The File Hierarchy Standard of LINUX

The File Hierarchy Standard

       The File Hierarchy Standard, or FHS for short, is a system that standardises the names of certain directories that contain important information .The files in the hierarchy are:

  /bin - The /bin directory contains program files that are available to all users.  These are typically considered as the most ''essential''.

/boot - The boot directory contains that static files used by the boot loader. We may want to create a partition for this directory when we install our system – it will add a little extra protection for these files.

/dev - All of our device files are stored in the / dev directory. These range from hard drives, to CD – ROM floppy drive, and many others.

/etc  - The FHS calls this directory ‘’Host – specific configuration information.’’ It’s where most of our configuration are used for the files are stored that are used for the system. Both .conf and .rc  files are located in this directory. These are usually global configurations.

/etc/x11 - Our X Window System configuration files are stored in this directory.

/etc/opt – When we install commercial programs, their configuration files are stored in this directory.

/home – User directories are stored in the /home tree. This is labelled ‘’optional’’ in the FHS, but most users of LINUX prefer to have one. If we have a single user system, we may not wish to include it.

/lib - The lib directory stores shared files and kernel modules. A kernel is the ‘’brain’’ of our operating system that are essential. Usually users don’t access these files directly – the programs that they use do.

/mnt – This is the directory for the mount points of temporary file systems.

/opt – We usually store commercial programs here.

/proc – Process and kernel information is stored for the root user; it is optional.

 (Most root users don’t get a lot of personal attention.)

/sbin – System program files were once stored in the / etc directory. They are now stored in the /sbin directory

(which stands for ‘’system binaries.’’).

/tmp – The will make use of this directory to store temporary files and lock files.

/usr – Most user files are stored here. The /usr directory tree has a hierarchy of its own.

/var – The /var directory holds important system information such as logs or cached files .The /var directory also has its own      hierarchy.