The folders and directories in Linux.

They all have their names and purposes.

/etc/ is for configuration files
/home/ is for users personal files
/tmp/ is for programs that need temporary files.
/mnt/ is for mounted partitions/filesystems.
and theirs the rest of them as well.

Are the folder names abbreviations?
By this i mean, what does "etc" mean?
"tmp" obviously is short for temporary.
"mnt" means mount or mounted.

Also, what about all the other folders of Linux?

Ash

check out

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesy...tml/index.html

Ok, i checked out the site, it answered most of what I wanted.

A am still unsure about the directories /opt/ and /etc/

/opt/ is for software and add-on packages.
/etc/ is for configuration files.

Why use the the characters "etc" and "opt".

Why not use /conf/ for configuartion files? (or something similar)
Why not use /addon/ for software or add-on packages? (or something similar)

I know it may not seem important to know this, and its not. It's just something thats been on my mind for a while and it's bugging me a bit.

Ash

Linux from Scratch may let you name the what ever you want. Installing software may be fun though. Installer says put in /etc and you have it named /conf. The installer is going to be a bit upset.

/etc really contains more than conf files. It contains the init files for booting and some other neat things.

I guess, it is the way it is. It likely made a lot of sense years ago when they started Linux/Unix.

Later

Very true that it would of made sense when Linux was first introduced, to me however, it doesn't make much sense now.

I guess it can't be changed because all the installers would be looking for /etc, and if it did change it would be a pain adapting to it.

Dont want to even go there.

Ash

I know one distro that tries to break this convention, at least from the user's point of view:
http://www.gobolinux.org/

I has a look at it, and see what you mean.

The programs are installed into /programs/ . Also has a different directory for /bin/ and /usr/ .

I guess this means that only programs made by GoboLinux will work on it, unless someone else makes a program with those working directories. No existing programs that work on traditional Linux distributions would work on GoboLinux, will they?

If thats true, then it's I guessing that GoboLinux wants people to use Gobo's own programs on it, and not much other software - maybe?

Ash

Actually after a bit of diggin, it has links to the "old way" directories. That way when you install somethin and it looks for /usr/bin it is link to the gobo style directory and just goes there instead.

It may work well actually. I'm not going to try it though. It is to much like windoze for me.

Later

my $.02 worth.