamedcopy.txt\r\nrm: remove regular empty file 'renamedcopy.txt'? y<\/span>\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 8<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:58 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Here the file\u00a0renamedcopy.txt<\/span><\/code>\u00a0is deleted. As you can see, there is a prompt for this. This can be overridden with the\u00a0-f<\/span><\/code>\u00a0flag.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>rm -f renamedcopy.txt\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 8<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:58 directoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
To delete a directory you need to pass the\u00a0-R<\/span><\/code>\u00a0flag.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>rm -R directoryone\r\nrm: descend into directory 'directoryone'? y<\/span>\r\nrm: remove regular empty file 'directoryone\/filetwo.txt'? y<\/span>\r\nrm: remove directory 'directoryone'? y<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Again, this prompts you. You can override this by using\u00a0-Rf<\/span><\/code>.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 test]# <\/span>rm -Rf directoryone\/\r\n[root@c7 test]# <\/span>ll\r\ntotal 4<\/span>\r\ndrwxr-xr-x 2 root     root     4096 Aug 11 14:45 copydirectoryone<\/span>\r\n-rw------- 1 another  another     0 Aug 11 14:41 fileone.txt<\/span>\r\n-rw-r--r-- 1 testuser testuser    0 Aug 11 14:41 filethree.txt<\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It is possible to add the\u00a0*<\/span><\/code>\u00a0on the end of the\u00a0rm<\/span>\u00a0-Rf<\/span><\/code>\u00a0command; 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.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
[root@c7 ~]# <\/span>rm -Rf \/root\/test<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
  How to File Manipulation in Linux This guide is only going to show an overview of the commands. To…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10816,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions\/10816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webystrata.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}