Purdue University

CNIT 1760

CNIT 17600 - Intro Computer Architecture - Everything is a File 1 The Linux Filesystem - Everything is a File About Reports A note about lab reports - your pi now has internet access and so there is no legitimate reason to use your phone to take screenshots for evidence. You can use the command line command scrot (which you may have to install with the command sudo apt-get install scrot). That command takes a screen shot and saves it to your user’s Desktop or home directory, usually. These images should have a figure caption below them in your report that briefly describes the contents of the screenshot. This part has been true all semester, but as this is the last report of the semester, you should definitely be in the habit of doing this at this time. Linux File System A metaphor that is used to describe the filesystem in Linux/Unix is that of a tree. Each file is a leaf on the tree, and each level of the directory structure can be seen as a branch. The filesystem starts at “the root”. You should install a utility called tree using the command sudo apt-get install tree at the start of this lab manual. Include a screenshot to show that tree has been installed. Starting from the Root(s) and growing up The root of a filesystem is the point above which (or below which - depending on how you imagine the tree to be growing) there can be no additional files or folders created. It represents the starting point of all the system and user files and directories. Question 1a: Root is the name for both the super user (administrative user) in Linux and it is the absolute start of any file’s path. What is the root of the filesystem on Mac OS X and on Windows 10? How is the root directory represented in the Linux filesystem? Create a table with a column labeled “root directory representation” and three data rows (one for each of the operating systems). Fill in your answer in this table, give the table and appropriate name, and include in your report. Question 1b: When showing the path to a file from the root of the filesystem, Linux and OS X depict directories in one way, and