Re: Why are you on a *nix desktop?

On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 14:52, Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

/bin

Used for storing program files needed during single user mode, when
/usr is not mounted. Contains basic utilities.

Seperating /usr and thus having /bin und /usr/bin is a remnant from
years ago. Especially on desktop systems, it makes sense to have a
three partitions - /home, / and swap.

Path's are merged by the shell using the $PATH variable.

/boot

Used for storing bootfiles, like kernel and bootloader configuration.
Also a remnant, because this needed to be a special partition below
the 1024MB mark in order to be bootable on older PCs.

/etc

Configuration files.

/initrd

Initrd (init ram disk) was a feature introduced in order to allow
having critical drivers loaded as modules, without the need to
statically link them to the kernel.

/lib

Contains libraries - just like /bin, there's also a /usr/lib path. All
libraries are merged using /etc/ld.so.conf, the configuration of the
dynamic linker. This is different from Windows, where libraries are
resolved using %PATH%, the same as binaries.

/opt

Optional - this depends on the distribution. It's often used for
binary-only software.

/proc

A virtual filesystem containing a variety of information and setting
for the kernel. Think of it as the kernels registry.

/root

The home directory of the root account. Is not in /home because /home
may not be mounted when the system is in single user mode.

/sbin

Administrative binaries, that are not used by normal users. Usually,
root does have sbin in it's $PATH, normal users do not.

/srv

A relatively new invention. This is where server applications store
their data, for examples websites.

/sys

Was introduced because /proc was an unorganized mess.

/usr

Basically, think of them as roughly the same as their / equivalents,
but not used in single user mode. For example, a basic system utility
like "ps" is stored in /bin, but a more sophisticated tool like top is
stored in /usr/bin. This is a remnant and no longer necessary on
current systems, but tradition is tradition.

/var

A place for log files and other variable data. Often, server data was
stored here, until /srv was introduced. A mail system may store it's
mail queue in /var, and it's virtual mailboxes in /srv.