Using Temporary Files and Directories in Linux

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Using Temporary Files and Directories in Linux

In this hands-on lab, we will practice working with temporary files and directories. Knowing how and when to use temporary files and directories for transient and temporary storage is a good skill to have as a systems administrator.

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Lab Info

Level

Beginner

Last updated

Apr 18, 2025

Duration

45m

Challenge

Retrieve and Unpack the Archive

Change to the /tmp directory.

cd /tmp

Use wget to retrieve the file.

wget https://github.com/mscjr/LA/raw/master/RH342/sosreport-ip-10-0-1-11-2019-03-22-wxoxhnk.tar.xz

Unpack the archive.

tar xf sosreport-ip-10-0-1-11-2019-03-22-wxoxhnk.tar.xz

Challenge

Create a Temporary File from the Directory Listing
1. Create a temporary file from a recursive directory listing of the archive folder.
```
tmp_file=$(mktemp)
```
```
ls -R sosreport-ip-10-0-1-11-2019-03-22-wxoxhnk/ >> $tmp_file
```
Challenge

Move the `version.txt` File to a More Persistent Temporary Directory
1. Move the version.txt file to /var/tmp.
```
mv sosreport-ip-10-0-1-11-2019-03-22-wxoxhnk/version.txt /var/tmp
```

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