Unix Third Edition: Visual Quickstart Guide

Viewing File Systems with df

If you’re used to Windows or Macintosh (prior to OS X) operating systems, you’re probably accustomed to having separate hard drives (C:, D:, E: for Windows users, or real names for Macs), which are just different storage spaces. In Unix systems, different storage spaces are grafted onto the overall tree structure— tacked onto what already exists without any clear distinction indicating where actual disk drives are located. For example, if you have a folder on a Windows computer, you know that all of the subfolders and files within it are located on the same hard drive. In Unix, everything resides within the root directory, but any different directory could be located on a different physical hard drive. You might ...