[ask] Try to understand installation behavior and Linux file system
 

Dear all,
I'm installing slackware to my PC that has 4 partitions on my IDE slave hard drive that is /dev/hdb.

The four partitions are:
/dev/hdb1 for swap
/dev/hdb2 for root /
/dev/hdb3 for /usr/local
/dev/hdb4 for /home

I thought that the Linux package will be at root / and assumed /usr/local and /home would be empty directories, but instead I found that those directories are not.

What is the behavior of the installation? Does it put the package spread out across the mounted directories, not centralize in /?

I was planning to put my applications only on /usr/local and my data only on /home.

Regards,
ethereal1m

When you install, you have to tell the installer where each of the different parts of the directory tree is to go. This is not done automatically. The exact method depends on your distribution.

The usual method of installing is to let the installer partition your drive instead of pre-partitioning with another tool. At the partitioning part of the install procedure, you usually have the option to manually partition - often called "advanced" or similar.