Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora, Fourth Edition

Appendix A. Linux Directory Tree

Table A-1 describes the directories in the Linux directory tree.

Table A-1. The Linux directory tree

Directory	Description
/bin	User programs and scripts essential to system startup
/boot	Boot information, including the kernel
/dev	Device files
/etc	Host-specific configuration files
/etc/sysconfig	Stores configuration files specific to Red Hat Linux
/home	Users’ home directories
/initrd	Used during boot process as a mount point for a directory containing special device drivers
/lib	Libraries, modules, and other object files
/lib/modules	Loadable kernel modules
/lost+found	Recovered data from bad clusters
/mnt	Temporarily mounted filesystems
/opt	Used to store large applications
/proc	Kernel pseudo-directory that provides access to kernel information and configuration items
/root	System administrator’s home directory
/sbin	System administration programs and scripts essential to system startup
/tmp	Temporary files, which are automatically deleted by Red Hat Linux
/usr	Files needed for system operation but not needed to boot system (can be mounted read-only, except when being changed by root user)
/usr/bin	Programs and scripts not essential to system startup
/usr/dict	System dictionaries for spell checking
/usr/etc	Configuration files
/usr/games	Game files
/usr/include	C/C++ header files
/usr/kerberos	Kerberos files
/usr/lib	Libraries and kernel modules ...