Common File Types in Linux
RHEL supports seven types of files: Regular Directory Block special device → Used by the OS to communicate with peripheral devices. character special device → Used by the OS to communicate with peripheral devices. symbolic link named pipe → Used in IPC(Inter Process Communication) socket → Used in IPC(Inter Process Communication) Regular Files: Regular files may contain text or binary data. These files may be shell scripts or commands in the binary form. When you list a directory, all line entries for files in the output that begin with the hyphen character (-) represent regular files. Example: The - before the rw permission depicts that it is a regular file. file command: Returns the specific type of data that the file contains, in this case it’s ASCII text. stat command: It simply states that the file is a regular file. Directory Files: Directories are logical containers that hold files and subdirectories. The letter “d” at the beginning of each line entry identifies the file as a directory. file command on /usr directory: stat command on /usr directory: Block and character special device files: What are Device files? Each piece of hardware in the system has an associated file in the /dev directory that is used by the system to communicate with that device. This type of file is called a device file. Types of device files: Block → On the initial with the letter b we can distinguish it’s Block device file. Character/ raw → On the initial with the letter c we can distinguish it’s character device file. file command on both of the directories → /dev/console and /dev/nvme0n* stat command on both of the directories → /dev/console and /dev/nvme0n* Important concepts related to device files(PAY ATTENTION): Concept of major number: Let’s elaborate the picture ...