Directory Structure Flashcards
(18 cards)
/
The Root Directory
• Contains everything on a Linux system, the “root” of all the entire structure
/bin
Essential User Binaries
• Contains programs which must be present for important system programs and utilities to use
• Programs such as Firefox are stored in /usr/bin
/boot
Static Boot Files
• Contains the files needed to boot the system
• The boot loaders configuration files are in /etc
/dev
Device Files
• Contains a number of special files that represent devices
• Also contains virtual devices
/etc
Configuration Files
• Contains system-wide configuration files
• User-specific configuration files are stored in each user’s home directory
/home
Home Folders
• Contains a home folder for each user, containing user-specific data and configuration files
• Each user only has write access to their own folder, until they become the root user
/lib
Essential Shared Libraries
• Contains libraries needed by the essential binaries in the /bin and /sbin folder
• Libraries needed by the binaries in the /usr/bin folder are located in /usr/lib
/media
Removable Media
• Contains subdirectories where removable media devices inserted into the computer are mounted
• The system automatically creates a directory in here when media is inserted
/mnt
Temporary Mount Points
• Traditionally where system administrators mounted temporary file systems while using them
• However, you can mount other file systems anywhere
/opt
Optional Packages
• Contains subdirectories for optional software packages
• It’s commonly used by proprietary software that doesn’t obey the standard file system hierarchy
/proc
Kernel & Process Files
• Similar to the /dev directory in that it contains special files
• It contains files that represent system and process information
/root
Root Home Directory
• Home of the root user
• Instead of being located at /home/root, it is at /root
/run
Application State Files
• Gives applications a standard place to store transient files they require like sockets and process IDs
• These files can’t be stored in /tmp because files in /tmp may be deleted
/sbin
System Administration Binaries
• Similar to /bin, containing essential binaries
• These are generally intended to be run by the root user for system administration
/srv
Service Data
• Contains data for services provided by the system
• If you were using the Apache HTTP server to serve a website, you would store the website files in a folder in here
/tmp
Temporary Files
• Applications store temporary files in this directory
• These files are generally deleted whenever your system is restarted and may be deleted at anytime by utilities
/usr
User Binaries & Read-Only Data
• Contains applications and files used by users, as opposed to ones used by the system
• Locally compiled applications install here by default to avoid fucking up the rest of the system
/var
Variable Data Files
• The writeable counterpart to /usr
• Log files and anything else that would normally be written to /usr during normal operation are written here
