Purposes of various directories !!

screwdriver · 09-09-2008, 08:09 AM

when i installed a software in redhat5 in which directory did the software installed ? (/,/swap,/boot/var/usr or /home)

what are the purposes of the above directories? (/,/swap,/boot/var/usr and /home)

CRC123 · 09-09-2008, 08:16 AM

/ : root directory, it is the parent of EVERYTHING
/boot : holds files/directories related to booting the system (grub, initrd, vmlinuz, etc)
/var : contains variable files that change fairly 'often'
/usr : contains user accessible programs/info (libraries, documentation, binaries, etc)
/home : contains home directories of all users
/swap : I've never seen swap mounted as a filesystem b/c normally it acts as virtual memory

your software is probably in /usr somewhere

b0uncer · 09-09-2008, 08:21 AM

It depends on the software you install; sometimes the files you "install" (copy to your local filesystem) are placed in one place, sometimes into multiple places (for example configuration file(s) in /etc/, program files in /usr/, later created user-configuration in your home directory under /home/, ...)

Your package manager should be able to list the files contained in a package; this way you might (should?) be able to see where the files are copied. Though that depends on the package manager..

farslayer · 09-09-2008, 08:22 AM

A search for "Linux Directory Structure" in Google returns a LOT of relevant results for that query..

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

http://mybeni.rootzilla.de/mybeNi/mX..._structure.jpg

http://linux.omnipotent.net/article.php?article_id=9027

i92guboj · 09-09-2008, 02:26 PM

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

That's the standard. Not that every distro abides to it, though.

s3ns4i · 09-10-2008, 08:29 AM

here is another good site that will help answer your question

tldp.org/LDP/sag/