Basic Linux Directory Structure

Red Hat Linux organizes files into  directories according to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard(FHS):

/
The Top level root directory. All other directories are below root directory or they are the subdirectories of root directory. Any directory not mounted in a separate partition is automatically part of root directory volume.

/bin
Contains basic command line utilities. It should not be configure in a separate partition, but if you do than you will not be able to access utilities in rescue mode.

/boot
Includes command and files required for boot purpose such as Grand Unified Bootloader(GRUB), Initrial Ram disk, Linux Kernel. It is good idea to mount /boot in a separate partition.

/dev
Lists available device drivers. For example; if floppy drive is mounted, it might be mount /dev/fd0 on a directory such as /mnt/floppy.

/etc
Contains basic Linux configuration files, including files related to passwords, daemons such as Apache and Samba, and the X window.

/home
Includes home directories for all but the root is the user. Mounting this directory in separate partitions, requires leaving enough space for users to add files.

/initrd
Configures an empty directory used by the Initial RAM disk during the boot process. This is directory is required for boot purposes by Linux, if you delete this directory Linux will not boot, you"ll get a Kernel panic message.

/lib
Lists program libraries needed by a number of different applications as well as Linux Kernel.

/lost+found
Contains orphaned files.  Utilities such as fsck places empty unidentifiable files in this directory.

/misc
Notes a common mount point for shared NFS directories.

/mnt
Contains mount point of removable media such as floppy (/mnt/floppy), CD-ROM(/mnt/cdrom) and Zip (/mnt/zip) drives.

/proc 
Kernel related processes that are currently running are included in it and along with it some of the files in this directory list the current resource allocation such as /proc/interrupts lists currently allocated (IRQ) ports.

/root
The home directory of the root user. /root directory is a subdirectory of the root (/) directory.

/sbin
Contains the system administration commands.

/tftpboot
It supports the diskless workstations popularly known as remote terminals.

/tmp
Serves as a dedicated storage locations for temporary files; also considered good place to download the files. by default, the /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch script removes the files older than 10 days from this directory.

/usr
Includes programs and data available to all the users. For example; the perograms associated with the OpenOffice suite are installed in /usr/bin

/var
Contains the variable data , including the log files and print spools. This directory is separately mounted.

/opt
Includes standard location of third party softwares such as Sun Star Office or Corel Word Perfect.


Related posts:-

Understanding Filesystem Hierarchy Standard