Question

Working with files on your computer involves a very important set of tasks listed below.  In addition, researching or finding information on the Internet is an invaluable tool.  

1. Describe what is meant by the term

2. Give an example of how each is used or accomplished by the Operating System on your specific computer

Files

a. Hierarchical File Systems

b. Navigation

c. Copying

d. Renaming

e. Deleting

f. Download

Answer 1

a. Hierarchical File Systems: A file system which organizes files in a top-to-bottom structure. Access to the file starts at the top and proceeds downward throughout the levels of the hierarchy. The system consists of

1. Files, which contain data or programs.
2. Directories that contain files, other directories, or both. These are arranged hierarchically, in a structure that resembles a top-to-bottom structure or an upside down tree.

Example: In Linux the root (denoted as '/') is the first directory for the file system. Followed by other directory or files under it.

b. Navigation: File navigation is the means by which we explore the file system to find and use a particular file. File navigation can be accomplished using GUI (Graphical User Interface) application like file managers or explorers or using commands in case of a CUI (Character User Interface).

Example: In Linux using the shell we can use commands like ls and cd to help us list down file in a particular directory and change directory respectively. Combining these two we can explore our file system. Most Linux distributions also provides us with a GUI application like file manger (please refer to the image in the previous section)  to help as navigate the file system easily.

c. Copying: Copying file means creating an exact same replica of a file. This means we create a new file which has the exact same name, content and type. However a point to be noted here is we cannot copy file to the same location that of the original file. The OS usually warns about this and tries to rename it so that it can difference between the original and copied one if we really want them to keep them in the same location to avoid redundancy later on.

Example: The cp command in Linux is used to copy files from one location to the other. In the File Manager also we can right on files to copy them and paste them somewhere. Alternately we can select files and do Ctrl+C to copy and then Ctrl+V to paste them.

d. Renaming: Changing the existing file name to another is called renaming.

Example: In Linux the mv command is used to rename files. In the File Manager we can always right click and the rename option will be there selecting which we can rename the file. Alternatively we can select a file and press F2 to rename it.

e. Deleting: The process of removing a file from the file system is called deleting. A file once deleted from the system cannot be recovered. Although most OS with GUI these days have the concept of soft delete where the file is moved to a location (called the Trash/Bin/Recycle Bin depending on the OS) where is it compressed and kept until and unless the user actually decides to delete it permanently from the system. This prevents accidental data loss and gives the user a chance to recover the file if it is required.

Example: In Linux the rm is used to delete files from the system. In the File Manager we can right click and the delete options will be present in the context menu. Alternately we can select files and hit the Delete key. However in both ways the file will end up in the Trash. So we need to open the Trash from the File manager and permanently remove it from there if we want to.

f. Download: Downloading a file means transferring a copy of a file from a remote system to your local system. This basically means transferring the file over a network. Files are transferred over network using various protocols of which HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol) are the most common ones.

Example: When we download some file from any website, the files is actually transferred to our local system from a remote server using either HTTP or FTP as the protocol.

/ Home home Search Home File System tmp |bin lib root boot lost+found run usr cdrom media sbin var initrd.img dev mnt selinux etc opt vmlinuz 191 home proc sys