CHAPTER 3 Getting Started

3.7 File Maintenance Commands

File Maintenance Commands

Command/Syntax	What it will do
chgrp [options] group file	change the group of the file
chmod [options] file	change file or directory access permissions
chown [options] owner file	change the ownership of a file; can only be done by the superuser
cp [options] file1 file2	copy file1 into file2; file2 shouldn't already exist. This command creates or overwrites file2.
mv [options] file1 file2	move file1 into file2
rm [options] file	remove (delete) a file or directory (-r recursively deletes the directory and its contents) (-i prompts before removing files)

If you're familiar with DOS the following table comparing similar commands might help to provide the proper reference frame.

Unix vs DOS File Maintenance Commands

Command	Unix	DOS
copy file	cp	copy
move file	mv	move (not supported on all versions of DOS)
rename file	mv	rename & ren
delete (remove) file	rm	erase & del
display file to screen entire file one page at a time	cat more, less, pg	type type/p (not supported on all versions of DOS)

3.7.1 - cp - copy a file

3.7.2 - mv - move a file

3.7.3 - rm - remove a file

3.7.4 - File Permissions

3.7.5 - chmod - change file permissions

3.7.6 - chown - change ownership

3.7.7 - chgrp - change group