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folks coming to linux for the first time
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often wonder what's going on with all of
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these directories in the file system if
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you're expecting a c drive this list of
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directories can certainly feel
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overwhelming
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no worries let's go through it together
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[Music]
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greetings and welcome back to lenode my
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name is veronica and i'm a system
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administrator linux mom and lino
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developer advocate
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and today i'd like to share some basics
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about the linux file system and how it's
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designed to be useful in the effective
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management of your linux system
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linux and unix systems display files
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configuration and system information in
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a hierarchy of folders
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understanding how these files and
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folders work together is a vital part of
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getting comfortable with a linux server
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pretty much any linux administrator is
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going to be spending some time in these
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folders so let's dive into the basics
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together if you want to see the folder
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structure for yourself the easiest way
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is to use the ls command
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the ls command lists out files in a
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directory and is a pretty useful command
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i'm going to use it right here on a
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fresh rocky linux 8 linode to show off
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all the typical directories
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by the way if you don't already have a
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linux account and want to try out the
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platform stay to the end to learn how
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you can get a 100 dollar 60-day credit
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on your new linux account
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anyway here in my terminal i'm using the
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ls command followed by a forward slash
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this command lists out the root
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directory and when i press enter you'll
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see the directories we're about to get
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to know
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now i should note real quick that these
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folder descriptions are conventional but
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they're not always strictly followed
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there's a degree of interpretation here
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so flexibility is your friend with that
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let's take a look
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bin
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bin is a directory which contains
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important executable programs and core
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operating system commands
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in modern linux distributions this
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directory tends to be symbolically
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linked to slash user slash bin which
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we'll cover in a minute
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listing out this folder shows tons of
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programs we use every day including
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right there the ls command itself
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boot
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boot is unsurprisingly the directory
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which contains the files needed by the
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bootloader
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the initial ram file system also lives
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here as well as the kernel
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as you can imagine the boot directory
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isn't a directory you should be playing
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with unless you know what you're doing
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dev
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dev contains your device files these
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files are dynamically created based on
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the various physical and virtual devices
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that are connected to your system
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you may have heard the expression that
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in linux everything is a file or
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directory well dev demonstrates that
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pretty well
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here on my linux desktop for example
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when i run ls dash l slash dev slash
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nvme asterisk i can see some very basic
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info about the two nvme drives my
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desktop has
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i can tell that nvme 0 has four
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partitions while nvme 1 has a single
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partition
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as you can see files and folders in the
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dev directory give you valuable
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information about what's connected to
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your system and we use this information
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frequently as we manage our servers
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etsy
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the etsy directory contains your
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critical configuration files and startup
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scripts when you manage a linux server
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you spend a lot of time in this
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directory
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for example here if i want to update the
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ssh settings on my server i'll be doing
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that by editing the file located at
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slash etsy slash ssh slash sshd
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underscore config
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i should note that the pronunciation of
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this directory varies from person to
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person i've always called it at c and
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that's how i hear it referenced a lot of
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the time but others might call it etc or
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etc
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none of these are wrong
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home
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the home directory is the location of
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the individual user home directories if
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you're used to the windows environment
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you might be familiar with a my
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documents directory and this is a
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similar directory in the linux world
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under normal conventions each typical
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user on your machine gets a directory
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inside the home folder a typical user
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cannot see the contents of another
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user's home directory
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traditionally when you open up a linux
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terminal the directory you're starting
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in is your personal home directory
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that's what the little tilde means here
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in the prompt
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it's noteworthy that the home directory
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also contains configuration files
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specific to the user for example here i
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can see my bash profile configuration
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the lib directories hold the shared
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libraries your system's programs will
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need
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these shared libraries enable multiple
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programs to share code with each other
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which is a neat efficiency boost
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depending on your system you might have
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a few directories which start with lib
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lib 32 and lib64 are pretty common
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referring to libraries for 32 and 64-bit
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programs respectively
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different systems handle this
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differently again like i said
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flexibility is your friend
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and like the bin directory chances are
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it's going to be symbolically linked
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this time to the user slash lib
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directory
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lost and found
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the lost and found directory is a place
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where chunks of broken files might
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reside after a system crash generally
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speaking we don't want to intentionally
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put files in there
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media
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the media directory is the mount point
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for file systems stored on removable
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media
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for example here i have a flash drive
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which i've formatted with the name neat
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backups when i plug it into my computer
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and use the command ls
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slash media slash vkc
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vkc being my username on this machine
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i can see the neat backups device here
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typically when your linux system auto
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mounts a device such as a usb drive this
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is where you'll find it
