Linux File System Structure

Linux file system structure - Nam Huy Linux
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Linux file system structure

07/07/2014 by namhuy 3 Comments
Linux Operating System and Linux File System are

totally different from Microsoft Windows. In Microsoft
Windows, you usually see Windows is installed in C:\
drive. In Linux, the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
(FHS) defines the structure of file systems on Linux
and other UNIX-like operating systems, everything is
configured as a file including directories, partitions, and
http://www.namhuy.net/3230/linux-file-system-structure.html[11/14/2014 8:13:00 PM]
hardware device drivers. All files and directories will be

displayed under the root directory, even if your data is
stored on different physical devices. I have explained
what is Linux, now lets dig a little deeper into Linux
file system structure.
Linux file system layout

This is a layout file system structure from a CentOS linux, depends on the system and linux distro, the
structure may vary, and directories may be removed or added.
/ The Root Directory

Everything on Linux system is located under the / or root directory. The meaning of / or root and root user
are often confusing to new Linux users. In Linux, the root directory / (The tree of the file system starts at
the trunk or slash, indicated by a forward slash /) is a separator between a file and a directory contains all
underlying directories and files, yet root user is a super user or administrator user with has administrative
privileges on the system vs Linux privileged users who only have limited privileges to protect system
security.
/bin Essential command binaries

The /bin directory is a place contains most commonly essential executable terminal binaries programs or file
required during booting, repairing like cat, ls, mount, rm, du, df, tar, rpm, wc, etc.
/boot Boot loader files

All of the required files to boot the system contains in /boot directory, including GRUB boot loaders files,
Linux kernels, the Linux initial RAM disk (initrd),
/dev Device Files

All of the hardware devices on the machine like cdrom, cpu, hard drives, etc will be stored as special device
files that represent all the devices in /dev directory. Device files are created during your Linux system
installation.
/etc Configuration Files

Contain host-specific files and directories, e.g. information about system and application configuration files
like startup, shutdown, start, stop script for every individual program. In another word /etc data is very
similar to Control panel in Microsoft Windows.
/home Home Directory

Home directory of the the users. Every time you create a new user, a new directory with users name is
created in /home directory for users to store their own files within their own homes directory. Most common
automatic directories created within /home s user are Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Music, Movie, etc.
Most programs configuration file for a specific user will be saved in its users /home directory like web
browser settings, web browser bookmarks, desktop wallpaper, themes, and passwords.
/lib Essential Libraries

Similar to Windows dll files, all Linux shared libraries and kernel modules files stores in /lib directory.
These important Linux dynamic libraries are required to boot the system and run commands in the root file
system.
/lost+found Recovering Files

Sounds weird but yes we have lost+found in Linux file system structure. Every Linux file system and
partitions has a lost+found in its directory. In the even your system is crashed or unexpected shutdown, you
can run fsck command to check and repair the filesystem, fsck will turn any corrupted or almost-deleted files
back into files that you can recover them later in /lost+found directory.
/media Removable Media Devices

Every time you insert a removable device such as external hard drive, floppy disk, zip drive, CDs, DVDs,
flash drive to a Linux system, a new directory will automatically be created inside the /media directory.
/media directory is a temporary mount directory for removable devices.
/mnt Temporarily mounted filesystems

While /media is where the system automatically mounts removable media, /mnt is for you to mount things
(partitions, file systems, devices) manually and temporarily.
/opt Optional software packages

The /opt directory is reserved to store addition software or extra and third party software for your system,
those addition software usually dont follow the standard file system hierarchy and not handled by the
package manager.
/proc Kernel & Process Information

Similar to /dev, /proc directory contains information about running process, system resources and
information. You can view information about any running process with a specific process-id (pid) or
hardwares information such as memory, cpu, io, etc
/root Root Home Directory

Dont be confused with / or root directory, /root is a root accounts home directory determined by
developer or local preference rather than /home/root to allow for booting the system even if /home/ is not
available.
/sbin System binaries

Similar to /bin, /sbin contains essential binaries that are generally intended to be run by the root user for
system administration and maintenance purpose. For example: iptables, reboot, fdisk, ifconfig, swapon, init,
ip, mount
/selinux Security-Enhanced Linux

Selinux comes with RedHat based distro (fedora, centos), selinux is a security architecture integrated into the
2.6.x kernel using the Linux Security Modules (LSM). For some reason Centos 6 created an emtpry selinux
directory in root directory, the real selinux directory with its configuration files are stored in /etc/selinux/
directory.
/srv Service Data

Server (srv) contains data of services such as HTTP, FTP, rsync, cvs
/sys virtual filesystem

Some newer Linux distros have /sys directory with sysfs virtual filesystem to store information and statistics
about (physical and virtual) device and device names. /sys is newly added since Linux kernel 2.6 /sys
contains similar information with /proc which display device information about the kernels view of the
system.
/tmp Temporary files

Systems Temporary Directory, all users and programs in your system can access/read/write in this directory.
You should not save/store any important files/directories under /tmp since all files will be removed after
system is rebooted.
/usr binaries, documentation, source code, libraries

Pronounced as user, /usr contains the majority of user utilities, programs, libraries, documentation etc for all
user-related second level programs rather than applications and files used by the system.
/var Variable Files

Variable or /var contains data that is expected to change and grow as the system is running (log, mail, spool,
temp)
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Comments
JuanSysT says
07/13/2014 at 1:36 pm
muy buen articulo
Reply
allam003 says
07/18/2014 at 7:45 am
thanks sir, its helpful.
Reply
T says
09/11/2014 at 7:38 pm
Hello Huy
Long time no see ! I hope you doing well
So, the theme of a linux file system which i prefer is How many files in directory is too many
Windows /Linux
Everybody can know about file system on linux but not all to clear all things difference between
(fat32/ntfs/ext3,ext4 v.v.)
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/466521/how-many-files-can-i-put-in-a-directory
It s very interesting for me
Reply
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NAM HUY LINUX

Geeky Open Source Linux Tutorials

Linux Operating System and Linux File System are