Chapter 5. Files and Directories

Operating systems organize raw storage devices in file systems so that applications can use high-level operations rather than low-level device calls to access information. UNIX file systems are tree structured, with nodes representing files and arcs representing the contains relationship. UNIX directory entries associate filenames with file locations. These entries can either point directly to a structure containing the file location information (hard link) or point indirectly through a symbolic link. Symbolic links are files that associate one filename with another. This chapter also introduces functions for accessing file status information and directories from within programs.

Objectives

• Learn about file systems and directories

• Experiment with directory traversal

• Explore UNIX inode implementation

• Use functions for accessing directories

• Understand hard links and symbolic links