Lab# 02

File and Directory

Management
CS211L

Engr. Eisha ter raazia Mir

Learning Objectives
To set different permissions to a file and a directory (Read, Write and
Execute).
Set different permissions for different users (Owner, group, and
others)
List all the users on the system and display the user ID
Use the manual page (man)
Use wild cards
Linux Commands
 date
• Displays the current date and time on the screen
 date +”%d”
• Display just today’s date only
 date +”%r”
• Display just time only
 date +”%Y”
• Display just year only
 date +”%H”
• Display just hours only
 date +”%I”
• Display just hours only
 date +”%m”
• Display just month only
Linux Commands
clear
• Clear the screen
echo
• Echoes back whatever you type on the command line after echo
echo -n anything
• n doesn't begin a new line after echoing the information
Linux Commands
sort file_name
 Create the file sortos using nano and put the following content in that file
• Hello this is eisha
• file to be sorted
• File To be Sorted
• 22 years old
• End of file
• This is Os lab 2

Output ?
Linux Commands
sort - f file_name
• Ignores the distinction between lowercase
and upper case letters
• sort - fr file_name/ sort -f -r file_name
• Reverse the order

sort --help
Linux Commands
wc(word count) file_name
• Number of lines, number of words and number of characters in a file
• Options
• -c Display only the number of characters in the file
• -l Display only the number of lines in the file
• -w Display only the number of words in the file
Linux Commands
who
• who command lists the login names, terminal lines, and login times of the
users who are currently logged on to the system
whoami
• If you type whoami, Linux displays who the system thinks you are
Linux Commands
head file_name
• This will print the first ten lines of the file if it contains more than ten lines
head –n 4 file_name
• This will print the first 4 lines of the file instead of first 10

head --help
Linux Commands
tail file_name
• The tail command will, by default, write the last ten lines of the input file
tail –n4 file_name
• This will print the last 4 lines of the file instead of first 10

tail --help
File and Directory Security
Files/Directories can be created by setting permissions, allowing people
to read, write, or execute your file.
Each file on the machine divide – users – three categories:
• The file's owner (who creates the file)
• A group of users
• Other users
• superuser
The system administrator - only superuser - several people have
access to the superuser password
 Anyone logged in as superuser has access to every file directory
File Access permission Types
There are three types of access:
• read
• write
• Execute
Access Permission
• Read permissions:
• Can be examined at a terminal, printed, viewed by an editor
• Write permissions:
• The file's contents can be changed (for example, by an editor)
• File can be overwritten or delete
Can change - access permission – your file
 Do not want anyone else to access a file - can remove read access for anyone but
you
 Other users in your group to be able to write to a group of files, you can extend
write permission to the group
 Each user type (the owner, the group, and others) can have any combination of the
three access types for each file or Directory
Directory Access Permission Types
• Directory access permissions have different meanings:
• Read: The read (r) permission in a directory means you can use the ls
command to the filenames
• Write: The write (w) permission in a directory means you can add or remove
files from that Directory
• Execute: The execute (x) permission in a directory means you can use the cd
command to change to that Directory
Access Specification
File or directory - default access specifications:
• It may give all access permissions to the owner
• Just read and write permissions to the group
• Just read permission to everyone

ls -l
Nine places - divided - three sets - length 3
• The first set of three - the owner access
 The maximum access is represented by rwx, indicating read, write, and execute
• The next set of three - the group access
• Final set of three - the access for everybody else
 Whenever a dash (-) appears, access permission is not given
Checking Access
A command can check the access privileges - files and directories:

ls -l file_name

?
Checking Permissions Commands
id
• It gives the user's name together with the groups they are a member, both
names and numbers, and the user's user-id and current group-id.

Output ?
Change Permissions
chmod user-type [operations][permissions] filelist
• Change access permission for one or more files
• user-type
• u User or owner of file Groups are used to manage permissions and
• g Group that owns the file access control for files and resources on the
• o Other system. Each user on the system belongs to
• a All three user types one or more groups, which determine the level
• operations of access they have to files and directories.
• + Add the permission
• - Remove the permission
• = Set permission; all other permission reset
• permissions
• r Read permission
• w Write permission
• x Execute(run) permission
Change Permissions
Change writing permission for user

chmod u-w file_name

?
Write permission for owner (user) removed from file
Changing Permissions

chmod go+r file_name

Group and other users get read access for file stock.

chmod g=r + x file_name

It will set group access for reading and executing but not writing to it.

?
Numeric Equivalent of Desired Permission
Change Permissions

• Change access permission to allow the read, write, and execute

permission to all users

chmod 777 file_name

Manual Page
man command_name
• To remember the sections - unable - command is present
• man command_name
man ls
Manual Page
Wildcards
Special characters applied with a command
 Operate on a group of files/directories
Have some standard features in their names
A wild card(s) and other characters are grouped together, they form a
"pattern“
To select a files - a command like 'ls' must be operated with a suitable
wildcard
i.e, there is a group of files in the current directory - have a common
feature in their names – start with character "t"
Wildcards
*
• It matches zero or any number of characters
?
• It matches any single character in a file/directory
[ ]
• It matches any one character in the bracket.
Wildcard *
 ls *t
• The last character should be 't' with any number of preceding characters

 ls t*
• The first character should be 't' with any number of following characters

 ls t*t
• First and last characters should be 't' with any number of characters between them

 ls f *t
• First and last characters should be 'f' and "t" respectively, with any number of characters between them

 ls *oo
• The last two characters should be 'oo' with any number of preceding characters
Wildcard ?
ls t?
• The first character should be 't' with
only one character following it
ls t?t
• First and last character should be 't' with
only one character between them
ls ? t
• The last character should be 't' with
only one character before it
Wildcard []
• ls p[12]
• Starting character should be 'p' and ending character should be '1' or '2'
• ls p[1-9]
• Starting character should be 'p' and ending character could be anything between '1' to '9'
• ???t
• Four character file name. The first three characters may be any, but last character should be 't.'
• ??[a-c]
• Three character filename beginning with any two characters, but the last character should be 'a',
'b,' or 'c.'
• [a-c][1-9]
• Two character file name starting with 'a', 'b', or 'c' and ending with any character between '1'
and '9'
Wildcard

ls p[!1-7]

?
returns p9 (starting character should be 'p' and ending character should not be '1'
to '7')
 Dir1

Dir00 Dir01

Dir000 Dir001 Dir002 Dir100 Dir101 Dir102

F1.txt F1.c F2.txt F2.c F3.c F3.txt

Ready
Create some files names:

test1, test2, process, eisha7, linux9, belief, first.txt, f1.txt

first.txt:

Ubuntu, ubuntu, uubuntu, Hello world

f1.txt:
subkhan, abroad123, see, September
Tasks
1. For file test1:
a. Set read, write and execute permissions for group
b. Remove read, write permissions for owner
2. For file test2:
a. Allow write permissions for owner, execute permission for group and read
permission for others
3. Find the files whose first five characters can be any but the last
should be a number between (5-9)
4. Find the files whose first and last characters should be between
(p – s) and anything between them
Tasks
5. Try to copy the files with extension .c from Dir001 to Dir101 by
keeping yourself in Dr01
6. Try to remove .txt extension files from Dir001 keeping yourself in
Dr00
7. Try to move f1.c from Dir001 to Dir1 by keeping yourself in Dir102