Quick summary of Linux directory hierarchy

linux-directory-structure.md

Linux directory heirarchy

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/bin binaries, basic Linux commands are here

/boot boot code, leave it be

/dev all devices/hardware, all treated as a stream

/etc config files & resources, only root user can modify

/home user account info & personal files

/lib shared library files essential for binaries

/lost+found stray files that can be recovered after a crash

/media mount points for removable media

/mnt mount points

/opt optional & larger application packages

/proc virtual files for various system processes

/root root user's home directory

/sbin essential system binaries reserved for the root user

/selinux security-enhanced Linux

/srv site-specific data

/sys virtual filesystem, similar to /proc

/tmp temporary files

/usr user applications, subdirectories for user-installed commands, kernel source, documentation, config files, man pages, etc.

/usr/share config files and graphics for numerous user applications

/usr/src source code for some system stuff, including the Linux kernel

/usr/include headers for c/c++ and some other development essentials

/usr/lib library files for the whole system. you may find lib, lib32 and lib64 for different architectures

/usr/local programs installed by the user manually

/usr/bin non-system essential programs and commands

/var variable files such as logs, cache, email

/dev should instead say "all devices/hardware, all treated as a stream" if you do sudo cat /dev/sda you will get a stream. That's my opinion anyways!

ok, would you mind explaining that a little further? I've done a little research, but I'm not sure I completely understand this directory yet.

well when you read a normal file such as a .txt it should always end. I consider any file that is constantly getting read from or written to a stream, like a kernel log file in /var that "file" is always getting written to whenever a kernel action happens. so in /dev these block devices are always gathering information from the hardware(although incomprehensible to humans), try this command sudo cat /dev/sda you should see a constant stream of information coming from your hard drive(That is assuming /dev/sda exists).

ok, got it. thanks for the clear explanation. that's something that numerous other references failed to do. I've updated the gist.

Your welcome! Yeah I've seen a bunch similar to this and almost all of them are different in someway.

You might also want to split /usr up into a couple different ones because the dir is so big and complex.

/usr/share
Contains config files and graphics for numerous user applications

/usr/src
Contains source code for some system stuff. Including the Linux kernel.

/usr/include
Contains headers for c/c++ and some other development essentials

/usr/lib*
Contains library files for the whole system basically you may find lib, lib32 and lib64. each for different architectures.

/usr/local
Usually contains programs installed by the user manually.

/usr/bin
Contains non system essential programs and commands.

Oh also I like your list, It's really well formatted!

cool, I added in your /usr/ info. very helpful!

Awesome!

man hier in the cli gives you a lot of this info as well.