2023 Boost - Week 5#

📺 https://youtu.be/ZcEIJFbHRn4

This week we do "destructive" file system stuff related and take a lot of time to review the most common dangers. Watch this is you want to keep your job once you get it.

How do I create a new directory?
```
mkdir NAME
```
How do I "hide" a file or directory?

Give it a dot (.) as the first character in name.
How do I move or rename a file or directory?

mv OLD NEW

Danger

Be very careful when moving and renaming since you can easily clobber an existing file or directory. Don't bother with activating noclobber because it will get in your way more than help you, just become aware/paranoid about the danger.
How do I move multiple files into a single directory?
```
mv SOURCE... DIR
```
SOURCE can be a file, directory (or path to) or a glob.

Danger

When moving muliple SOURCEs make sure that DIR is a directory and not a file.

Note

Note that mv sometimes will not work because the source and destination are on different file systems.
How do I list properties of a directory (instead of contents)?
```
ls -lda DIR
```
How do I safely avoid typing long or complicated names?

Tap tab (once or twice) for tab completion.
How do I remove a file?
```
rm FILE
```
Tip

When working with destructive commands that operate on many files try ls first to make sure it only affects the files you want.
How do I create a temporary container (sandbox) just to try dangerous (stupid) things?
```
podman run -it --rm ghcr.io/rwxrob/ws-skilstak
```
How do I remove a directory?
```
rmdir DIR
```
Note

Prefer rmdir over alternatives to force yourself to be sure of each individual thing that is being deleted within that directory (since rmdir will not remove directories containing).
How do I remove a directory and everything under it recursively?
```
rm -rf DIR
```
Danger

Even though this command does not work on significant system directories (like /) it is very recursively destructive and should almost never be used. Use rmdir instead.
How do I recover a broken or deleted configuration file?
```
cp /etc/skel/FILE ~
```
How do I start a new shell and replace the currently running one?
```
exec bash -l
```
How do I copy a file?
```
cp FILE NEWNAME
```
How do I recusively copy a directory and subdirectories?
```
cp -r SOURCE.. DIR
```
Note

This creates new files with new creation dates/times and ownership if copying from another user. Use other cp argument options when preserving them is important.