Linux File System Overview

Linux File System Overview:- Linux all information is treated as a file. A single disk can store thousands of files. For organizing data on the disk the operating system provides a file system. Grouping of similar files together in a structure called directory. The file system of LINUX is the main key to success and convenience of LINUX system.

File Type In LINUX

Ordinary Files / Regular Files:- All files created by a user come under this category of files. These Include all data files, program files, object files and executable files. A user can make changes  to such files.

Directory Files:- For each directory there is a file by the same name as the directory which contains information about files under that directory.

Device Files:- Device files are special files typically associated with input-output device, such as printers, tapes, hard-disks, floppy disks etc. The kernel is responsible for mapping the file names to their respective devices.

LINUX FILE HIERARCHY CONCEPTS

LINUX follows the tree-structured or hierarchical directory structure. The LINUX file system is organized as hierarchy that starts with the root directory.

The root is represented by a forward slash(/).

/ - This directory is called as the ‘root’ directory. It is at the top of the File system structure. All other directories are placed under it.

root - This is the default home directory of the root user.

/bin - This directory contains executable programs files (binary files). In this directory, one can find the files for the LINUX commands.

/dev - This directory contains the device files. For example the printer may be a file known as prn, the hard disk may be had file.

/etc - This directory contains all the system-wide configuration information as text files.

/lib - This directory contains the library files. Library files contain the reusable functions and routines for the programmer to use.

/tmp - This directory contains all the temporary files, which will eventually be deleted from the system. This is similar to C:\windows\temp\ directory in Windows-based OS.

/mnt - This directory contains where the storage devices other than hard disk are mounted. This directory contains the sub-directories “floppy” and “cdrom”.

/usr - This directory contains the home directories of the users, source text for the online manual (man) pages, games and other directories.

/kernel - This directory contains all the kernel-specific code. Kernel is the heart of the LINUX system. It is responsible for resource-allocation, security and low-level hardware-interfaces.

/home - It contains the home directories of all standard user.

/boot - It contains the kernel and also contains the files related for booting the OS such as boot loader.

/sbin - sbin stands for system binary. It contains essential system commands which can only be used by the superuser.

/var - var stands for variable. It contains variable information such as logs files and print queues.

/media - It is the default mount point for removable storage media such as CDROM/ DVD and Pendrive etc.
/opt - opt stands for optional. It generally contains the third party software’s.

How you liked this article please tell us your thoughts on comment box.