coreutils: Special file types

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1 12 Special file types
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1 This chapter describes commands which create special types of files (and
1 ‘rmdir’, which removes directories, one special file type).
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1    Although Unix-like operating systems have markedly fewer special file
1 types than others, not _everything_ can be treated only as the
1 undifferentiated byte stream of “normal files”.  For example, when a
1 file is created or removed, the system must record this information,
1 which it does in a “directory”—a special type of file.  Although you can
1 read directories as normal files, if you’re curious, in order for the
1 system to do its job it must impose a structure, a certain order, on the
1 bytes of the file.  Thus it is a “special” type of file.
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1    Besides directories, other special file types include named pipes
1 (FIFOs), symbolic links, sockets, and so-called “special files”.
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Menu

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· link invocation             Make a hard link via the link syscall
· ln invocation               Make links between files.
· mkdir invocation            Make directories.
· mkfifo invocation           Make FIFOs (named pipes).
· mknod invocation            Make block or character special files.
· readlink invocation         Print value of a symlink or canonical file name.
· rmdir invocation            Remove empty directories.
· unlink invocation           Remove files via the unlink syscall
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