Chapter 6. Managing Files and Their Properties

When you first started using UNIX, the first interaction you had with the system was through the shell. With the shell's help you listed, copied, linked, moved, and even removed files. All of these routine jobs were accomplished with the shell.

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce you to the C library functions that permit you to delete, link, and move files. Additionally, the very important stat(2) and fstat(2) functions that give you information about file system objects will be covered. With the exception of directories, this chapter will enable you to manage files from your C program without any help from the shell.