Hello all,

Can someone help clear up the differences between the following directories:

1. /bin and /sbin
2. /opt and /usr
3. /sys and /dev

I have a general knowledge of what all these do, but I wanted to know a little more in-depth of what the differences are. They seem to have some gray area's after reading about them.

Thanks

/bin > general binaries
/sbin > secure binaries, ie only root should be useing these as in the wrong hands they can do damage, and general users don't really need them

/opt > optional
/user > user, most day to day programs and there associated libraries, man pages etc

/sys > mainly for the kernel to expose varoius things to the real world
/dev > this is where the hardware and virtual devices show up (everything is a file in *nix type systems)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesys...archy_Standard

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/colla...workgroups/lsb

1. /bin - It contains system binaries or the useful commands executable by super users as well as non-previlaged users in the system

2. /sbin - It contains system binaries or the commands used for system maintenance and/or administrative tasks executable only by super users

3. /usr - contains read-only sharable data(all the user binaries, their documentation, libraries, header files,X and its supporting libraries)shared by all hosts.So dont keep host specific data here..

4. /opt - This directory is reserved for all the software and add-on packages that are not part of the default installation

5. /dev - It's the location of special or device files

6. /sys - All system information files managed by kernel

/sbin is like /bin but for system executables

On Linux, /sys is usually called /proc