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Unix Files & NFS

All modern computers have some means of on-line storage of user data. This data is available immediately to users upon demand, via names, which are supplied by the user. In order to deal with this data, the operating system provides a consistent set of tools allowing users to create, store, retrieve, modify, and otherwise delete files. Files are usually stored physically on some system's hard disk, which is divided into many blocks, much the same way a parking lot is divided into slots, allowing many cars (disk blocks) to park (be stored) in an orderly fashion.

This discussion will give you a general understanding of unix files. After reading and understanding this chapter, you should be familiar enough with unix files to:

1. move around within unix file tree
2. list a file's status and understand what it means
3. move, rename, and copy files
4. change a file's protection, ownership, and set-uid bits
5. understand groups and file systems, including, briefly NFS

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