File System Structure [1]
Path |
Description |
|---|---|
/ |
Root directory |
/boot |
System critical directory which contains files required for booting: kernel, boot manager and ramdisk initramrd with drivers |
/boot/grub |
System critical directory which contains config data for the grub boot manager; optional changes to |
/bin |
System critical directory which contains main executables, which are required for system operations (like bash, chmod, mount). Also see |
/cdrom |
Former mount directory for optical drives (same as |
/dev |
System directory for device files: all recognized devices are displayed as files here |
/etc |
Central directory for all system-wide configuration data, partially directly in its root like sudo-rights, fstab, mime-types (file types),shadow (accounts and passwords), but most in extra directories like |
/home |
Collective directory for all user accounts (except root) |
/home/[user] |
Home directory of a user which contains typical sub-directories for images or documents. Besides the temporary mount directories |
/home/[user]/.cache |
User specific temporary storage, mostly for fonts, thumbnails or system icons |
/home/[user]/.config |
Important hidden collective directory for user specific software settings (desktop, language, auto-launch, webbrowser, email, mime-types and others) |
/home/[user]/.local |
Collective directory for desktop user settings, which are prioritized over common settings, like desktop links ( |
/lost+found |
Contains rescued file fragments from a file system analysis via fsck (usually only used by forensic scientist) |
/media |
Mount directory for removable media like USB or DVD devices. Commonly used by automount when inserting the device. The content is loaded under |
/mnt |
Optional directory for temporary and static mount of external devices like USB or DVD (is not used by automount, which uses |
/lib
/lib64
|
System critical directories contains essential libraries (32 and 64 Bit). Additional lib-directories (like |
/opt |
Optional collective directory for additionally installed applications, which are not part of the Linux distribution |
/proc
/sys
|
Collective directory for dynamically requested system and hardware data of all kind, especially CPU, RAM, kernel, devices and processes. |
/tmp |
Collective directory for temporarily needed files by software executions or installations. It’s the only directory in which all system accounts have unlimited writing access |
/root |
Home directory for the pseudo-account root; if root is actively used, the same sub-directories for account data and configuration files like in |
/run |
Dynamic information shelf for all applications (tmp-directory during runtime) |
/run/[user]/[user-id]/gvfs/ |
Mount directory for automatically hooked network resources for Gnome-like desktops (Gnome, Budgie, Cinnamon, XFCE) |
/usr |
Collective directory for non-system related applications (User System Resources), so most application used on the desktop |
/usr/bin |
Contains most applications featuring a graphical user interface (as opposed to |
/usr/lib |
Contains libraries required by non-system related applications |
/usr/local |
Complementary software directory; executable programs under |
/usr/share/applications |
Collective directory for program launcher, which are shown in menus and the desktop |
/sbin |
System critical directory which contain main executables for system maintenance, which can only be executed with root rights (for example fdisk, fsck, hdparm, mkfs, parted). Also see |
/srv |
The default mount point for devices on server systems compliant with FSH (File System Hierarchy), although some servers still use |
/var/log |
Collective directory for system logs |
/var/spool |
Directory for pending queue jobs, foremost print orders |
/var/www/html |
Default directory for Apache and nginx web services |