Exercise: file system operations

Note

Please try not just copy-n-pasting the commands provided in the hands-on exercises!! Typing (and eventually making typos) is an essential part of the learning process.

In this exercise, we will get you familiar with the Linux file system. Following the steps below, you will perform certain frequently used commands to perform operations on the file system, including

browsing files and sub-directories within a directory,
creating and removing directory,
moving current working directory between directories,
changing access permission of a directory,
creating and deleting files.

You will also learn few useful wildcard syntax to make things done quicker and easier.

Tasks

Change the present working directory to your personal directory
```
$ cd $HOME
```
Create a new directory called tutorial
```
$ mkdir tutorial
```
Change the present working directory to the tutorial directory
```
$ cd tutorial
```
Create two new directories called labs and exercises
```
$ mkdir labs
$ mkdir exercises
```
Remove all access permissions of others from the exercises directory
```
$ chmod o-rwx exercises
```
Set groups to have read and execute permissions on the exercises directory
```
$ chmod g=rx exercises
```
Change the present working directory to $HOME/tutorial/labs
```
$ cd $HOME/tutorial/labs
```

Create multiple empty files (and list them) using wildcards. Note the syntax {1..5} in the first command below. It is taken by the Linux shell as a serious of sequencial integers from 1 to 5.

$ touch subject_{1..5}.dat

$ ls -l subject_*
-rw-r--r-- 1 honlee tg 0 Sep 30 16:24 subject_1.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 honlee tg 0 Sep 30 16:24 subject_2.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 honlee tg 0 Sep 30 16:24 subject_3.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 honlee tg 0 Sep 30 16:24 subject_4.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 honlee tg 0 Sep 30 16:24 subject_5.dat

Tip

The touch command is used for creating empty files.

Remove multiple files using wildcards. Note the syntax *. It is taken as “any characters” by the Linux shell.
```
$ rm subject_*.dat
```