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Thread: Filesystem Hierarchy

  1. #1
    Poster
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    Jan 2003
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    889
    When I first started using linux, the names of the folders confused me. I didn't know what they were used for. So I wrote this little guide to help new users (and because I was bored ).

    All of the following directories are located in '/'

    bin - Usually holds commands and shells
    boot - This is usually where the kernel, grub/lilo (if you use them) are
    dev - This holds device files, device files are files that represent devices. For example, /dev/dsp is a sound card, /dev/cdrom is your cdrom. So any data writen to the /dev files get directed to their corresponding device. If that isn't accurate please tell me!!!
    etc - System configuration files
    home - Where a regular users home directory resides.
    initrd - This will explain it much better than I can - http://sial.org/howto/linux/initrd/
    lib - Libraries. Kernel modules and things needed to run commands. Libraries are like .dll's in windows.
    lost+found - fsck (filesystem check) puts unreferenced files it find into this dir
    mnt - Mount points for drives other than '/'. Like your cd and floppy as well as network drives.
    opt - Optional software
    proc - Gives information about devices. Try a 'cat /proc/cpuinfo'
    root - root's home, it's because some people put /home on a different partition, and if that goes boots up, root will need to do some administrating
    sbin - Commands/programs that need root access
    tmp - For temporary files.
    usr - Programs, man pages, libraries, just about everything is in here.
    var - Variety. It's for files that change often like logs.

    Hope that helped someone.

  2. Software & Hardware   -   #2
    h1
    Guest
    This topic just screams "pin me!" You have a BB code error there, BTW.

  3. Software & Hardware   -   #3
    Poster
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    889
    Thanks

    Is it still there? I don't see anything.

  4. Software & Hardware   -   #4
    h1
    Guest
    No.

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