What is the /srv directory actually for???

Wheddod · 08-04-2008, 05:01 AM

Hi all,
I am a new user to Linux, as i am trying to under stand the OS i have been looking at what all the different directories that are installed on the machine as standard after installing RedHat Enterprise version 5. I have done a text installation on an X86 machine. The only directory that i cannot find any information on is the srv directory does anyon know what it is for, and who uses it?

pwc101 · 08-04-2008, 05:03 AM

According to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FHS

/srv : Data for services provided by this system
Purpose

/srv contains site-specific data which is served by this system.

Rationale:

This main purpose of specifying this is so that users may find the location of the data files for particular service, and so that services which require a single tree for readonly data, writable data and scripts (such as cgi scripts) can be reasonably placed. Data that is only of interest to a specific user should go in that users' home directory.

The methodology used to name subdirectories of /srv is unspecified as there is currently no consensus on how this should be done. One method for structuring data under /srv is by protocol, eg. ftp, rsync, www, and cvs. On large systems it can be useful to structure /srv by administrative context, such as /srv/physics/www, /srv/compsci/cvs, etc. This setup will differ from host to host. Therefore, no program should rely on a specific subdirectory structure of /srv existing or data necessarily being stored in /srv. However /srv should always exist on FHS compliant systems and should be used as the default location for such data.

Distributions must take care not to remove locally placed files in these directories without administrator permission. [20]

trickykid · 08-04-2008, 07:15 AM

At some of the employers I worked at, when we used the /srv directory, it was used for admin like directory structures sort of like mentioned in previous post. We used it for anything from cfengine configs to svn repositories for administrators, etc.