What is a file?

• A file is a package of information with a name attached to it.
• Your files stay around after you have logged out.
• Files are used for various purposes:
  • Files can record data, such as text or numbers.
  • Some files record ways to perform various processing procedures on data. These are referred to as programs or commands.
• Conceptually, a file is a sequence of characters, which resides somewhere on a disk.
• Files take up space on disk, so there is a limit to how many characters of files you can store. This limit is called your quota; use the command quota -v to check your limit.

Last updated: 1996/01/06 21:54:47 UT
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/unix/file.html