There’s a Lot in the Dot: Filesystem Permissions and Pathnames (Part 1)
Beginning with a brief tour of the filesystem, we take you deep into the dot (.) of your directory listing so you can get the most from your CLI.
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Linux filesystem permissions and pathnames can cause lots of confusion. Users type long pathnames when a short one would do as well, and set wide-open access permissions when a more-secure setting would be easy if the concepts were more clear.
This article and the next take a unique approach: understanding the dot (.) that you’ve probably seen in directory listings.
What’s “in” a directory
Linux filesystems hold files and other objects (e.g. symbolic links, devices like disks, and directories) grouped into directories (known as folders on other operating systems). It’s important to understand that a directory doesn’t actually contain the objects; it holds references to those objects. The references are called hard links.
To access something in the filesystem, a program looks into a directory…
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