Creating Files and Directories

Before you can work with files, you need to know how to create them. Linux provides simple commands for creating both empty files and new directories.

Creating Files with touch

The touch command creates a new, empty file. If the file already exists, it updates the file's modification timestamp without changing its contents. 

# Create a single file
touch notes.txt

# Create multiple files at once
touch file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

# Verify the files were created
ls -l

Creating Directories with mkdir

The mkdir (make directory) command creates new folders. Use the -p flag to create nested directories in one step. 

# Create a single directory
mkdir projects

# Create nested directories (parent + child)
mkdir -p projects/website/css

# Without -p, this would fail if "projects" didn't exist
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The -p flag is your friend.

Always use mkdir -p when creating nested directories. Without it, mkdir will fail if any parent directory in the path does not already exist. With -p, it creates the entire chain silently.

Copying Files and Directories

The cp (copy) command duplicates files and directories. The original remains untouched, and a new copy is created at the destination.

Copying Files

# Copy a file to a new name in the same directory
cp notes.txt notes-backup.txt

# Copy a file into another directory
cp notes.txt ~/Documents/

# Copy a file into another directory with a new name
cp notes.txt ~/Documents/my-notes.txt

Copying Directories

To copy an entire directory and everything inside it, you must use the -r (recursive) flag. Without it, cp will refuse to copy a directory. 

# Copy a directory and all its contents
cp -r projects projects-backup

# Copy into a specific location
cp -r projects ~/Documents/projects-copy
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Preserve file attributes with -a

Use cp -a instead of cp -r when you want to preserve permissions, timestamps, and ownership. The -a flag is short for "archive" and is the best choice for making exact copies.

Moving and Renaming

The mv (move) command does double duty: it moves files to a new location and renames files. Unlike cp, the original is removed -- the file is relocated, not duplicated.

Moving Files

# Move a file to another directory
mv notes.txt ~/Documents/

# Move multiple files into a directory
mv file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt ~/Documents/

Renaming Files

Renaming is just moving a file to a new name in the same directory. There is no separate "rename" command in basic Linux -- mv handles it. 

# Rename a file
mv old-name.txt new-name.txt

# Rename a directory
mv old-folder new-folder
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mv overwrites without asking!

If the destination file already exists, mv will silently overwrite it. Use mv -i (interactive mode) to get a confirmation prompt before overwriting any existing file.

Deleting Files and Directories

The rm (remove) command deletes files, and rmdir removes empty directories. These operations are permanent on Linux -- there is no trash can in the terminal.

Deleting Files

# Delete a single file
rm notes.txt

# Delete with confirmation prompt
rm -i notes.txt
# rm: remove regular file 'notes.txt'? y

# Delete multiple files
rm file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Deleting Directories

# Remove an empty directory
rmdir empty-folder

# Remove a directory and everything inside it
rm -r projects

# Remove with confirmation for each file
rm -ri projects
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rm -rf is extremely dangerous.

The command rm -rf deletes everything recursively without asking for confirmation. A typo like rm -rf / or rm -rf ~ can destroy your entire system or home directory in seconds. Always double-check the path before running any rm command, and prefer rm -ri when deleting directories until you are confident.

Using Wildcards

Wildcards (also called globs) let you match multiple files at once, making bulk operations much faster. The shell expands the wildcard into a list of matching file names before the command runs.

* Matches any number of characters. *.txt matches all text files.
? Matches exactly one character. file?.txt matches file1.txt but not file10.txt.
[abc] Matches any one of the characters inside the brackets. 
# Copy all .txt files to Documents
cp *.txt ~/Documents/

# Delete all .log files
rm *.log

# Move all files starting with "report"
mv report* ~/Documents/

# List all .jpg and .png files
ls *.jpg *.png
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Test before you delete.

Before running rm *.something, first run ls *.something to see exactly which files match. This lets you verify the wildcard catches the right files before you commit to deleting them.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned how to manage files and directories from the terminal:

  • touch -- Create empty files or update timestamps
  • mkdir / mkdir -p -- Create directories and nested directory trees
  • cp / cp -r -- Copy files and directories
  • mv -- Move or rename files and directories
  • rm / rm -r -- Delete files and directories (permanently)
  • Wildcards -- Match multiple files with *, ?, and []
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Well done!

You now have the fundamental skills to create, organize, and clean up files from the command line. Next, you will learn how to read and inspect file contents using commands like cat, less, and tail.

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