Directories On Linux Systems

Directories On Linux Systems

 / : The root directory. Where everything begins.

 /bin : Contains binaries (programs) that must be present for the
system to boot and run.

 /boot : Contains the Linux kernel, initial RAM disk image (for
drivers needed at boot time), and the boot loader.
Interesting files:

 * /boot/grub/grub.conf or menu.lst, which
are used to configure the boot loader.
* /boot/vmlinuz (or something similar), the Linux
kernel

 /dev : This is a special directory which contains device nodes.
“Everything is a file” also applies to devices. Here is where
the kernel maintains a list of all the devices it understands.

 /etc : The /etc directory contains all of the system-wide
configuration files. It also contains a collection of shell
scripts which start each of the system services at boot time.
Everything in this directory should be readable text.
Interesting files: While everything in /etc is interesting,
here are some all-time favorites:

 * /etc/crontab, a file that defines when
automated jobs will run.
* /etc/fstab, a table of storage devices and their
associated mount points.
* /etc/passwd, a list of the user accounts.

 /home : In normal configurations, each user is given a directory in
/home. Ordinary users can only write files in their home
directories. This limitation protects the system from errant
user activity.

 /lib : Contains shared library files used by the core system
programs. These are similar to DLLs in Windows.

 /lost+found : Each formatted partition or device using a Linux file system,
such as ext3, will have this directory. It is used in the case of
a partial recovery from a file system corruption event.
Unless something really bad has happened to your system,
this directory will remain empty.

 /media : On modern Linux systems the /media directory will
contain the mount points for removable media such as USB
drives, CD-ROMs, etc. that are mounted automatically at
insertion.

 /mnt : On older Linux systems, the /mnt directory contains mount
points for removable devices that have been mounted
manually.

 /opt : The /opt directory is used to install “optional” software.
This is mainly used to hold commercial software products
that may be installed on your system.

 /proc : The /proc directory is special. It's not a real file system in
the sense of files stored on your hard drive. Rather, it is a
virtual file system maintained by the Linux kernel. The
“files” it contains are peepholes into the kernel itself. The
files are readable and will give you a picture of how the
kernel sees your computer.

 /root : This is the home directory for the root account.

 /sbin: This directory contains “system” binaries. These are
programs that perform vital system tasks that are generally
reserved for the superuser.

 /tmp : The /tmp directory is intended for storage of temporary,
transient files created by various programs. Some
configurations cause this directory to be emptied each time
the system is rebooted.

 /usr : The /usr directory tree is likely the largest one on a Linux
system. It contains all the programs and support files used
by regular users.

 /usr/bin : /usr/bin contains the executable programs installed by
your Linux distribution. It is not uncommon for this
directory to hold thousands of programs.

 /usr/lib : The shared libraries for the programs in /usr/bin.

 /usr/local : The /usr/local tree is where programs that are not
included with your distribution but are intended for systemwide
use are installed. Programs compiled from source code
are normally installed in /usr/local/bin. On a newly
installed Linux system, this tree exists, but it will be empty
until the system administrator puts something in it.

 /usr/sbin : Contains more system administration programs.

 /usr/share : /usr/share contains all the shared data used by
programs in /usr/bin. This includes things like default
configuration files, icons, screen backgrounds, sound files,
etc.

 /usr/share/doc : Most packages installed on the system will include some
kind of documentation. In /usr/share/doc, we will find
documentation files organized by package.

 /var : With the exception of /tmp and /home, the directories we
have looked at so far remain relatively static, that is, their
contents don't change. The /var directory tree is where
data that is likely to change is stored. Various databases,
spool files, user mail, etc. are located here.

 /var/log : /var/log contains log files, records of various system
activity. These are very important and should be monitored
from time to time. The most useful ones are
/var/log/messages and/or /var/log/syslog.
Note that for security reasons on some systems, you must be
the superuser to view log files.

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