Managing files and directories is essential when working with HPC systems. This section covers commands that allow you to manipulate files, move them between directories, create new directories, copy files, change file ownership and permissions, and delete them as needed.

1 Useful Commands
- 1.1 Move or Rename Files and Directories
- 1.2 Create Directories
- 1.3 Remove Files or Directories
- 1.4 Copy Files or Directories
- 1.5 Change File Ownership
- 1.6 Change File Permissions

Useful Commands

These commands are fundamental for manipulating files and directories on HPC systems. Each command may have additional options (flags) to modify its behavior. For more detailed information about each command and its available flags, consult the manual pages by executing man command (e.g., man mv) on the login nodes.

Move or Rename Files and Directories

mv source_file_or_directory target_directory_or_filename

Moves a file or directory from one location to another. It can also be used to rename files and directories.

Create Directories

mkdir directory_name

Creates a new directory with the specified name.

Remove Files or Directories

rm filename

Removes (deletes) a file. Use with caution, as deleted files are not recoverable.

rm -r directory

Recursively removes a directory and its contents. This command is used for deleting directories.

rmdir directory

Removes an empty directory. This command only works if the directory is empty.

Copy Files or Directories

cp source_file target_file

Copies a file to a new location.

cp -r source_directory target_directory

Recursively copies a directory and its contents to a new location.

touch filename

Creates an empty file with the specified name. If the file already exists, update its timestamp.

Change File Ownership

chown new_owner:new_group filename

Changes the owner (and group) of a file to the specified user (group).

chown -R new_owner:new_group directory

Recursively changes the owner of a directory and its contents to the specified user (group).

Change File Permissions

chmod permissions filename

Changes the permissions of a file. Permissions can be specified using octal numbers (e.g., chmod 644 file) or symbolic notation (e.g., chmod u+x file). See Linux file permissions explained | Enable Sysadmin (redhat.com) for more information on file permissions.

chmod -R permissions directory

Recursively changes the permissions of a directory and its contents.