Yes, I've been slacking again. Mostly I've been trying to figure what topic to cover next. I decided to take a closer look at the Linux file system, especially for the users who are new to Linux.
A typical Red Hat Linux system holds many directories and files. To efficiently administer such a system, you must know where important files and what kinds of files are stored. This chapter describes the Red Hat Linux file system layout, which generally follows the recommendations of the File System Hierarchy Standard.
Like other Unix systems, Red Hat Linux has a hierarchical file system. The top-most directory—known as the root directory—of the file system contains several other directories, sometimes called subdirectories. These directories in turn generally contain subdirectories and files.
The directory structure is not arbitrary. For packages to work properly, the location of important files and directories must be standardized. The File System Hierarchy Standard codifies common practices and suggests improved practices for the structure of directories. The File System Hierarchy Standard is available via the Web, at http://pathname.com/fhs.
Though designed with Linux systems in mind, the standard is applicable to Unix systems generally. Distributors of Linux generally follow the recommendations of the File System Hierarchy Standard. However, the standard is somewhat loose and subject to interpretation. Consequently, two distributions that are held to follow the standard may nevertheless differ significantly in the structure of their file systems. Red Hat Linux follows the standard closely. The
Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide explains the standard and how Red Hat Linux implements the standard’s recommendations.
Over the next several posts, we'll look at the standard directories of a Red Hat Linux system.
