linux

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Directories Found On Linux Systems

Directory	Comments
/	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 system-wide 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.