Working on Linux Files – Basic Commands

In this article we will be seeing some basic commands while working on files in Linux.

In Linux there are more applications to create and edit a file. Some of them are Vi editor, Vim editor(extended version for vi), Nano, Emacs, etc..,. These text editors are applicable in minimal installation.

In GUI we can use Gedit, Sublime text, etc.,.

Creating a File:

You can create a empty file using  touch  command,

$ touch example.txt

To add contents to the file use  echo  command,

$ echo This is first line > example.txt

To add more contents use >> symbol which will append the new content on the preceding line,

$ echo This is Second line >> example.txt $ echo This is Third line >> example.txt $ echo This is Fourth line >> example.txt

You can use  cat  or  less  command to see the content of the file, It only prints the content of the file.To edit the file you can open the file with any of the text editors as mentioned earlier,

The output of the file we created will be,

$ cat example.txt This is first line This is Second line This is Third line This is Fourth line

Copying a File:

For copying use  cp  command,

$ cp example.txt copy_of_example.txt

$ cat copy_of_example.txt This is first line This is Second line This is Third line This is Fourth line

Renaming a File:

Use  mv  command to rename a file,

$ mv example.txt EXAMPLE.txt

$ cat EXAMPLE.txt This is first line This is Second line This is Third line This is Fourth line

Listing the Files:

To list all the files in a directory we can use  ls  command,

$ ls copy_of_example.txt EXAMPLE.txt

Deleting a File:

We can use  rm  command to delete a file, rm command will ask for a confirmation if the file is write protected but  rm -rf  will delete the file at once when its executed. So using rm command is preferable for deleting files.

$ rm EXAMPLE.txt rm: remove write-protected regular file ‘EXAMPLE.txt’? y

$ rm -rf copy_of_example.txt

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.