UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi All.

I'm new to Unix, decided to embrace it finally, and am so impressed.

As part of my learning plan, i've been set this question but i'm a bit stuck as to where to start!

Set a variable called $X to the contents of a directory-
and then using a "for" loop test each component to see if it is a file or a directory.

Print the details i.e.

... is a directory

... is a file

Any advice at all would be hugely appreciated.

Also, any recommendations as to the best books for a complete Unix novice to read to get a good overview of the basics?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Code:

man test
man ls

ls -x will append a "/" character to directories.

(Incidentally, as porter hints, "man" is the most powerful command on UNIX!)

the file test operators -f and -d would tell you if its a regular file or a directory

If you wish to iterate on the contents of the current directory , you don't need to assign a variable the contents of the current directory.The For loop can operate using Unix file name expansion:

for FILE in *
do
if [[ -d $FILE ]] ; then
echo "$FILE is a directory"
else if [[ -f $FILE ]] ; then
echo "$FILE is a regular file"
fi
done

See here. . Go to the Unix bookshelf. Take your pick.

Good job. I learn al lot. U can also try find to search file also.