Sunday, 11 May 2014

Anatomy of Linux computers : the File System Commands - part 1 ls

A- How are organized files in Linux ? 


If we examine the root file system of a typical linux fedora system, the Linux file system uses the command "ls" for showing file content . Running it as root, we get the following results :

root@localhost /# ls
bin   dev  home  lib64       media  opt    run   srv  tmp  var
boot  etc  lib   lost+found  mnt    proc  root  sbin  sys  usr

The file system is organized in sections : 
 
    /bin Essential user command binaries (for use by all users)

    /boot Static files of the boot loader, only used at system startup 

    /dev Device files, links to your hardware devices like /dev/sound, /dev/input

    /etc Host-specific system configuration 

    /home User home directories. This is where you save your personal files 

    /lib Essential shared libraries and kernel modules

    /mnt Mount point for a temporarily mounted filesystem like /mnt/cdrom

    /opt Add-on application software packages

    /usr /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable, read-only data. 

    /var contains variable data files. This includes spool directories and files, administrative and logging data, and transient and temporary files. 

    /proc System information stored in memory mirrored as file


1. INODES


in order to show the inodes associated with the files, we must use the -i option : the inodes are associated registries associated with each file containing some metadatas. Inodes stands for Index Nodes. There is an inode number for each file. For example inode=5829 for the directory bin. In POSIX and partially POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as GNU/LinuxAndroid, Apple's Mac OS XWindows NT operating systems, an inode contains information about : 
- the size of the file in bytes, in blocks and IO blocks
- the devicesID, inodeID, Links (how many hard links are pointing to the inode, an hard link) and timestamps last accessed last modified for each UID UserID and GID Group ID. The stat system call retrieves a file's inode number and some of the information in the inode.

root@localhost /# ls -i
   5829 bin        17 lib         1835009 opt        13 sbin   786433 var
      2 boot       16 lib64             1 proc  1179649 srv
   1025 dev        11 lost+found     3267 q           1 sys
1310721 etc   1966081 media       1703937 root     8070 tmp
      2 home  1048577 mnt            1159 run   2883585 usr


root@localhost /# stat boot
  File: ‘boot’
  Size: 1024       Blocks: 4          IO Block: 1024   directory
Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 2           Links: 4
Access: (0555/dr-xr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2014-05-11 15:39:55.000000000 +0200
Modify: 2014-01-09 03:12:33.000000000 +0100
Change: 2014-01-09 03:12:33.000000000 +0100
 Birth: -

1. ACCESS RIGHTS

in order to show the access rights, ls must be used with -l 

root@localhost /# ls -l /etc
total 2936
drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root     4096 25. Aug 2013  abrt
-rw-r--r--   1 root root       47 16. Mär 21:15 adjtime
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096  7. Okt 2013  akonadi
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root     1518  7. Jun 2013  aliases
-rw-r-----.  1 root smmsp   12288 19. Aug 2013  aliases.db
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root     4096 25. Aug 2013  alsa
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root     4096 16. Apr 23:07 alternatives
...

root@localhost /# ls --scontext
system_u:object_r:bin_t:s0       bin -> usr/bin
system_u:object_r:boot_t:s0      boot
?                                dev
system_u:object_r:etc_t:s0       etc
system_u:object_r:home_root_t:s0 home
system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0       lib -> usr/lib
system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0       lib64 -> usr/lib64
...

for more information about the ls command and the basic structure of a linux system

NAME
       ls - list directory contents

SYNOPSIS
       ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       List  information  about  the FILEs (the current directory by default).
       Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort  is  speci‐
       fied.

       Mandatory  arguments  to  long  options are mandatory for short options
       too.

       -a, --all
              do not ignore entries starting with .

       -A, --almost-all
              do not list implied . and ..

       --author
              with -l, print the author of each file

       -b, --escape
              print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters

       --block-size=SIZE
              scale   sizes   by   SIZE   before   printing    them.     E.g.,
              '--block-size=M'  prints sizes in units of 1,048,576 bytes.  See
              SIZE format below.

