Linux File System Structure.

Overview of File System Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) file system structure, which defines the names, locations, and permissions for many file types and directories.

The FHS document is the authoritative reference to any FHS-compliant file system, but the standard leaves many areas undefined or extensible. This section is an overview of the standard and a description of the parts of the file system not covered by the standard.

Compliance with the standard means many things, but the two most important are compatibility with other compliant systems and the ability to mount a /usr/ partition as read-only. This second point is important because the directory contains common executables and should not be changed by users. Also, since the /usr/ directory is mounted as read-only, it can be mounted from the CD-ROM or from another machine via a read-only NFS mount.

FHS Organization

1) The /boot/ Directory

The /boot/ directory contains static files required to boot the system, such as the Linux kernel. These files are essential for the system to boot properly.

2)The /dev/ Directory

The /dev/ directory contains device nodes that either represent devices that are attached to the system or virtual devices that are provided by the kernel. These device nodes are essential for the system to function properly. The udev demon takes care of creating and removing all these device nodes in /dev/.

Devices in the /dev directory and subdirectories are either character (providing only a serial stream of input/output) or block (accessible randomly). Character devices include mouse, keyboard, modem while block devices include hard disk, floppy drive etc. If you have GNOME or KDE installed in your system, devices such as external drives or cds are automatically detected when connected (e.g via usb) or inserted (e.g via CD or DVD drive) and a popup window displaying the contents is automatically displayed. Files in the /dev directory are essential for the system to function properly. Examples of common files in the /dev include:

/dev/hda - the master device on primary IDE channel.
/dev/hdb - the slave device on primary IDE channel.
/dev/tty0 - first virtual console.
/dev/tty1 - second virtual console.
/dev/sda - first device on primary SCSI or SATA channel.
/dev/lp0 - first parallel port.

3)The /etc/ Directory

The /etc/ directory is reserved for configuration files that are local to the machine. No binaries are to be placed in /etc/. Any binaries that were once located in /etc/ should be placed into /sbin/ or /bin/.

Examples of directories in /etc are the X11/ and skel/:


/etc
|- X11/
|- skel/

The /etc/X11/ directory is for X Window System configuration files, such as xorg.conf. The /etc/skel/ directory is for "skeleton" user files, which are used to populate a home directory when a user is first created. Applications also store their configuration files in this directory and may reference them when they are executed.

4) The /lib/ Directory

The /lib/ directory should contain only those libraries needed to execute the binaries in /bin/ and /sbin/. These shared library images are particularly important for booting the system and executing commands within the root file system.

5)The /media/ Directory

The /media/ directory contains subdirectories used as mount points for removeable media such as usb storage media, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and Zip disks.

6)The /mnt/ Directory

The /mnt/ directory is reserved for temporarily mounted file systems, such as NFS file system mounts. For all removeable media, please use the /media/ directory. Automatically detected removeable media will be mounted in the /media directory.

7)The /opt/ Directory

The /opt/ directory provides storage for most application software packages.

A package placing files in the /opt/ directory creates a directory bearing the same name as the package. This directory, in turn, holds files that otherwise would be scattered throughout the file system, giving the system administrator an easy way to determine the role of each file within a particular package.

For example, if sample is the name of a particular software package located within the /opt/ directory, then all of its files are placed in directories inside the /opt/sample/ directory, such as /opt/sample/bin/ for binaries and /opt/sample/man/ for manual pages.

Packages that encompass many different sub-packages, data files, extra fonts, clipart etc are also located in the /opt/ directory, giving that large package a way to organize itself. In this way, our sample package may have different tools that each go in their own sub-directories, such as /opt/sample/tool1/ and /opt/sample/tool2/, each of which can have their own bin/, man/, and other similar directories.

8)The /proc/ Directory

The /proc/ directory contains special files that either extract information from or send information to the kernel. Examples include system memory, cpu information, hardware configuration etc.

Due to the great variety of data available within /proc/ and the many ways this directory can be used to communicate with the kernel, an entire chapter has been devoted to the subject. For more information, refer to Chapter 3, The proc File System.

9)The /sbin/ Directory

The /sbin/ directory stores executables used by the root user. The executables in /sbin/ are used at boot time, for system administration and to perform system recovery operations. Of this directory, the FHS says:

/sbin contains binaries essential for booting, restoring, recovering, and/or repairing the system in addition to the binaries in /bin. Programs executed after /usr/ is known to be mounted (when there are no problems) are generally placed into /usr/sbin. Locally-installed system administration programs should be placed into /usr/local/sbin.

At a minimum, the following programs should be in /sbin/:


arp, clock,
halt, init,
fsck.*, grub,
ifconfig, mingetty,
mkfs.*, mkswap,
reboot, route,
shutdown, swapoff,
swapon