Introducing Files

In Linux, everything is – or can be represented as – a file. Files are organized into a filesystem, which is just a hierarchy of files and directories (directories are just a special kind of file). As a developer, just about everything you do on a Linux system will require knowledge about files: writing and copying source code, building Docker images, application logging, configuring dependencies, and more.

In this chapter, we’ll cover the details of files in Linux. You’ll learn about the difference between plaintext files and binary files, which are the two most common types of file content you’ll be working with. We’ll show you how those are laid out and organized into a filesystem “tree” in Linux, before diving into the practical commands you’ll need to create, modify, move, and edit files. Then we’ll complete our tour of the basics with a practical introduction to file editing, using the...