HIER
NAME
hier - Description of the standard file system hierarchy
DESCRIPTION
A typical Linux system has, among others, the following directories:
cLIeNUX INSERT
cLIeNUX does not directly adhere to the standard naming scheme presented
here. cLIeNUX does however conform to the standard after a bit of
"indirection". The layout presented here makes assumptions about the use
of a system that are directly contradictory to the purpose of cLIeNUX,
which is to be, by default, for single-user use of a Linux/GNU/unix box.
Furthermore, the historical names of directories like "/bin" are
incomprehensible to the new user, or have become meaningless catch-alls,
such as "/usr". By the way, in AT&T UNIX circa 1971 "/usr" had the
functionality of what is now "/home" in a typical unix, and what is
"/users" in some *BSDs, and what is "/.hom" AND "/guest" in cLIeNUX. The
terseness of the historical names is less valuable in a scenario where
bandwidth between the user and the system is very high, and where shell
filename completion can be assumed.
As my grasp of how to configure things with direct directory name
dependancies improves, cLIeNUX will be more removed from what is shown
here below this cLIeNUX addendum. This document is left in cLIeNUX as a
guide for imported packages, and as an illustration of some aspects of how
cLIeNUX is conceptually distinct from other unices.
The fundamental difference between a cLIeNUX file hierarchy and a
traditional unix hierarchy is that in cLIeNUX the user IS the admin,
and thus the root directory is an appropriate place for user-related
directories. This removes an entire layer of namespace overhead from many
things. If cLIeNUX is to be the basis for configuring a multi-user system,
one general rule of a hierarchical namespace is that adding things can
usually be done at will. Removing things is what is problematic, and, BTW,
I am somewhat proud of some of the ways in which cLIeNUX is "less". "less"
is harder than "more" in this context.
At this writing, most topic-named documentation in cLIeNUX is in the
"/help" directory. The cLIeNUX eqivalent of the manpages, the cLIeNUX
"seedocs", are in "/help/see". The traditional "/root" directory is
"/owner" in cLIeNUX, to remove the confusion of "/" being "the root
directory" when there's also a directory called "/root". For most of the
traditional or Linux-standard directory names I've changed, that do still
exist in cLIeNUX and haven't been simplified out completely, there is a
symlink to the cLIeNUX directory name that is a simple conversion of the
standard name. For example, "/.bi/" is a symlink to /command/ in cLIeNUX.
This is where what's usually in /bin/ is. The cLIeNUX "Dotted Standard
File Hierarchy" names all have dots in the first character so they are
usually out of sight. The conversion is simple and consistant. "Take the
standard name, prepend a dot, and drop the last character." This means
that the DSFH symlink is the same number of characters as the standard
name, which means conversions between the two can be done with simple
scripts that work fairly consistantly on almost any input file, including
things like library files.
DSFH is a good idea. I've been using it for about a year now, and I still
type .et instead of /configure, or conf[tab], but I'm not a newbie. DSFH
is newbie-freindly, and that's important, and a weakness of unix. The DSFH
is also very valuable for internationalization, and from what little
feedback I've recieved about cLIeNUX use, that is appreciated.
The symlinks in DSFH are exactly analagous to the infrastructure of a
building. Hidden, but accessible, and fairly standard once uncovered, when
necessary. I tend to use the "local" names, such as "/command", for things
the user will see, and the dotted names, e.g. "/.bi", for scripts. cLIeNUX
is the system. Apps don't tell the system what its structure is.
(Rick)
(OK, back to our regularly scheduled legacy manpage...)
- /
-
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 filesystems
- /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 traditional
/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 programs 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 programs. 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 executables; 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 functions. 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 programs go there.
- /usr/local/man
-
Manpages associated with locally installed programs go there.
- /usr/local/sbin
-
Locally installed programs for system admininstration.
- /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 language and code set for all manual pages
may omit the
<locale>
substring.
- /usr/sbin
-
This directories contains program binaries for system 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 filesystem.
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
character.
- /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 program.
- /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 configured
differently.
SEE ALSO
find(1),
ln(1),
mount(1),
proc(5),
The Linux Filesystem Standard