Hi. New to the forum. Would just like to know what the directory names stand for. Ive recently found out that /usr actually stands for "Unix System Resources". What does /etc, /opt, /var and others stand for. The reason Im asking is because Im busy developing a new distribution and would like to play around with directory structures.

Thanks
Cheers

check the WIKI, ther's a lot of explanations there

/etc will have the configuration files and /var is the place for the log files (volatile).

etc = Actually stands for etcetera..
var = Various... as it will have many different files, log files, very fast changing partition.
opt = Optional
usr = Like you mentioned.. Unix System Resources
tmp = Temporary files
boot = boot directory, stores boot info, kernel, etc.
home = Users home partitions
mnt = Mount directory.. usually for cdroms, floppy's, etc.
export = Export directory, exported filesystems, etc.
lib = Library directories, where lib's are stored
proc = Processes. Currently running processes of your system, etc.
dev = Devices, directory to reference all of your devices on your system.
bin = Binary Utilities directory... think of it as /usr but keeps most of the basic commands.
sbin = Just like bin but usually for root user

And anything that has local in it.. like /usr/local usually is for the local filesystem only. Some systems were setup to share the /usr directory and such.. so the local was kept for that one system and not shared, etc. Usually nowadays since hard drive space is not an issue, most use /usr/local as a place to store programs that are installed by non root users.