Linux file system

file managementlinuxlinux-distributions

What are the conventions for file locations in Linux? So far I've managed to deduce:

/proc (references to running processes)

/dev (references to all hardware)

/etc (configuration files)

/home (home)

/mnt (mounted devices)

/media (removable devices like CDs, USB disks)

…but other parts are still unclear, for example:

Where do I put downloaded source?

/usr/src

/usr/local/src

Where do I put compiled programs?

/bin

/usr/bin

/usr/local/bin

What is the difference between /bin and /sbin?

How do the distributions differ?

I realise these are not one question, but it would seem to me they should all be answered together. Hopefully others are also confused.

Best Answer

You might want to read the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard; it's a useful reference.

Your home directory is where most of that should go. Pretend you're not the sysadmin; pretend you're yet another person with an account on the system. Within your home directory, e.g. /home/pufferfish, you can do whatever you want. /home/pufferfish/bin, /home/pufferfish/lib, and /home/pufferfish/src are all conventional choices, but none of it really matters.

For compiled programs, whichever directory/directories you use, make sure it/they is/are on the PATH so that you can actually run them without typing in the script or executable's entire path.

The distributions don't really differ much. I've found that the package manager on one might install binaries in /usr/bin, while some libraries may go elsewhere, and another system might install things in yet another place. I generally have to do some research to find where things go each time.

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Linux, Mac, Unix – Super Users and the Home Directory

Symbolic links. Or cd to a particular location. Whatever.

Windows uses the same concept of home directories, for what it's worth. That's where your user profile lives -- all your user's customizations, configurations, bookmarks files, whatever. Windows puts it in C:\Documents and Settings\%username%, Linux puts it in /home/$username, OSX uses (what? /Users/$username? I'm not sure).

But the home directory really doesn't need to be for a user's data. It's for per-user configuration files. Your data can be anywhere. If you're a sole user, you could even have your external drives mounted directly under your $HOME directory in whatever fashion you like.

Personally, I use symbolic links, and mount all data-oriented partitions under /media. I have a /personal folder that organizes symlinks directly into the /media tree for most-used data, and duplicate those symlinks (or shortened versions of them) under my $HOME directory.

As a Superuser, you can use whatever form you like.

Linux – Where on a Linux file system should someone put media intended to be accessible by all user accounts

I usually put this in /home/media, I create a media unix group that owns it with a setgid bit.

As root, or using sudo:

groupadd media
mkdir -p /home/media
chown -R root.media /home/media 
chmod g+s /home/media

Then I put each user that needs to access these data in the media group.

You could also use ACLs to manage each user's right for the directory.

You could also use /srv/media if you prefer, but I like home for shared documents. Anything in /usr is to be avoided for this unless you're talking about static files.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux, Mac, Unix – Super Users and the Home Directory

Linux – Where on a Linux file system should someone put media intended to be accessible by all user accounts

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