FILESYSTEM HIERARCHY SYSTEM

FILESYSTEM HIERARCHY SYSTEM

Linux uses single rooted, inverted tree like file system hierarchy

/    This is top level directory

It is parent directory for all other directories

It is called as ROOT directory

It is represented by forward slash (/)

C:\ of windows

/root  it is home directory for root user (super user)
It provides working environment for root user
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator

/home it is home directory for other users
It provide working environment for other users (other than root)
c:\Documents and Settings\username

/boot it contains bootable files for Linux
Like vmlinuz (kernel)..... ntoskrnl
Initrd (INITial Ram Disk)and
GRUB (GRand Unified Boot loader).... boot.ini, ntldr

/etc it contains all configuration files
Like /etc/passwd..... User info
/etc/resolv.conf... Preferred DNS
/etc/dhcpd.conf.... DH

/usr by default soft wares are installed in /usr directory
(UNIX Sharable Resources)
c:\program files

/opt It is optional directory for /usr
It contains third party softwares
c:\program files

/bin it contains commands used by all users
(Binary files)

/sbin it contains commands used by only Super User (root)
(Super user's binary files)

/dev it contains device files
Like /dev/hda ... for hard disk
/dev/cd rom ... for cd rom
Similar to device manager of windows

/proc it contain process files
Its contents are not permanent, they keep changing
It is also called as Virtual Directory
Its file contain useful information used by OS
like /proc/meminfo ... information of RAM/SWAP
/proc/cpuinfo ... information of CPU

/var it is containing variable data like mails, log files

/mnt it is default mount point for any partition
It is empty by default

/media it contains all of removable media like CD-ROM, pen drive

/lib it contains library files which are used by OS
It is similar to dll files of windows
Library files in Linux are SO (shared object) files