Single rooted tree at /
. Instead of separate trees (as with disk partitioning), volumes can be mounted on a directory. Two-disk setups used to be common, with first disk with startup programs and second mounted as /usr
.
/bin
Contains binaries, including fundamental utilities like ls
and cp
used to mount /usr
. This is loaded in the $PATH which exposes these binaries as commands from your shell.
/boot
Contains files required for booting process
/etc
System-wide configuration files and system databases.
/dev
Location of special or device files. Files here can represent external devices like speakers, or data volumes.
fdisk -l
shows disk devices and their partitionssda
for example might be partitioned into sda1
, sda2
, etcdf
shows disk space by volume on the systemlsblk
(list block) shows name, type and mountpoint for all available block devices which is probably the same as the output of fdisk -l; it excludes RAM disks
/home
Contains user home directories. OSX useds /Users
instead.
lib
Contains shared libraries needed by programs in /bin
/media
Default mount point for removable devices
/opt
Locally installed software.
/proc
procfs virtual filesystem showing informaiton about processes as files
/root
Home directory for superuser "root".
/sbin
System binaries, containing fundamental utilities like init
for start, maintain, and recovery of system.
/usr
User file system. Holds executables , libraries, shared resources not system critical.
/include
stores development header files./lib
stores required libraries and data files for programs stored in /usr
local
custom programs or files/var
Variable, place for files that change often.
/log
contains system log files/tmp
directory for temporary files which should be preserved between system reboots