Excellent idea for a page, but I'd refactor it somewhere (when I wasn't at work), perhaps into FileHierarchy? or something, and explain on this page what a filesystem was, ext2/ext3 etc, and how the Windows analog is "FAT" or "NTFS".

The Linux filesystem grows from a main point "/" (Refered to as root)

/boot?

Stores the kernel. Usuallly a seperate Partition at the beginning of the hard drive

/bin?

System binary files (Programs) for use by all users

/dev?

Device files. Represent all devices connected to your computer

/etc?

Contains configuration files for programs

/home?

Each user has a folder in here to store all their personal files. Commonly refered to as ''.

/lib?

Contains libraries needed to run the programs in /bin and /sbin

/mnt?

Provides a place to 'mount' temporary filesystems (eg CDROM, floppy disk)

/opt?

Location for add on software. Usually StaticallyLinked? programs provided in binary form. Some people install TarBalls? in here too, expecially beta software.

/proc?

A "live window" in to kernel parameters.

/root?

home directory of the root SuperUser

/sbin?

Exectuable files to be used only by the root SuperUser

/usr?

For files that can be shared across a whole site among multiple users

/usr/local?

Files that are installed from TarBalls? usually install to here. Contains a full directory structure (bin/, etc/)

/var?

For variable data files

More information can be found at the filesystem hierarchy standard

CategoryBeginners