When using Linux, half — or more — of the fun is opening up a terminal, leaving behind the GUI, and immersing yourself in the keyboard.
What this requires is little more than the knowledge of a few basic commands, largely related to navigation and file system manipulation.
Once you use each command, and become more comfortable with each one individually and in combination, it is a simple process to add more commands into the mix.
Welcome back to the third and final (for now) part of our series on file management.
If you missed the first part, we covered file properties, moving, deleting/restoring, and ordering, so go back and check that out.
If you missed the second part, we covered renaming, bulk renaming, and shortcuts, so go back and check that out.
In this part we will cover showing file extensions, changing file extensions, and how to change file associations, so let’s get to it!
Welcome back to the second part of our series on file management.
If you missed the first part, we covered file properties, moving, deleting/restoring, and ordering, so go back and check that out.
In this part we will cover renaming, bulk renaming, and shortcuts, so let’s get to it!
Some methods of file manipulation are universal, and differ little — if any — from one file manager (or operating system) to the next.
You can move, edit, rename, view, order, copy, sort, group and otherwise change how files and folders act.
And there are usually multiple methods of accomplishing each action, allowing you to choose which ones work best for you.
In this three-part series we’ll cover some of the most basic aspects of file management.
You may, by this point in time, have some inkling of my proclivity for all things organization and order.
I’ve heard a saying that goes something like “Organization is for people too lazy to look for things”.
Yeah, I’m not buying that.
I like to know that everything has it’s own place to go, and exactly where that place is, so that I can find things in their proper places at any given time.
Those of you familiar with Windows, will have used File Explorer to navigate your file system.
As proprietary software, File Explorer is only available for use on Windows.
But not to fear; the solution is here.
In Linux, the graphical interface for all of your file system needs is called Dolphin.
A file manager does pretty much exactly what its name suggests; it allows you to manage files and folders from a graphical interface.
You can create, open, edit, view, play, move, copy, delete, rename, organize and otherwise manipulate files and folders to do your bidding, making use of a file manager.
In fact, you probably already use one every day, if you have any files at all. If not, you’re missing out. (Or maybe you always use the command line?)
What makes a file recognizable as a photo, or as a video, or as any other type of file? And how does your computer know what program to use, to open each file?
No doubt you’ve already noticed that every file has an extension at the end, separated from the filename with a dot. That file extension indicates the file type, or format.
Graphical file extensions (such as .png, .jpg and .gif) indicate that the file is a photo or image, and that it can be opened with graphical viewing and/or editing programs.
How do you know where to find files on your computer?
How, for that matter, does your computer know where to find files?
After learning file system fundamentals, the next step is to learn the directory structure of each file system.
The directory structure is the way that directories (also called “folders”) are organized.
By understanding the basics of your operating system’s directory structure, not only will you be able to avoid causing problems, but you should also be able to stay organized more easily.
A computer, contrary to popular opinion, does not actually have a mind of its own.
It is an entity devoted entirely to following the instructions that it is given, whether they be perfect or flawed. (Hint: It’s usually the flawed instructions — or faulty hardware — that lead us to believe that computers are sentient and out to get us.)
As you may imagine, it takes quite a few instructions, all put together, for a computer to function. The more functions it can perform, the more instructions are necessary. By the time you have an operating system installed with a few programs running on it — well, that’s quite a few instructions right there already.
Have you ever wondered how your computer knows where to find all of the instructions that it needs to be able to function? Maybe stop and think about that the next time it takes an extra millisecond for a program to load. It could be much worse!
All of that instructional data is stored somewhere, otherwise it would be lost from memory the first time the computer is turned off.
How is all of that data saved, so that it can be quickly found again when it’s needed?