Filesystem

[Noah Caldwell]

I have no idea how the file system is organized.

I mean, I know how it works and everything, I've traversed all around it in the terminal, but I don't know what goes where, i.e. where example code is, what opt and etc and var and all those folders contain. I wouldn't say I am a Linux newbie, but I would say I'm a familiar novice, and I don't know that. (Maybe it's just me, but Windows's clearly-labelled file system is much more intuitive, and may drive people away. I'm not sure I blame them, it really does seem daunting and dense.)

I don't expect someone to go through and label just for me every subfolder's subfolder in one forum post; I am merely pointing out that, while possible to figure out where things are by oneself, a heck of a lot of hassle and time could be saved if there was a simple tutorial out there that went through the easy stuff and showed anything important, i.e. example code. I didn't find anything readily available- if there is a tutorial done, perhaps things could be done to make it easier to find?

So write this up on the list of Things That Someone With The Knowledge Should Do.

[Spider.007]

Your questions are by no means RPi specific. Therefore, I would advise reading some Linux basics documentations such as General overview of the Linux file system

[bob_binz]

There's a brief list here that describes much of the top level stuff, if it's any use:

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/linuxdir.html

[stevepdp]

Check the links on this post too.

[Joe Schmoe]

Maybe this will help:

http://www.filecrop.com/unix-for-dummies-pdf.html

[rurwin]

/boot is the stuff directly concerned with booting.
/dev is the devices (serial ports, hard-drives, etc.)
/sys and /proc are pseudo filesystems. They allow access to the operating system using the file metaphor.
/etc are configuration files
/home is where the user's home directories are
/root is the home directory of the superuser
/var is for variable length files -- mail queues, printer queues and system logs.
/tmp is for temporary files and may be purged regularly.

/sbin is the executable files that are required for very early booting and for repairing a broken installation. This directory is available even if only the boot disk can be accessed.
/bin are the other executable files that are required for booting before networking is available.
/include are the C/C++ header files (.h).
/lib are the libraries (.lib)

/usr are the files that do not need to be accessible until after networking is up.
/usr/local are the files that have been installed locally (these days that means not using apt-get etc.)

There are bin, include, lib and maybe etc directories under /usr and /usr/local.

[RaspberryPie]

/boot is the stuff directly concerned with booting.
/dev is the devices (serial ports, hard-drives, etc.)
/sys and /proc are pseudo filesystems. They allow access to the operating system using the file metaphor.
/etc are configuration files
/home is where the user's home directories are
/root is the home directory of the superuser
/var is for variable length files -- mail queues, printer queues and system logs.
/tmp is for temporary files and may be purged regularly.

/sbin is the executable files that are required for very early booting and for repairing a broken installation. This directory is available even if only the boot disk can be accessed.
/bin are the other executable files that are required for booting before networking is available.
/include are the C/C++ header files (.h).
/lib are the libraries (.lib)

/usr are the files that do not need to be accessible until after networking is up.
/usr/local are the files that have been installed locally (these days that means not using apt-get etc.)

There are bin, include, lib and maybe etc directories under /usr and /usr/local.

Great answer, +2
im sure that very succint answer will help out the windows users alot

[ikarus342000]

Very clear clarification. Lets stay with postings in this spirit

B.K.