       -B, --ignore-backups
              do not list implied entries ending with ~

       -c     with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last modification of
              file  status  information)  with -l: show ctime and sort by name
              otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first

       -C     list entries by columns

       --color[=WHEN]
              colorize the output.   WHEN  defaults  to  'always'  or  can  be
              'never' or 'auto'.  More info below

       -d, --directory
              list  directory entries instead of contents, and do not derefer‐
              ence symbolic links

       -D, --dired
              generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode

       -f     do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color

       -F, --classify
              append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries

       --file-type
              likewise, except do not append '*'

       --format=WORD
              across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l, single-column  -1,
              verbose -l, vertical -C

       --full-time
              like -l --time-style=full-iso

       -g     like -l, but do not list owner

       --group-directories-first
              group directories before files.

              augment  with  a  --sort option, but any use of --sort=none (-U)
              disables grouping

       -G, --no-group
              in a long listing, don't print group names

       -h, --human-readable
              with -l, print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)

       --si   likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024

       -H, --dereference-command-line
              follow symbolic links listed on the command line

       --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir
             follow each command line symbolic link that points to  a  direc‐
              tory

       --hide=PATTERN
              do  not  list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden
              by -a or -A)

       --indicator-style=WORD
              append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default),
              slash (-p), file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)

       -i, --inode
              print the index number of each file

       -I, --ignore=PATTERN
              do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN

       -k, --kibibytes
              use 1024-byte blocks

       -l     use a long listing format

       -L, --dereference
              when showing file information for a symbolic link, show informa‐
              tion for the file the link references rather than for  the  link
              itself

       -m     fill width with a comma separated list of entries

       -n, --numeric-uid-gid
              like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs

       -N, --literal
              print  raw entry names (don't treat e.g. control characters spe‐
              cially)

       -o     like -l, but do not list group information

       -p, --indicator-style=slash
              append / indicator to directories

-q, --hide-control-chars
              print ? instead of non graphic characters

       --show-control-chars
              show non graphic characters as-is  (default  unless  program  is
              'ls' and output is a terminal)

       -Q, --quote-name
              enclose entry names in double quotes

       --quoting-style=WORD
              use  quoting style WORD for entry names: literal, locale, shell,
              shell-always, c, escape

       -r, --reverse
              reverse order while sorting

       -R, --recursive
              list subdirectories recursively

       -s, --size
              print the allocated size of each file, in blocks

       -S     sort by file size

       --sort=WORD
              sort by WORD instead of name: none -U, extension  -X,  size  -S,
              time -t, version -v

       --time=WORD
              with  -l,  show time as WORD instead of modification time: atime
              -u, access -u, use -u, ctime -c, or  status  -c;  use  specified
              time as sort key if --sort=time

       --time-style=STYLE
              with  -l, show times using style STYLE: full-iso, long-iso, iso,
              locale, +FORMAT.  FORMAT is interpreted like 'date';  if  FORMAT
              is  FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files
              and FORMAT2 to recent files; if STYLE is prefixed with 'posix-',
              STYLE takes effect only outside the POSIX locale

       -t     sort by modification time, newest first

      -T, --tabsize=COLS
              assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8

       -u     with  -lt:  sort  by, and show, access time with -l: show access
              time and sort by name otherwise: sort by access time

       -U     do not sort; list entries in directory order

       -v     natural sort of (version) numbers within text

       -w, --width=COLS
              assume screen width instead of current value

       -x     list entries by lines instead of by columns

       -X     sort alphabetically by entry extension

       -1     list one file per line


SELinux options:

       --lcontext
              Display security context.   Enable -l. Lines  will  probably  be
              too wide for most displays.

       -Z, --context
              Display  security context so it fits on most displays.  Displays
              only mode, user, group, security context and file name.

       --scontext
              Display only security context and file name.

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       SIZE is an integer and optional unit (example:  10M  is  10*1024*1024).
       Units  are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024) or KB, MB, ... (pow‐
       ers of 1000).

       Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by  default  and
       with  --color=never.  With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when
       standard output is connected to a terminal.  The LS_COLORS  environment
       variable can change the settings.  Use the dircolors command to set it.

   Exit status:
       0      if OK,
       1      if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory),
       2      if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument).

AUTHORS
       Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.

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