Systems Programming (CS 423)

Lecture 5:

Users, Files, and Directories

Dr. Mohamed Abbas Alameen Saleh

Introduction to Linux
UNIX OS:
• Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating
system.
• You can have many users logged into a system
simultaneously, each running many programs.
• It's the kernel's job to keep each process and
user separate and to regulate access to system
hardware, including cpu, memory, disk and other
I/O devices.
What is LINUX:
• Linux is a free Unix-type operating system
originally created by Linus Torvalds with the
assistance of developers around the world.
• It originated in 1991 as a personal project of Linus
Torvalds, a Finnish graduate student.
• The Kernel version 1.0 was released in 1994 and
today the most recent stable version is 2.6.9
• Developed under the GNU General Public License
, the source code for Linux is freely available to
everyone.
UNIX Structure:
UNIX File System:
File System:

• The Unix file system looks like an inverted tree

structure.
• You start with the root directory, denoted by /,
at the top and work down through sub-
directories underneath it.
File System (Cont’d):
• Each node is either a file or a directory of files,
where the latter can contain other files and
directories.
• You specify a file or directory by its path name,
either the full, or absolute, path name or the one
relative to a location.
• The full path name starts with the root, /, and
follows the branches of the file system, each
separated by /, until you reach the desired file,
e.g.:
• /home/condron/source/xntp
File System (Cont’d):
• A relative path name specifies the path relative
to another, usually the current working directory
that you are at. Two special directories :
o . the current directory
o .. the parent of the current directory
• So if I'm at /home/frank and wish to specify the
path above in a relative fashion I could use:
• ../condron/source/xntp
• This indicates that I should first go up one
directory level, then come down through the
condron directory, followed by the source
directory and then to xntp.
Structure of Standard Directories in Unix/Linux:
• / The ancestor of all directories on the system; all
other directories are subdirectories of this
directory, either directly or through other
subdirectories.
• /bin Essential tools and other programs (or
binaries).
• /dev Files representing the system's various
hardware devices. For example, you use the file
`/dev/cdrom' to access the CD−ROM drive.
• /etc Miscellaneous system configuration files,
startup files, etc.
Structure of Standard Directories in Unix/Linux (Cont’d):

• /home The home directories for all of the

system's users.
• /lib Essential system library files used by tools in
`/bin'.
• /proc Files that give information about current
system processes.
• /root The superuser's home directory, whose
username is root. (In the past, the home
directory for the superuser was simply `/'; later,
`/root' was adopted for this purpose to reduce
clutter in `/'.)
Introduction to Linux
Structure of Standard Directories in Unix/Linux (Cont’d):
• /sbin Essential system administrator tools, or
system binaries.
• /tmp Temporary files.
• /usr Subdirectories with files related to user tools
and applications.
Directories, Files, and Inodes:
• Every directory and file is listed in its parent
directory.
• In the case of the root directory, that parent is
itself.
• A directory is a file that contains a table listing the
files contained within it, giving file names to the
inode numbers in the list.
• The information about all the files and directories
is
maintained in INODE TABLE
• An Inode (Index Nodes) is an entry in the table
containing information about a file (metadata)
including file permissions, UID, GID, size, time
stamp, pointers to files data blocks on the disk
etc.
Users, Groups, and Access Permissions:
• In UNIX/LINUX, there is a concept of user and an
associated group
• The system determines whether or not a user or
group can access a file or program based on the
permissions assigned to them.
• Apart from all the users, there is a special user
called Super User or the root which has permission
to access any file and directory
Access Permissions:
• There are three permissions for any file, directory
or application program.
• The following lists the symbols used to denote
each, along with a brief description:
• r — Indicates that a given category of user can
read a file.
• w — Indicates that a given category of user can
write to a file.
• x — Indicates that a given category of user can
execute the file.
Access Permissions (Cont’d):
• Each of the three permissions are assigned to
three defined categories of users.
• The categories are:

owner — The owner of the file or

application.
group — The group that owns the file or
application.
others — All users with access to the
system.
Access Permissions (Cont’d):
• One can easily view the permissions for a file by
invoking a long format listing using the command
ls -l.
• For instance, if the user juan creates an
executable file named test, the output of the
command ls -l test would look like this:

o -rwxrwxr-x 1 juan student 0 Sep 26 12:25 test

Access Permissions (Cont’d):
• The permissions for this file are listed are listed at
the start of the line, starting with rwx.
• This first set of symbols define owner access.

• The next set of rwx symbols define group access

• The last set of symbols defining access permitted

for all other users.
Access Permissions (Cont’d):
• This listing indicates that the file is readable,
writable, and executable by the user who owns
the file (user juan) as well as the group owning
the file (which is a group named student).
• The file is also world-readable and world-
executable, but not world-writable.
Introduction to Linux
Listing the Content of a Directory:
• ls is used to list the contents of a directory.

• If the command ls is written with parameter –l

then the command lists contents of the working
directory with details. Example:
o $ ls –l
Moving in Directories:
• cd try_it: Changes the directory to try_it
• pwd: Prints present working directory (e.g.
/home/smith/try_it)
• cd ..: Move to superior directory
• pwd : Prints /home/smith
• cd /home The absolute path
• pwd : Prints /home
• cd The system is returned to the user home
directory
• pwd : Print /home/smith
Introduction to Linux
Make Directory:
• The command mkdir my_dir
o makes new directory my_dir (the path is given
relative) as a subdirectory of the current directory.
Remove Directory:
• The command rmdir your_dir
o removes directory your_dir if it is empty.
Copy File:
• The command cp file_1 file_2

• copies file_1 to file_2. The both files must be in the

same working directory. If they are in various
directories, the path must be given.
Rename and/or Move the File:
• The command mv file_1 file_2
o moves file_1 to file_2

• The both files must be in the same working

directory.

• If they are in different directories, the path must

be given.

• The file_1 is removed from the disk.

Remove File:
• The command rm file_a
o removes the file_a from the system
• If you use wildcard. For example
o rm h*c
• you will remove all files beginning with h and
ending with c which are in working directory.
• If you write
o rm *
• you will erase all files from your working directory.
Access Permission of File/Directory:
• The ownership of the file or directory can be
changed using the command
o chown <owner> <file/directory name>

• The group of the file or directory can be changed

using the command
o chgrp <group> <file/directory name>

• The permissions of the file can be changed using

chmod command
o chmod -R ### <filename or directory>

• -R is optional and when used with directories will

traverse all the sub-directories of the target
directory changing ALL the permissions to ###.
Access Permission of File/Directory (Cont’d):
• The #'s can be:
0 = Nothing
1 = Execute
2 = Write
3 = Execute & Write (2 + 1)
4 = Read
5 = Execute & Read (4 + 1)
6 = Read & Write (4 + 2)
7 = Execute & Read & Write (4 + 2 + 1)
Thanks ...