4.16. Important Directories
You
already
know about /home, where user files are stored.
As a system administrator and programmer, several other directories
will be important to you. Here are a few, along with their contents:
- /bin
-
The most essential Unix commands, such as ls.
- /usr/bin
-
Other commands. The distinction between /bin and
/usr/bin is arbitrary; it was a convenient way
to split up commands on early Unix systems that had small disks.
- /usr/sbin
-
Commands used by the superuser for system administration.
- /boot
-
Location where the kernel and other files used during booting are
sometimes stored.
- /etc
-
Files used by subsystems such as networking, NFS,
and mail. Typically, these contain tables of network services, disks
to mount, and so on. Many of the files here are used for booting the
system or individual services of it and will be discussed elsewhere
in this book.
- /var
-
Administrative files, such as log files, used by various utilities.
- /var/spool
-
Temporary storage for files being printed, sent by
UUCP, and so on.
- /usr/lib
-
Standard libraries, such as libc.a. When you
link a program, the linker always searches here for the libraries
specified in -l options.
- /usr/lib/X11
-
The X Window System distribution. Contains the libraries used by X
clients, as well as fonts, sample resources files, and other
important parts of the X package. This directory is usually a
symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11.
- /usr/include
-
Standard location of include files used in C programs, such as
<stdio.h>.
- /usr/src
-
Location of sources to programs built on the system.
- /usr/local
-
Programs and datafiles that have been added locally by the system
administrator.
- /etc/skel
-
Sample startup files you can place in home directories for new users.
- /dev
-
This directory contains the so-called device files, the interface
between the filesystem and the hardware (e.g.,
/dev/modem represents your modem in the system).
- /proc
-
Just as /dev is the interface between the
filesystem and the hardware devices, /proc is
the interface between the filesystem and the running processes, the
CPU and memory. The files here (which are not real files, but rather
virtual files generated on-the-fly when you view them) can give you
information about the environment of a certain process, the state and
configuration of the CPU, how your I/O ports are configured, etc.
| | |
4.15. Startup Files | | 4.17. Programs That Serve You |
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