Filesystem
From TheLinuxVault
A filesystem is the way that the files will be organized on a disk. A filesystem is created when a partition is created on a disk, so there may be several different filesystems, each within its own partition, on a single disk.
[edit] See Also
[edit] Hierarchy
On an installation of Linux, the files within the filesystem are usually organized in a pretty standard way:
- / - root directory
- /bin - essential binary files. These files are required in single user mode, e.g. the cat and ls commands.
- /boot - boot loader files. Used by boot loaders such as LILO or GRUB
- /dev - system devices. System devices include things such as hard drives (/dev/hda) and floppy drives (/dev/fda) etc.
- /etc - system-wide configuration files. X stores its configuration files in /etc/X11 for example.
- /home - home directory for users. Sometimes a separate partition to prevent data loss between reinstalls.
- /lib - libraries for the files in /bin and /sbin
- /media - mount points for removable media. Removable media includes CDs and USB flash drives.
- /mnt - mounted filesystems
- /opt - optional software
- /proc - virtual files document kernel and process information
- /root - the home directory for root
- /sbin - essential system binary files
- /tmp - temporary files
- /usr - secondary hierarchy
- /usr/bin - non-essential binary files
- /usr/include - standard include files
- /usr/sbin - non-essential system binary files
- /usr/share - shared data. Usually stores program icons and other common data.
- /usr/src - source code. Most commonly contains source code of the Linux kernel for when users apply patches to the kernel.
- /usr/local - tertiary hierarchy containing directories specific to this machine
- /var - variable files
- /var/log - log files
- /var/mail - users' mailboxes
- /var/tmp - temporary files needed to be preserved between reboots
