The Unix Filesystem
A short Tutorial By InSaNiTy
Some people switching from Windows seem to have trouble grasping
how the unix filesystem works (I can't figure out why....).
For all intents and purposes, when I say filesystem, I don't mean
as in the type, like FAT32(OpenBSD uses FFS) filesystem, I mean
how directories work and are arranged.
The Unix Filesystem isn't much different than a Windows
filesystem(well in the way that you navigate it). The main
differences are Unix doesn't have the concept of "drives" like a
C: drive or D: drive. Unix can mount any partitions on any
directory, meaning that any data on that partition is now
visible and usable by going into the directory it is mounted
under. There are some exceptions(like needing the root directory
to even run the system) but those go beyond basic usage. Unix is
also case sensetive, meaning "Blah" is not the same
file/directory as "blah". Unix also uses /'s (forward slash)
instead of \'s (backslash).
Examples:
For example, lets pretend you had a directory called "xspace" on
your C: drive, and in that directory was a directory called
"stuff". In windows(under MS-DOS for example a prompt) you would
do:
cd C:\xspace\stuff
In unix that becomes:
cd /xspace/stuff
Assuming you had that directory. If there was a partition mounted
on /xspace you would see the data on it. If there was nothing
mounted on it, you would see nothing in it. A partition could
have also been mounted on /xspace/stuff and when you cd'd into
that directory also would have seen the data.
Or, showing changing dir's one at a time:
cd /usr cd local
Or to shorten it:
cd /usr/local
If you don't understand it by now, I am sorry.
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