Linux File and Directory Management Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering Linux file and directory management commands, the nano text editor, keyboard shortcuts, standard input/output, piping, and output redirection operators.

mkdir

A command that creates a new directory using either an absolute or relative file path.

rmdir

A command that removes, or deletes, an empty directory; it returns an error if the directory contains files or subdirectories.

touch

A command that creates a new file without any content inside.

rm

A command that removes, or deletes, a file.

mv

A command that moves a file or directory to a new location, or renames a file if given a new file name as the second argument.

cp

A command that copies a file or directory into a new location without removing it from its original location.

nano

A command-line file editor available by default in many Linux distributions used to create new files and modify file contents.

Ctrl + O

The keyboard shortcut used in nano to save a file.

Ctrl + X

The keyboard shortcut used to exit out of nano.

Standard input

Information received by the OS via the command line.

Standard output

Information returned by the OS through the shell.

Piping

A process that sends the standard output of one command as standard input to another command for further processing using the pipe character (|).

(Right angle bracket)

An operator used to redirect standard output to a file, overwriting any existing file contents or creating a new file if one does not exist.

(Double right angle bracket)

An operator used to redirect standard output to a file, adding content to the end of the existing file instead of overwriting it, or creating a new file if one does not exist.