Files and Directories

Commands

touch

• touch - updates the access and last modification times of each file to the current time.

  • If the specified file does not exist, the touch command will create it.

  • It is used more to create empty files than to update the file timestamp.

ls -l notes.txt
	-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 ago 28 18:36 notes.txt

touch notes.txt
ls -l notes.txt
	-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 ago 28 18:38 notes.txt
# Timestamp is updated to the current time

cp

• cp - copy the source file to the destination file

cp notes.txt notes-copy.txt

mv

• mv - move file

  • used for renaming the file/directory in the same directory

mv notes.txt ./Desktop

rm

• rm - remove files or directories

  • deletes the file forever (does not put it in the recycle bin)

  • use various options to minimize accidents

rm -i ./Desktop/notes.txt
rm: remove regular empty file './Desktop/notes.txt'? y

mkdir

• mkdir - create directories

mkdir project
# Creates project directory

rmdir

• rmdir - remove empty directory

rmdir project/
rmdir: failed to remove 'project/': Directory not empty

# Use "rm" to delete a non-empty directory, recursively removing all the directory contents without confirmation:
rm -rf project/

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