Getting Started Guide 87 CHAPTER 6 Working with Files and Directories Files and directories are the core of every operating system. They contain the information that the operating system uses to run, as well as your personal work and the applications that you need. This chapter describes how to start working with the files and directories that make up your OpenLinux system. Reviewing the OpenLinux Directories Part of learning to access files and directories in OpenLinux is understanding how to use the file management tools provided with OpenLinux. Internally, OpenLinux is a complex, multi-user, multitasking operating system. Because of this, many of the files and directories that you see are not intended for most users to work with directly. CAUTION: One major reason to log in as a regular user instead of logging in as root is to prevent you from acciden- tally damaging a file that the system needs to operate. Only root can access many of these files. If you always log in as a regular user when you’re not installing or managing your system, you are safe from severe system problems caused by deleted or damaged files. In OpenLinux, as in other Linux and UNIX operating systems, everything is accessed from a subdirectory of the root file system, represented by a forward