Module 2 - The File System

Linux File Types

• Directories

• Files (text files & scripts)

• Binaries

• Links (soft/symbolic links)

The Linux Directory Tree

Directories and Functions

The Linux PATH

• What is PATH ?

PATH is an environmental variable in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems that tells the shell which directories to search for executable files.

/etc/sysconfig/network

/home/hagay/Desktop

Absolute and Relative Path

• An absolute path starts from the top of the tree

# cd /home/hagay/Desktop

• A relative path NEVER starts with /

# cd hagay/Desktop

* assuming /home is where we are

Navigating in space

• The cd command (Change Directory)

# cd - Take me to my home directory

# cd /etc/sysconfig - take me to directory

# cd - - take me to the former directory

# cd .. - take me one directory UP

# cd ~avi - take me to Avi’s home directory

The Linux File System

• The current default file system is ext4

• Previous versions where ext2 and ext3

• ext4 can support partition size of up to 1 exbibyte

(1 exbibyte = 1,152921.5046068 terabytes)

• ext4 can support a single file size of approximately

1 terabyte

The Linux File System and Directory Tree Integration

• In Linux we often integrate the file system (partitions) with the Linux directory tree.

• Remember our installation ?

We created partitions for some of the Top-Level directories:

/boot - 500MB partition

/ - 10GB partition

/var - 2GB partition

The Linux Logical Volume Manager

• LVM is a logical volume manager for the Linux kernel. it manages disk drives and similar mass-storage devices.

• The term "volume" refers to a disk drive or partition thereof.

• It was originally written in 1998 by Heinz Mauelshagen, who based its design on that of the LVM in HP-UX.

The Linux LVM Diagram

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