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We have seen the differences between files under DOS/Win and Linux. As for directories, under DOS/Win the root directory is \, under Linux it is /. Similarly, nested directories are separated by \ under DOS/Win, by / under Linux. Example of file paths:
DOS: C:\PAPERS\GEOLOGY\MID_EOC.TEX Linux: /home/guido/papers/geology/middle_eocene.tex
As usual, .. is the parent directory and . is the current directory. Remember that the system won't let you cd, rd, or md everywhere you want. Each user has his or her stuff in a directory called `home', given by the system administrator; for instance, on my PC my home dir is /home/guido.
Directories, too, have permissions. What we have seen in Section Permissions and Ownership applies to directories as well (user, group, and other). For a directory, rx means you can cd to that directory, and w means that you can delete a file in the directory (according to the file's permissions, of course), or the directory itself.
For example, to prevent other users from snooping in /home/guido/text:
$ chmod o-rwx /home/guido/text
DIR: ls, find, du CD: cd, pwd MD: mkdir RD: rmdir DELTREE: rm -rf MOVE: mv
DOS Linux --------------------------------------------------------------------- C:\GUIDO>DIR $ ls C:\GUIDO>DIR FILE.TXT $ ls file.txt C:\GUIDO>DIR *.H *.C $ ls *.h *.c C:\GUIDO>DIR/P $ ls | more C:\GUIDO>DIR/A $ ls -l C:\GUIDO>DIR *.TMP /S $ find / -name "*.tmp" C:\GUIDO>CD $ pwd n/a - see note $ cd ditto $ cd ~ ditto $ cd ~/temp C:\GUIDO>CD \OTHER $ cd /other C:\GUIDO>CD ..\TEMP\TRASH $ cd ../temp/trash C:\GUIDO>MD NEWPROGS $ mkdir newprogs C:\GUIDO>MOVE PROG .. $ mv prog .. C:\GUIDO>MD \PROGS\TURBO $ mkdir /progs/turbo C:\GUIDO>DELTREE TEMP\TRASH $ rm -rf temp/trash C:\GUIDO>RD NEWPROGS $ rmdir newprogs C:\GUIDO>RD \PROGS\TURBO $ rmdir /progs/turbo
Notes:
rmdir, the directory to remove must be empty. To delete a directory and all of its contents, use rm -rf (at your own risk).~' is a shortcut for the name of your home directory. The commands cd or cd ~ will take you to your home directory from wherever you are; the command cd ~/tmp will take you to /home/your_home/tmp.cd - ``undoes'' the last cd.