Jtdylktuy

I'm currently trying to wireup text parts to describe some thing like Unix file permissions or the output of an

ls -al

But I have no clue how I can create something like this:

I was thinking about using path or node from TikZ

But I didn`t get it to work out.

You mean something like this?

documentclass[tikz]{standalone}

usetikzlibrary{calc}

begin{document}

begin{tikzpicture}[blue]

node (a) at (0,0) {-};

node (b) at (1,0) {rwx};

node (c) at (2,0) {rw-};

node (d) at (3,0) {r---};

draw (a.south west)--(a.south east);

draw (b.south west)--(b.south east);

draw (c.south west)--(c.south east);

draw (d.south west)--(d.south east);

draw (d.south)--($(d.south)+(0,-1)$)--($(d.south)+(1,-1)$) node[right,align=left,font=scriptsizesffamily] {Read, write and execute\permissions for all other users};

draw (c.south)--($(c.south)+(0,-2)$)--($(c.south)+(2,-2)$) node[right,align=left,font=scriptsizesffamily] {Read, write and execute permissions for\members of the group owning the file};

draw (b.south)--($(b.south)+(0,-3)$)--($(b.south)+(3,-3)$) node[right,align=left,font=scriptsizesffamily] {Read, write and execute permissions\for the owner of the file};

draw (a.south)--($(a.south)+(0,-4)$)--($(a.south)+(4,-4)$) node[right,align=left,font=scriptsizesffamily] {File type: ``---'' means a file.\``d'' means a directory};

end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

I basically stole JouleV's answer and revised it to use relative positioning and pack the nodes closer together. Specifically, the gap between the text of two adjacent nodes is 2 times inner sep. Unfortunately, inner sep is also added to the lines under the text, so there I had to reduce inner xsep and increase the separation using [right=4pt].

BTW, the default for inner sep is 0.333em.

documentclass[tikz]{standalone}

usetikzlibrary{calc}

begin{document}

begin{tikzpicture}[blue]

begin{scope}[every node/.style={inner xsep=0pt, inner ysep=2pt}]

  node (a) {-};

  node[right=4pt] (b) at (a.east) {rwx};

  node[right=4pt] (c) at (b.east) {rw-};

  node[right=4pt] (d) at (c.east) {r---};

end{scope}

begin{scope}[every node/.style={below right, align=left, font=scriptsizesffamily}]

  node (e) at (d.south east) {Read, write and execute\permissions for all other users};

  node (f) at (e.south west) {Read, write and execute permissions for\members of the group owning the file};

  node (g) at (f.south west) {Read, write and execute permissions\for the owner of the file};

  node (h) at (g.south west) {File type: ``---'' means a file.\``d'' means a directory};

end{scope}

draw (a.south west)--(a.south east)

  (b.south west)--(b.south east)

  (c.south west)--(c.south east)

  (d.south west)--(d.south east)

  (a.south) |- (h.west)

  (b.south) |- (g.west)

  (c.south) |- (f.west)

  (d.south) |- (e.west);

end{tikzpicture}

end{document}