Thread: File Types in Linux

Can someone highlight me the file types available in Linux. Actually how many file types are available in Linux? Which are the one that are most commonly used?

There are 8 file types in Linux in general. The most commonly use ones are namely:
b - Block device such as hard drive
c - Character device such as serial port
d - Directory also a file
l- Symbolic link that is a small file pointing to another.

Two interesting facts on how linux treats files:

1.Linux does not recognize file extensions like .exe or .bat. Hence, they have no significance as such.

2.Everything in linux system is a file,it may be a direcory or some hardware like harddisk or monitor(console)
It has some very interesting implications.The way you write to a text file is same as u would do to write raw data on harddisk or anything on colsole.

eg. cat try.txt > newfile

here, newfile can be replaced by console0 or hd0 depending on the name of these hardwares.