🐧 File & Directory Management Guide

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📚 Table of Contents

1. [[#🔨 Core Operations]]
2. [[#🔁 Advanced File Tools]]
3. [[#🗜️ Compression & Extraction]]
4. [[#🔐 Permissions & Security]]
5. [[#🤖 Scripting & Automation]]
6. [[#🧹 Cleanup & Recovery]]
7. [[#🧩 Aliases & Tips]]
8. [[#✂️ Copy & Paste, Cut & Paste Workflows]]

🔨 Core Operations

🆕 Create

Command	Use Case	Arguments
touch file.txt	Creates empty file	file.txt
echo "text" > file.txt	Writes content	- (overwrites)
mkdir dir	Creates directory	-p (nested)
mkdir -m 700 secure_dir	Sets permissions	-m (mode)

Example:

touch config.yaml
mkdir -p project/{src,tests,data}

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🔄 Rename

Command	Use Case	Notes
mv old new	File/dir rename	-
rename -n 's/.bak/.log/' *.bak	Batch rename	-n = dry-run

Example:

mv report.doc docs/2024_report.doc
rename 's/\ /_/' *.txt  # Replace spaces in file names

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🔂 Copy

Command	Use Case	Flags
cp file dest/	Copy files	-r (dir)
cp -a source/ backup/	Archive copy	-a = --archive
cp -i file1 file2	Interactive	-i = prompt

Example:

cp -r website/ backup_website/
rsync -avz local/ remote_user@host:remote_dir/  # Secure sync

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🗑️ Delete

Command	Use Case	Flags
rm file.txt	File deletion	-i (confirm)
rmdir dir	Remove empty dir	-
rm -rf path/	Recursive delete	**DANGEROUS**

Example:

rm -i *.bak
rm -rf temp/logs/

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🔁 Advanced File Tools

🔍 find

find /var -type f -mtime +7 -exec rm -f {} \;  # Delete 7-day-old files
find . -name "*.tmp" -delete                 # Fast cleanup

🔄 rename

rename -n 's/-/./' *.jpeg     # Replace hyphens with dots
rename 'BEGIN{$c=1} s/\.csv$/.backup_$c.csv/' *.csv  # Add counter

🛠️ diff & patch

diff -r dir1 dir2          # Compare directories
patch < changes.patch      # Apply changes to source

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🗜️ Compression & Extraction

📦 zip

zip -r archive.zip project/      # Compress directory
unzip -l archive.zip             # List contents
unzip -o legacy.zip -d modern/   # Convert file names (Windows→Linux)

📦 tar

tar cvzf backup.tar.gz dir/        # Compress with gzip
tar xvzf backup.tar.gz -C restore/ # Extract to specific directory

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🔐 Permissions & Security

💾 chmod

chmod u+x script.sh           # User executable
chmod 600 private_key         # Owner read/write only
chmod 755 /var/www/html/      # Web server permissions

🧑‍🔧 chown

chown user:group file.txt
chown -R www-data:www-data web/  # Recursively change ownership

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🤖 Scripting & Automation

🔄 Batch Processing

for f in *.md; do pandoc "$f" -o "${f%.md}.html"; done  # Convert MD to HTML

🧠 inotify (File Monitoring)

inotifywait -m -r -e create,modify /watched_dir  # Watch for changes

🕹️ rsync (Advanced Sync)

rsync -a --delete source/ user@host:/dest/  # Mirror source in destination
rsync -e "ssh -i key.pem" local/ remote/  # Custom SSH key

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🧹 Cleanup & Recovery

🧹 Daily Maintenance

find /tmp -type f -name "*.tmp" -delete     # Clear temp files
tar cvzf logs_$(date +%F).tar.gz /var/log/  # Backup and compress logs

🧭 Log Rotation

logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf  # Forcibly rotate logs

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🧩 Aliases & Tips

🧰 Add to .bashrc

alias ll='ls -la'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'

🚨 Safety First

alias rm='rm -i'            # Always prompt for safety
alias diff='diff -u'        # Unified diffs by default

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✂️ Copy & Paste, Cut & Paste Workflows

📁 Copy & Paste (Content Transfer)

Task	Command & Flags	Use Case
Copy file content to new file	cat source > destination	cat file1.txt > file2.txt (overwrite)
Append content to file	cat >> file.txt	cat <<EOF >> file.txt (multi-line)
Paste from clipboard (GUI tools)	xclip -o	Only in GUI environments
Paste via output redirection	echo "text" > file.txt	Single-line overwrites
Copy lines between files	sed -n '3,5 p' file.txt >> new.txt	Extract and append lines 3–5

Examples:

cat config.txt > new_config.txt         # Overwrite new file with content
echo "New line" >> log.txt              # Append to log
cat <<EOF >> script.sh
echo "Hello from EOF"
EOF

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✂️ Cut & Paste (Move + Append)

Task	Command & Flags	Use Case
Move file and append to destination	mv file.txt && cat file.txt >> destination.txt	Combine move and paste
Move directory and restructure	rsync -a --remove-source-files src/ dest/ && rmdir src/	Cut + paste with cleanup
Cut text from line in file	sed -i '1d' file.txt && cat file.txt >> newfile.txt	Delete + append

Examples:

mv log2024.txt logs_dir/            # Cut to directory
cat logs_dir/log2024.txt >> combined_logs.txt  # Paste content
sed -i '2d' data.csv && cat data.csv >> cleaned_data.csv  # Remove line 2 + append

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