Linux Directory Structure Diagram

A standard Linux distribution follows the directory structure as provided below

Linux Directory Structure

 /bin : All the executable binary programs (file) required during booting,
repairing, files required to run into single-user-mode, and other
important, basic commands viz., cat, du, df, tar, rpm, wc, history, etc.
 /boot : Holds important files during boot-up process, including Linux
Kernel.
 /dev : Contains device files for all the hardware devices on the machine
e.g., cdrom, cpu, etc
  /etc : Contains Application’s configuration
files, startup, shutdown, start, stop script for every individual
program.
 /home : Home directory of the users. Every time a new user is created,
a directory in the name of user is created within home directory which
contains other directories like Desktop, Downloads, Documents, etc.
 /lib : The Lib directory contains kernel modules and shared
library images required to boot the system and run commands in root
file system.
 /lost+found : This Directory is installed during installation of Linux,
useful for recovering files which may be broken due to
unexpected shut-down.
 /media : Temporary mount directory is created for removable devices
viz., media/cdrom.
 /mnt : Temporary mount directory for mounting file system.
 /opt : Optional is abbreviated as opt. Contains third party application
software. Viz., Java, etc.
 /proc : A virtual and pseudo file-system which contains information
about running process with a particular Process-id aka pid.
 /root : This is the home directory of root user and should never be
confused with ‘/‘
 /run : This directory is the only clean solution for early-runtime-
dir problem.
 /sbin : Contains binary executable programs, required by System
Administrator, for Maintenance. Viz., iptables, fdisk, ifconfig, swapon,
reboot, etc.
 /srv : Service is abbreviated as ‘srv‘. This directory contains server
specific and service related files.
 /sys : Modern Linux distributions include a /sys directory as a virtual
filesystem, which stores and allows modification of the devices
connected to the system.
 /tmp :System’s Temporary Directory, Accessible by users and root.
Stores temporary files for user and system, till next boot.
 /usr : Contains executable binaries, documentation, source
code, libraries for second level program.
 /var : Stands for variable. The contents of this file is expected to grow.
This directory contains log, lock, spool, mail and temp files.
Exploring Important file, their location
and their Usability
Linux is a complex system which requires a more complex and efficient way
to start, stop, maintain and reboot a system unlike Windows. There is a
well defined configuration files, binaries, man pages, info files, etc. for
every process in Linux.
 /boot/vmlinuz : The Linux Kernel file.
 /dev/hda : Device file for the first IDE HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
 /dev/hdc : Device file for the IDE Cdrom, commonly
 /dev/null : A pseudo device, that don’t exist. Sometime garbage output
is redirected to /dev/null, so that it gets lost, forever.
 /etc/bashrc : Contains system defaults and aliases used by bash
shell.
 /etc/crontab : A shell script to run specified commands on a predefined
time Interval.
 /etc/exports : Information of the file system available on network.
 /etc/fstab : Information of Disk Drive and their mount point.
 /etc/group : Information of Security Group.
 /etc/grub.conf : grub bootloader configuration file.
 /etc/init.d : Service startup Script.
 /etc/lilo.conf : lilo bootloader configuration file.
 /etc/hosts : Information of Ip addresses and corresponding host
names.
 /etc/hosts.allow : List of hosts allowed to access services on the local
machine.
 /etc/host.deny : List of hosts denied to access services on the local
machine.
 /etc/inittab : INIT process and their interaction at various run level.
 /etc/issue : Allows to edit the pre-login message.
 /etc/modules.conf : Configuration files for system modules.
 /etc/motd : motd stands for Message Of The Day, The Message users
gets upon login.
 /etc/mtab : Currently mounted blocks information.
 /etc/passwd : Contains password of system users in a shadow file, a
security implementation.
 /etc/printcap : Printer Information
 /etc/profile : Bash shell defaults
 /etc/profile.d : Application script, executed after login.
 /etc/rc.d : Information about run level specific script.
 /etc/rc.d/init.d : Run Level Initialisation Script.
 /etc/resolv.conf : Domain Name Servers (DNS) being used by System.
 /etc/securetty : Terminal List, where root login is possible.
 /etc/skel : Script that populates new user home directory.
 /etc/termcap : An ASCII file that defines the behaviour
of Terminal, console and printers.
 /etc/X11 : Configuration files of X-window System.
 /usr/bin : Normal user executable commands.
 /usr/bin/X11 : Binaries of X windows System.
 /usr/include : Contains include files used by ‘c‘ program.
 /usr/share : Shared directories of man files, info files, etc.
 /usr/lib : Library files which are required during program compilation.
 /usr/sbin : Commands for Super User, for System Administration.
 /proc/cpuinfo : CPU Information
 /proc/filesystems : File-system Information being used currently.
 /proc/interrupts : Information about the current interrupts being
utilised currently.
 /proc/ioports : Contains all the Input/Output addresses used by
devices on the server.
 /proc/meminfo : Memory Usages Information.
 /proc/modules : Currently using kernel module.
 /proc/mount : Mounted File-system Information.
 /proc/stat : Detailed Statistics of the current System.
 /proc/swaps : Swap File Information.
 /version : Linux Version Information.
 /var/log/lastlog : log of last boot process.
 /var/log/messages : log of messages produced by syslog daemon at
boot.
 /var/log/wtmp : list login time and duration of each user on the system
currently.