File Manager: "How to use the filesystem" Mini Howto for linux. (I am using ubuntu 7.04 and kde)     Back to Main Page

This i a very short version, and if you want to know more, go to the Internet etc.

This howto is without any guarantee, and you may use it on your own responsibility only.

There may be errors, but I do not want to use too much time to  write this howto.

My idea is to make documentation, so you can at the least start using the system.

I (66 years old) have abstracted what I find most important, from lots and lots of documentation.

To check specific words you may use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  (search).

It's easiest to print this howto out, to use it, by your side !



Index of page:

the principle

open a shell konsole

change directory

To copy the "car.jpg" file

A Graphic File Manager

go to /bin folderen

To select 2 files

The unselect the blue files

To select all files

To copy the selected files

To select files in another way

To select files in groups

Drag and drop

"ctrl+d", and a copy of the window is created

change the view (mode)

to see who owns the file

To rename a file

Another explanation of how a linux system is built

Some notes



I wil explain the principle of this subject mostly in a "language of pictures (figurative)".

Everything on linux is files.

You may  think of the filesystem as a big box called "/", filled with other boxes which is again filled with boxes etc.

Each of those boxes is a directory, and a directory can contain both directories and files.

A directory is also called a folder.

A directory is really a special kind of file, which can be either empty or contain other directories (also called subdirectories) etc.

Here comes a figurative image of a filesystem, just to explain the system:



Here is shown an example of a linux filesystem, with a few directories and files.

/ is the directory containing everything

/home is the directory (box) containing the user directory ("user" is the name of a linux user e.g. jim, fred or yourname).

/etc, /var, /usr, /usr/local, /home, /home/user, /home/user/download and /home/user/programs are 8 different directories (folders).

/home/user/download/car.jpg, /home/user/download/ubuntu.iso and /home/user/download/letter_to_fred.txt are 3 different

filenames (with path = /home/user/download)                                                                                Back to Index of page

We will open a shell konsole, the purpose of which is to be able to write -and execute various commands (from the command line).



As you can see, we have already written a command on the command line: "cd /", which means "change directory" to the "/" directory.

When you press "enter", the command is executed, and the you will be placed in the "/" directory .

In order to see where you are, you can write pwd - enter, which will show in which directory you are.

Now write cd /home/user - enter and you will find yourself in the user directory (/home/user also called the ~ directory.

To go  to the local directory in the /usr directory write cd /usr/local, and you will find yourself  in the local directory.

It is best, always to write the whole path, beginning with /, until you are more used to moving around in the filesystem.

To copy the "car.jpg" file from from the /home/user/download folder to the /home/user folder:

cp /home/user/download/car.jpg /home/user   (enter)

Now the car.jpg file will be both in the /home/user/download folder and the /home/user folder.


A Graphic File Manager is however easier to to use, so we will  open "konqueror" which is both a filemanager and a  webbrowser.

Click on the Konqueror icon (or click K-menu - Internet - Konqueror):                          Back to Index of page



Here the user is niels3

The names of the folders are casual.

To go to the "downloads_" folder, just click it with the left mouse button:



To go to /bin folderen, click on the blue up arrow 3 times each click brings you one level up:

First click brings you up to /home/niels3

Next click brings you up to /home

Third click brings you up to /                                                                                                          Back to Index of page



And finally to go to the /bin folder, click on the "bin diretory icon" and now you will be in the /bin folder:

 You can see a few files (arch, bash ... etc) placed in the /bin folder.

To select 2 files,  hold the ctrl button down and then click on each of the 2 files arch and bash (or draw a square, by pulling with the left

mouse button pressed around the to files) - the selected files becom blue.

The unselect the blue files, "ctrl+leftclick" one file at a time, (or click "ctrl+u").                                    Back to Index of page

To select all files in a folder click "ctrl+a", and again to unselect all selected files click "ctrl+u".

To copy the selected files (blue color), right click on one of the selected files and choose "Copy To" and then click on "Browse":



Then a window opens, and you have to select to where the files shall be copied:



You can move the grey vertical slider to move around in the filesystem, and then click your way, and you will see your destination

folder in the horizintal oblong window below.

You can open folders, by clicking on the "+" (means the folder has a content), and you close folders by clicking on "-" (minus) - not seen.

Then when you have selected the receiving folder, click on "OK", to copy the files.

Remark: You can do  most of what you can do with the "copy" command, with the "move" command

(means moving files from one place to another).


To select files in another way:                                                                                                      Back to Index of page

Open Filemanager and select the directory with the files to be selected



Then press the "Icon View" icon (for a short moment), and select "Detailed List View" (or choose View - View mode - "Detailed List view"




and it will look like this:



To select files in groups, as shown above, do following, from top towards bottom (best same direction):

Ctrl+click on arch then shift+click on bzcat
Ctrl+click on cat then shift+click on chown
Ctrl+click on dash then shift+click on dd                                                                                              Back to Index of page

Then you have 3 groups of selected filed (blue color), and you can copy those to somewhere else.

