8 Regular files

In most operating systems (OSs), a “file” is a non-volatile entity that contains a contaguous stream of octets (bytes). A “file” has to exist in a directory (aka folder), and a file must have a unique name with in the containing directory.

There are many actions you can perform to a regular file. For example, you can create a file, query a file, copy a file, rename a file, move a file or delete a file. In Linux, these are the commands to perform these operations in a command line interface (CLI):

• touch test
  This command touches the file test. If the file does not exist, a new file is created. If the file does exist, its timestamp is updated.
• ls -l test
  This command lists the file test with all the details.
• cp test test1
  This command copies the file test to a new file test1.
• mv test test.bak
  This command renames the file test to test.bak. The same command is also used to move a file from one directory to another.
• rm test.bak
  This command deletes the file test.bak.
• stat test.bak
  This command reports all the important status of the file.