Computer Science
HIER(7) Linux Programmer's Manual HIER(7)
NAME
hier - Description of the file system hierarchy
DESCRIPTION
A typical Linux system has, among others, the following
directories:
/ This is the root directory. This is where the
whole tree starts.
/bin This directory contains executable programs which
are are needed in single user mode and to bring the
system up or repair it.
/boot Contains static files for the boot loader. This
directory only holds the files which are needed
during the boot process. The map installer and
configuration files should go to /sbin and /etc.
/dev Special or device files, which refer to physical
devices. See mknod(1).
/dos If both MS-DOS and Linux are run on one computer,
this is a typical place to mount a DOS file system.
/etc Contains configuration files which are local to the
machine. Some larger software packages, like X11,
can have their own subdirectories below /etc.
Site-wide configuration files may be placed here or
in /usr/etc. Nevertheless, programs should always
look for these files in /etc and you may have links
for these files to /usr/etc.
/etc/skel
When a new user account is created, files from this
directory are usually copied into the user's home
directory.
/etc/X11
Configuration files for the X11 window system.
/home On machines with home directories for users, these
are usually beneath this directory, directly or
not. The structure of this directory depends on
local admininstration decisions.
/lib This directory should hold those shared libraries
that are necessary to boot the system and to run
the commands in the root filesystem.
/mnt is a mount point for temporarily mounted filesys-
tems
/proc This is a mount point for the proc filesystem,
which provides information about running processes
and the kernel. This pseudo-file system is
described in more detail in proc(5).
/sbin Like /bin, this directory holds commands needed to
boot the system, but which are usually not executed
by normal users.
/tmp This directory contains temporary files which may
be deleted with no notice, such as by a regular job
or at system boot up.
/usr This directory is usually mounted from a seperate
partition. It should hold only sharable, read-only
data, so that it can be mounted by various machines
running Linux.
/usr/X11R6
The X-Window system, version 11 release 6.
/usr/X11R6/bin
Binaries which belong to the X-Windows system;
often, there is a symbolic link from the more tra-
ditional /usr/bin/X11 to here.
/usr/X11R6/lib
Data files associated with the X-Windows system.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11
These contain miscellaneous files needed to run X;
Often, there is a symbolic link from /usr/lib/X11
to this directory.
/usr/X11R6/include/X11
Contains include files needed for compiling pro-
grams using the X11 window system. Often, there is
a symbolic link from /usr/inlcude/X11 to this
directory.
/usr/bin
This is the primary directory for executable pro-
grams. Most programs executed by normal users
which are not needed for booting or for repairing
the system and which are not installed locally
should be placed in this directory.
/usr/bin/X11
is the traditional place to look for X11 executa-
bles; on Linux, it usually is a symbolic link to
/usr/X11R6/bin.
/usr/dict
This directory holds files containing word lists
for spell checkers.
/usr/etc
Site-wide configuration files to be shared between
several machines may be stored in this directory.
However, commands should always reference those
files using the /etc directory. Links from files
in /etc should point to the appropriate files in
/usr/etc.
/usr/include
Include files for the C compiler.
/usr/include/X11
Include files for the C compiler and the X-Windows
system. This is usually a symbolic link to
/usr/X11R6/include/X11.
/usr/include/asm
Include files which declare some assembler func-
tions. This used to be a symbolic link to
/usr/src/linux/include/asm, but this isn't the case
in Debian or libc6 based systems.
/usr/include/linux
This contains information which may change from
system release to system release and used to be a
symbolic link to /usr/src/linux/include/linux to
get at operating system specific information.
Debian systems don't do this and use headers from a
known good kernel version, provided in the
libc*-dev package.
/usr/include/g++
Include files to use with the GNU C++ compiler.
/usr/lib
Object libraries, including dynamic libraries, plus
some executables which usually are not invoked
directly. More complicated programs may have whole
subdirectories there.
/usr/lib/X11
The usual place for data files associated with X
programs, and configuration files for the X system
itself. On Linux, it usually is a symbolic link to
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11.
/usr/lib/gcc-lib
contains executables and include files for the GNU
C compiler, gcc(1).
/usr/lib/groff
Files for the GNU groff document formatting system.
/usr/lib/uucp
Files for uucp(1).
/usr/lib/zoneinfo
Files for timezone information.
/usr/local
This is where programs which are local to the site
typically go in.
/usr/local/bin
Binaries for programs local to the site go there.
/usr/local/doc
Local documnetation
/usr/local/etc
Configuration files associated with locally
installed programs go there.
/usr/local/lib
Files associated with locally installed programs go
there.
/usr/local/info
Info pages associated with locally installed pro-
grams go there.
/usr/local/man
Manpages associated with locally installed programs
go there.
/usr/local/sbin
Locally installed programs for system admininstra-
tion.
/usr/local/src
Source code for locally installed software.
/usr/man
Manpages go in there, into their subdirectories.
/usr/man/<locale>/man[1-9]
These directories contain manual pages which are in
source code form. Systems which use a unique lan-
guage and code set for all manual pages may omit
the <locale> substring.
/usr/sbin
This directories contains program binaries for sys-
tem admininstration which are not essentail for the
boot process, for mounting /usr, or for system
repair.
/usr/src
Source files for different parts of the system.
/usr/src/linux
This contains the sources for the kernel of the
operating system itself.
/usr/tmp
An alternative place to store temporary files; This
should be a link to /var/tmp. This link is present
only for compatibility reasons and shouldn't be
used.
/var This directory contains files which may change in
size, such as spool and log files.
/var/adm
This directory is superseded by /var/log and should
be a symbolic link to /var/log.
/var/backups
This directory is used to save backup copies of
important system files.
/var/catman/cat[1-9]
These directories contain preformatted manual pages
according to their manpage section.
/var/lock
Lock files are plaed in this directory. The naming
convention for device lock files is LCK..<device>
where <device> is the device's name in the filesys-
tem. The format used is that of HDU UUCP lock
files, i.e. lock files contain a PID as a 10-byte
ASCII decimal number, followed by a newline charac-
ter.
/var/log
Miscelanous log files.
/var/preserve
This is where vi(1) saves edit sessions so they can
be restored later.
/var/run
Run-time varaible files, like files holding process
identifiers (PIDs) and logged user information
(utmp). Files in this directory are usually
cleared when the system boots.
/var/spool
Spooled (or queued) files for various programs.
/var/spool/at
Spooled jobs for at(1).
/var/spool/cron
Spooled jobs for cron(1).
/var/spool/lpd
Spooled files for printing.
/var/spool/mail
User's mailboxes.
/var/spool/smail
Spooled files for the smail(1) mail delivery pro-
gram.
/var/spool/news
Spool directory for the news subsystem.
/var/spool/uucp
Spooled files for uucp(1).
/var/tmp
Like /tmp, this directory holds temporary files
stored for an unspecified duration.
CONFORMS TO
The Linux filesystem standard, Release 1.2
BUGS
This list is not exhaustive; different systems may be con-
figured differently.
SEE ALSO
find(1), ln(1), mount(1), proc(5), The Linux Filesystem
Standard
Linux June 16, 1997 1
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