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Abhishek Pathak
Abhishek Pathak

Posted on • Edited on

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Linux file system

In one line

/bin -> Program and commands that all users can run

/boot -> All the files needed at boot time

/dev -> special files that represent the device on your system

/etc -> configuration files eg. MySQL, Oracle

/home -> user home directories

/home/scor32k -> home directory for the scor32k user

/tmp -> space for programs to create temporary files

/usr -> programs and data usable by all users

/var -> system log and spool files

Brief

/ - The root directory of the entire filesystem hierarchy, everything is nestled under this directory.

/bin - Essential ready-to-run programs (binaries), include the most basic commands such as ls and cp.

/boot - Contains kernel boot loader files. /dev - Device files.

/etc - The core system configuration directory, should hold only configuration files and not any binaries.

/home - Personal directories for users, hold your documents, files, settings, etc.

/lib - Holds library files that binaries can use.

/media - Used as an attachment point for removable media like USB drives. /mnt - Temporarily mounted filesystems.

/opt - Optional application software packages.

/proc - Information about currently running processes.

/root - The root user's home directory.

/run - Information about the running system since the last boot.

/sbin - Contains essential system binaries, usually can only be run by root.

/srv - Site-specific data which are served by the system.

/tmp - Storage for temporary files

/usr - This is unfortunately named, most often it does not contain user files in the sense of a home folder. This is meant for user installed software and utilities, however, that is not to say you can't add personal directories in there. Inside this directory are sub-directories for /usr/bin, /usr/local, etc. /var - Variable directory, it's used for system logging, user tracking, caches, etc. Basically anything that is subject to change all the time

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