In Linux system, a file doesn’t include only text files, images and compiled programs,  partitions, hardware device drivers and directories. Linux consider everything as as file are also files.

Create a text file

touch test.txt 

// using vi
vi tes.txt

// using vim
vim test.txt

Update content of an existing file

// using vi 
vi tes.txt 

// using vim 
vim test.txt

Delete a file with rm command

rm means remove. This command is used to remove a file. The command line doesn’t have a recycle bin or trash unlike other GUI’s to recover the files. Hence, be very much careful while using this command. Once you have deleted a file, it is removed permanently.

rm test.txt

// delete multiple files
rm test1.txt test2.txt

// delete files having same extension.
rm *.json

// delete a directory recursively
rm -r test

// delete files/directories recursively and forcefully
rm -rf 

Copy a file with cp command

cp stands for copy.

folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % ls
test.txt
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % cp test.txt test1.txt
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % ls
test.txt	test1.txt

Copy multiple files

// copy all directories and files int the current directory to the Download directory
copy -R * /Users/folaukaveinga/Download

Move a file from one place to another with mv command

mv command is used to move existing file or directory from one location to another. It is also used to rename a file or directory. If you want to rename a single directory or file then mv option will be better to use.

mv file destination

folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % ls
test		test.txt	test1.txt
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % mv *.txt test
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % ls -la
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 folaukaveinga  staff   96 Nov  7 22:47 .
drwx------@ 8 folaukaveinga  staff  256 Nov  7 20:42 ..
drwxr-xr-x  4 folaukaveinga  staff  128 Nov  7 22:47 test
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % cd test 
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 test % ls
test.txt	test1.txt
folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 test %

Rename a file

To rename a file there are other commands also like ‘mv’. But ‘rename’ command is slightly advanced then others. This command will be rarely used and it works differently on different distros of linux.

Get file type

file command is used to determine the file type. It does not care about the extension used for file. It simply uses file command and tell us the file type.

folaukaveinga@Folaus-MacBook-Pro-3 files % file test.txt
test.txt: ASCII text