The first thing you should know when working with linux, is that everything is treated as either a file or directory.
Yes that's right, even hardware is considered a file by linux, and, speaking of hardware… all your hardware devices are located in the /dev directory, but more on that later.
Another thing that confuses windows users, is the fact that linux dosen’t use drive letters to distinguish between different partitions and devices. that is to say in linux, the “root” of your filesystem is / whereas in windows it would most probably be C:\ .
Drives in linux are “mounted” to directories where their data can then be accessed, so for instance, if you needed to use your thumbdrive, you would plug it into your computer, and then mount it using the “mount” command, which specifies the path to the device ( something like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc ) and the directory to mount it to (usually /mnt or /media), then you can happily access your drive from the /mnt or /media folder.
Sounds strange right?
Well, Yes it does, if you come from a windows environment, where the entire operating system is consolidated onto a single drive.
However, with linux and the ability to mount devices as directories, it gives the end user much greater flexibility in splitting up their operating system over several drives or partitions.
To understand what I mean when I say that this approach in mounting drives grants flexibility, I must first explain the different folders in linux and what they store.
Yes that's right, even hardware is considered a file by linux, and, speaking of hardware… all your hardware devices are located in the /dev directory, but more on that later.
Another thing that confuses windows users, is the fact that linux dosen’t use drive letters to distinguish between different partitions and devices. that is to say in linux, the “root” of your filesystem is / whereas in windows it would most probably be C:\ .
Drives in linux are “mounted” to directories where their data can then be accessed, so for instance, if you needed to use your thumbdrive, you would plug it into your computer, and then mount it using the “mount” command, which specifies the path to the device ( something like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc ) and the directory to mount it to (usually /mnt or /media), then you can happily access your drive from the /mnt or /media folder.
Sounds strange right?
Well, Yes it does, if you come from a windows environment, where the entire operating system is consolidated onto a single drive.
However, with linux and the ability to mount devices as directories, it gives the end user much greater flexibility in splitting up their operating system over several drives or partitions.
To understand what I mean when I say that this approach in mounting drives grants flexibility, I must first explain the different folders in linux and what they store.
The graphic above shows the linux file system hierarchy, now will explain in a bit more detail what each folder contains.
/ this is the root folder, all other folders come under root.. think of it as C:\ in a Windows context.
/bin
this folder contains all the user-essential binaries (programs) that are needed to administer and run your linux system… delete this folder and your system is broken.
/boot
as the name suggests, this folder contains configuration files and other necessary files that are needed by the bootloader
/dev
this folder contains device files (remember, these files represent physical devices, so be careful when working with them)
/etc
this folder contains all the configuration files used by the system, you can also start and stop services (daemons ) from here
/home
this folder contains the home folders of all the normal (non – root ) users on the system .. think of it as my documents in windows
/lib
this folder contains software libraries
/media
this is a mount point for removable devices… this is where you would usually mount your thumbdrives … etc
/mnt
this is a temporary mount point
/opt
this folder contains add on software (extra software)
/sbin
this folder contains binaries that can only be run as the root user (”superuser”)
/tmp
this folder contains temporary files that are erased upon reboot
/usr
this folder and its subfolders contains user installed programs and utilities and libraries
/var
this folder contains files that change alot (”Variable files”)
/root
this folder contians the root user’s files
/proc
this is a pseudo folder, that contains information about the linux kernel and hardware that is updated in real time.
Now back to how mounting grants flexibility…
You see how the different folders all contain parts of the operating system? Well, we can actually mount a separate hard drive for each of this folders. for example, your /home folder can be put on another hard drive than your / which means that you can easily recover your personal files if the hard drive on / fails because the hard drive mounted to your /home folder is separate from the one that is mounted to your /
So there you have it, you now know a little bit more about the nuts and bolts of Linux based operating systems.
/ this is the root folder, all other folders come under root.. think of it as C:\ in a Windows context.
/bin
this folder contains all the user-essential binaries (programs) that are needed to administer and run your linux system… delete this folder and your system is broken.
/boot
as the name suggests, this folder contains configuration files and other necessary files that are needed by the bootloader
/dev
this folder contains device files (remember, these files represent physical devices, so be careful when working with them)
/etc
this folder contains all the configuration files used by the system, you can also start and stop services (daemons ) from here
/home
this folder contains the home folders of all the normal (non – root ) users on the system .. think of it as my documents in windows
/lib
this folder contains software libraries
/media
this is a mount point for removable devices… this is where you would usually mount your thumbdrives … etc
/mnt
this is a temporary mount point
/opt
this folder contains add on software (extra software)
/sbin
this folder contains binaries that can only be run as the root user (”superuser”)
/tmp
this folder contains temporary files that are erased upon reboot
/usr
this folder and its subfolders contains user installed programs and utilities and libraries
/var
this folder contains files that change alot (”Variable files”)
/root
this folder contians the root user’s files
/proc
this is a pseudo folder, that contains information about the linux kernel and hardware that is updated in real time.
Now back to how mounting grants flexibility…
You see how the different folders all contain parts of the operating system? Well, we can actually mount a separate hard drive for each of this folders. for example, your /home folder can be put on another hard drive than your / which means that you can easily recover your personal files if the hard drive on / fails because the hard drive mounted to your /home folder is separate from the one that is mounted to your /
So there you have it, you now know a little bit more about the nuts and bolts of Linux based operating systems.
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