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mount
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the mount or mnt directory is where
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you'll mount devices temporarily
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for example if you want to temporarily
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attach a network storage server to
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archive some files this is typically
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where you'll mount it
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it should be noted that although the
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intention is for this to be where
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temporary mounting takes place some
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systems do permanently mount things here
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again flexibility is your friend
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opt
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the opt directory is rarely used
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nowadays but it's not entirely gone this
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directory is where optional software
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packages would be placed often by a
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vendor when you add on to your system
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it's mostly kept around just for
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compatibility purposes but it's not
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totally dead i work with cobalt and i've
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seen this directory plenty of times
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proc
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the proc directory is a great example of
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a pseudo file system a pseudo file
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system is a file system that's created
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at startup and disappears at shutdown
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the proc sudo file system contains
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information about every running process
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on your machine
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in fact each active process has its own
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subdirectory in here
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it also contains a ton of information
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about your system for example i can use
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the cat command to see my cpu info with
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cat slash proc slash cpu info
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you can learn even more about the proc
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directory by looking at the proc man
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page with the command man
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proc root
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the slash root directory is the home
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directory for the root user that's the
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user with the ultimate power on your
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system
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on most modern linuxes typical users
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cannot view the contents of this
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directory without sudo or switching
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directly to the root user
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run
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the run directory contains information
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describing your system since boot time
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such as who's logged in and what demons
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might be running
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like the proc directory the information
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in the run directory might be useful as
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you're gathering information about your
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system and how it's being used
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s-bin
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the s-bin directory contains system
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essential files similar to the bin
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directory
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traditionally the programs in s-bin were
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statically linked and thus had fewer
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library dependencies but this convention
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doesn't really fit anymore
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in contemporary systems there's little
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practical difference between bin and
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s-bin
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in fact like the bin directory s-bin is
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often symbolically linked to slash user
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slash bin on modern linuxes
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srv
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the srv directory is occasionally used
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as a folder for files served by a web
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server or other server mechanism such as
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ftp
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but this is not universally accepted and
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honestly in my experience this is rarely
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used in the modern era opensuse is a
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notable exception using it as the
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default for web servers and other uses
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that being said most of the time you'll
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probably just see this as a blank
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directory
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sys
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the sys directory contains information
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about the devices drivers and kernel
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features running on your system
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this directory is often referred to as
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like proc but better structured and to
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be honest i can kind of see it
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you'll use both sys and proc frequently
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as a linux administrator to pull
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information about the systems you're
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working with
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temp
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the temp directory is what it sounds
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like a directory for temporary files
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we often use this directory to store
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things we don't intend on keeping beyond
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the next reboot
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there's any number of files you might
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place here temporarily items you're
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downloading keys you'll only briefly
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need or even just as a terminal scratch
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pad on the fly
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user
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the user or usr folder contains most of
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the programs and utilities your system
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will be running
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now a quick side note folks often
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pronounce this directory as user which
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makes it sound like a user directory or
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a directory of users but that's not
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really an accurate description of it in
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the modern era it's best to think of it
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as the place most of your programs
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actually reside
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remember that slash bin folder we talked
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about earlier well on most modern
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systems slash bin is just a link to the
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folder user slash bin
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a file placed in slash bin is actually
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being placed in user slash bin and just
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made visible in slash bin for
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compatibility purposes same thing with
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slash s-bin it's just a link to user
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slash s-bin on most modern linuxes
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your lib directories too will usually be
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symbolically linked here
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because this is where the bulk of your
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programs live it's usually shared
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between all users and read only except
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via root or sudo
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var
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lastly the var directory is your system
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specific variable files
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this means logs temporary message files
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and spool files that sort of thing
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confusingly you might occasionally find
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configuration files here that aren't in
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etsy
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and this is also where web servers tend
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to place their files apache for example
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often serves files from the var
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www directory
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okay that was a lot you can of course
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find more information about your file
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system hierarchy by using the man page
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for hire at man h-i-e-r
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there's also a ton of info online such
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as the file system hierarchy standard
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specifications
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again i can't say it enough flexibility
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is your friend especially when learning
00:13:10
something complicated like the linux
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file system
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and one of the easiest ways for you to
00:13:17
get familiar with linux is using the
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cloud and linode has made this so easy
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if you're new to linode guess what
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there's a link in the description that
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will give you a
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100.60 day credit for new linux accounts
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try it out and spin up a linux instance
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right from your browser it's super easy
00:13:38
and thank you so much for watching our
00:13:41
video make sure to leave a comment with
00:13:43
other tutorials you'd like to see on
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this channel
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and please don't forget to like and
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from your friends at lenode
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[Music]
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you
