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META:
This chapter is waiting a major rewrite
META:
Give sample contents of important files, e.g.
/etc/passwd, /etc/group (not here, in the chapter that
discusses the relevant subject)
META:
Give a sample listing of sensible ownerships and
permissions for all the important files, and explain why
they are sensible. Explain what must be done in a specific
way, and what can be altered to make the system more open or
more secure.
META:
timezone files, /etc/skel.
META:
mention where files / programs come from, if not
typically in the distribution
This chapter contains a quick overview of the most important
files and directories on a system. It does not go
into detail about the contents of files, only summarizes their
purpose, possibly mentions connections to other files and
programs, and points to the relevant document that describes
things in more detail.
The set of directories and the division of files between
directories is based on an assumption that some things are on
a root filesystem, the first filesystem that is mounted
when when boots, while others are on other
filesystems, and that some files need to be accessable before
those other filesystems are mounted. The `other' filesystem
is usually called /usr
, and everything else in the root
directory is assumed to be on the root filesystem. While this
configuration is not true for all systems, especially
systems, it was true when the directory tree was originally
designed in the early history of . It is good to
understand this, because many things do not otherwise make
much sense (e.g. why both /bin
and /usr/bin
?).
- The /etc
and /usr/etc
Directories
- Devices, /dev
- The Program Directories, /bin
, /usr/bin
, and Others
- The /usr/lib
Directory
- Shared Library Images, /lib
- C/C++ Programming, /usr/include
, /usr/g++include
- Source Codes, /usr/src
- Administrativia, /usr/adm
- On-line Manuals, /usr/man
- More Manuals, /usr/info
- /home
, Sweet /home
- Temporary Files, /tmp
and /usr/tmp
- The /mnt
and /swap
Directories
- Process Information, /proc
- The /install
Directory
Ross Biro
Mon May 22 09:14:56 PDT 1995