If you have a directory with let's say 900 files, and you want to select a group of those, ctrl+click at one end, move the grey slider down

to where the file you want to be  the last one, and then shift+click on this file.

You can unselect a group of files by "ctrl+u" clicking

Important: When you click, make a very quick click, as otherwise the mouse can do "strange things" like open one of the files.

You will have to train to learn to use the mouse.

Some time you need a double click, and then you must double click not too fast and not too slow (train)


Drag and drop:

You can also copy (or move) files, by moving them with the mouse, from one folder to another.

Open a File manager, and reduce its size, by clicking on the small "double squares" icon   in the top right corner.

Possible reduce the size of the window, by pulling on the corner (or sides) of the window, mouse cursor changes to a small

double arrow, looks something like this:


Then click "ctrl+d", and a copy of the window is created next to the other.

Select some file/s in on of the windows, click one of the selected files, and drag the files to the other window with the left mouse

cursor pressed, and the release the mouse button, when  in proper place.

Important: Avoid to drag over -or into another directory icon -or file, as the files may be dropped into wrong directory

It is the tip op the mouse cursor which determines.

Best to have the view of the directory as "Icon view", and then to drop on the background.

You change the view (mode) by pressing (a short moment) on the "Icon View" button (marked by black circle) and then selecting

"Icon View" or another of the view modes:                                                                                            Back to Index of page



As a normal user you cannot move files and other things, if they are owned by the super user (called root).

Hold the mouse cursor on a file, to see who owns the file, in a pop up window (user:user or root:root).

You can really mostly only work with the files in the /home/user folder -and subfolders (that's what makes linux safe).


To rename a file, right click on the file, choose properties, and then write the name you want in the small window with blue color

(here the name of the file is "chmod") (or click F2, and change the filename directly):

If you need to change the names of a lot of files, there is a kde program called KRename.


                                                                                                                                                                                Back to Index of page





Here is another explanation of how a linux system is built, split up in directories and files:

Exagerration encourages the understanding (an old proverb is saying)

I have also done this in a "Language of Pictures", to make it easier to understand.

I will call both directories and files for boxes.

You can have several hundred thousands of such "boxes" on a linux system, and of course there must be a system to organize these "boxes"

(this is what I attempt to explain here).

The principle is to put a box in a box in a box etc...

Each box can dynamically change size, when more directories or files are added or removed.

Everything is done by the operating system, without the user noticing much about how it is done.

A linux system is split up in several boxes - I will only mention a few:

The very partition is one huge box called "/" also named "root" (without the double quotes).

The "root" box has this special name "/" and is the box in which all the other boxes are placed.                                                    Back to Index of page

All the other boxes have more normal names, split by a "/" sign (slash) which indicates the path between the boxes (a little difficult to explain).

In the "/" box there are other boxes, I mention a few: "/boot", "/usr" and "/home".

"/boot" means the box "boot" is placed in the box "/"

"/usr" means the box "usr" is placed in the box "/"

"/home" means the box "home" is placed in the box "/"

I will now concentrate on the box "/home" which is really the directory "/home" (the directory "home" in the directory "/")

Inside the box "/home" is placed another box called "joe", and so it is called "/home/joe", meaning the box "joe" is placed in the box "home" which is placed in

the box "/"

"joe" is an example of a user on a linux system, and thus (/home/joe) is the place where the user joe will do most of his work.

So "/home/joe" means the box "joe" in the box "home" in the box "/".

We will now place a box for pictures called "pictures" and a box for documents called "documents" in the box called "joe".

They will then be: "/home/joe/pictures" and "/home/joe/documents".

Please note, that in linux there is a difference between capital letters and small letters, so "JoE" is not the same as "joe".

Also please note, that files and directories are all boxes, although of different kinds ( a directory is a special file).                        Back to Index of page

A file is a box containing data.

A directory is a box containing directories and/or files.

You can create as many directories and files as you like, only limited by the the size of the partition.

"/home/joe/pictures" can also be explained as the directory "pictures" in the path "/home/joe".

A picture (an image file) by the name "picture.jpg" in the "pictures"  directory is called: "/home/joe/pictures/picture.jpg"

You can see the difference between a directory and a file in the file manager, as they have different looking icons (small images)


Some notes:

A harddisk can be split into partitions.

I have split my harddisk (sda) of 115 gb up like shown below:

Partition number 1 - primary - sda1 - 40 gb - ext3 - ubuntu 7.10 with everything in the "/" (root) directory (box).

Partition number 2 - swap - sda2 - 4 gb - swap

Partition number 3 - primary - sda3 - 30 gb - ext3 - ubuntu 7.04 with everything in the "/" (root) directory.

Remaining space, some 40 gb is not in use

I find it easier to have each operating system on just one partition.

You could also have an Operating System installed on the whole harddisk like shown below:

Partition number 1 - primary - sda1 - 111 gb - ext3 - ubuntu - with everything in the "/" (root) directory (box).

Partition number 2 - swap - sda2 - 4 gb - swap (Some experts claim that modern computers do not need a swap partition?).                    Back to Index of page


8/2007