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what does etc stand for?
greetings everybody,
what does 'etc' stand for ,as in /etc ? does it mean the simple 'etcetera' or is it some other abbreviation? |
Yes, etc stands for "etcetera" (-:
It's purpose in life is to host various configuration files from around your system. For instance, to add a new hard drive to your system and have Linux auto-mount it on boot, you'd have to edit /etc/fstab. If you use lynx and don't like the color scheme, you change it in /etc/lynx.conf. And so on... While we're at it: The common Linux/Unix system folders: /bin: where binary programs live. /boot: the special programs that start the system when you turn the machine on. /dev: aaaaaalll the "device" listings for hardware of every concievable flavor, along with some "imaginary" devices, lile /dev/null and /dev/zero. When you get a random number it usually comes from /dev/random. /etc: configuration files. /home: the user's directories live here. /lib: the library files that programs need to run, if they are compiled to link against these libraries. /lost+found: look here after a system crash/kernel panic or other extreme scenario to find "orphaned" files. /misc: kinda reminds you of /etc, doesn't it? Every time I see this folder on a system, it's empty, but I ascertain that it stands for "miscellaneous", and I think it may be a place for users to keep their own "/etc" type files? /mnt: "mount", the directory that acts as a gateway to every other disk or file system. Floppies are accessed from /mnt/floppy, your second hard drive might be /mnt/hd here, and so on. /opt: "optional", where programs that are installed after the initial system install sometimes end up. /proc: running "processes". The "everything is a file" paradigm carried to the Linux degree! This folder hosts files which keep tabs on boring stuff like what daemons are running and the process ID of Emacs while you have Emacs open. /root: root's home! /sbin: the "system-administrator's bin file", which hosts programs that would be in /bin if they didn't have "root-only" access permissions. /tmp: "temporary" files, of use by programs which need to throw together a data file on-the-fly in preperation for executing some other task. This folder gets flushed on reboot. /usr: "user". Practically a whole other system in here, /usr/bin is still more binaries, /usr/doc and /usr/share/doc are documentation folders, /usr/share/games/fortune is where the funny quotes come from when you log on (if that feature is enabled). The idea is that this should be where files/programs accessible by all users should be, and thus your desktop backgrounds come from /usr/share/wallpapers, or such. The other case is newly installed programs sometimes end up in /usr/local/bin. /var: "variable". System logs in here, recording such things as the last foo commands typed at the prompt, start-up boot messages, and such. The whole file system evolved by consensus over eons, and is usually consistent from one distro to another. The burden is also on developers writing install applications to use this file system, and not make up weird folder schemes on their own. As for users, they have complete freedom to do whatever they want in their own directory. |
/misc is often use as a base mount point for "miscelanous" peripherals using the automounter (see "autofs" kernel module).
Yves. |
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OK, that's 14 out of 16, for a score of 87.5%, a B+ as I recall.
I'll quit while I'm ahead! ;) |
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Very interesting & informative thread, as I had the same /etc question myself this very morning :)
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Yeah, but "Unix System Resources"! What a curve ball! I'm positive I've heard other people refer to that directory by pronouncing it "user", too. One of those mistaken assumptions you pick up...
This thread isn't complete without mentioning the old bumper sticker: "f u cn rd ths, u mst us nx!" Which I think is due for a revival. |
I was almost sure that /usr was "user" -- shows ya what happens when you assume ;)
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thanks everybody, particularly Hosiah!
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/usr is "user"!
I too have heard people at times pronounces /usr as "u-s-r", believing that it stands for Unix System Resource. I personally disagree with this belief, and pronounce it as "user" myself. I think this because for all abbreviations I've come across in Unix, they make sense when expanded...however this one would not. "Unix System Resources" could refer to any other part of the system just as easily as it could for /usr, so I'd have to say it cannot stand for that. The File System Hierarchy Standard says that /usr is for read-only, shareable data. Shareable among different users...so that further supports the case for "user" in my mind...
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/usr is totally user-agnostic so what could it have to do with "user"? As for the FHS, I don't recall that being around back in the early seventies.
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Probably not the official meaning, but I have seen etc referred to as "editable text configuration".
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Still think it's "user" :)
/usr contains objects that support operations performed by users with the regular priveleges. Objects higher than /usr in the root filesystem support operations performed by the system, and usernames that are system-related. That is the abstraction that I use. Moreover, the fact that the FSH wasn't around in the early seventies has no bearing on whether or not it documented the intended purpose of that subtree correctly.
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It is USER...
1.17. /usr
/usr usually contains by far the largest share of data on a system. Hence, this is one of the most important directories in the system as it contains all the user binaries, their documentation, libraries, header files, etc.... X and its supporting libraries can be found here. User programs like telnet, ftp, etc.... are also placed here. In the original Unix implementations, /usr was where the home directories of the users were placed (that is to say, /usr/someone was then the directory now known as /home/someone). In current Unices, /usr is where user-land programs and data (as opposed to 'system land' programs and data) are. The name hasn't changed, but it's meaning has narrowed and lengthened from "everything user related" to "user usable programs and data". As such, some people may now refer to this directory as meaning 'User System Resources' and not 'user' as was originally intended. http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem.../html/usr.html Cheers |
An itch scratched!
Thanks dragonslayer48dx!
The idea that /usr once contained users' directories seems totally likely to me and satisfies my curiosity concerning /usr and its expansion. And while such a discussion may seem nitpicky to some, the ability to read between these lines really does affect ones ability to really understand the system. |
I very vaguely remember reading somewhere that /usr was the second-level heirarchy used for multi-user applications.
I mean like: /bin and /sbin and /lib are used for the core, really essential files that you'd need at init 1 for a basic boot-up. The next level of folders i.e. /usr/bin, /usr/sbin /usr/lib etc are used by apps running on runlevel 3 onwards (And one step deeper in the tree is /usr/local which also has a similar directory set). That line of reasoning did make some sense for me.. / is for root's applications, /usr is for the users'. |
/ contains all resources needed to boot, and only that: boot into a bare environment.
Non-essential applications are in /usr. In big networks, /usr is often mounted from the network. With /usr mounted, the system is a lot more usable. /usr/local is where the administrator of the local machine stores non-essential stuff for his machine only. So you have /usr that is mounted inside / and may come from the network, /usr/local that is mounted inside /usr and should NOT come from the network. In most configurations though, as we usually deal with small networks, /usr is local, and /usr/local is on the same partition. And /opt is another story :) Yves. |
theYinYeti: that's interesting. I wonder then, if there's a 1:1 mapping of files between what's in "/" and what can be found in a miniroot. By your reasoning, we might expect this to be the case.
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how to make nano functionable in debian? how 2 schedule it for downloading on a particular time?
Dear friends....I'm a beginner...what commands should b typed in 'nano'to schedule it for downloading at 2'O clock at night.Pls help me.pls spare some time to answer me.... |
dear friends what is meant by 'curses'(for eg.'btdownloadcurses")?
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usr stands for "user-specific resources" and it fits quite nicly i think. it might be other abbreviations that is used with "usr" though, but i wouldnt know about them other then the ones ive read in this thread
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usr Abreviation
According to linux-training.be/files/books/html/fun/ch09s08.html, it stands for Unix System Resources.
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