Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

An overview of a generic UNIX filesystem hierarchy UNIX
Did you ever wonder what exactly should be in the /usr/bin directory? Or maybe what goes inside the /usr/local/sbin directory? I found a great resource of the standards for UNIX describing all the directories in a basic UNIX filesystem. Very handy!

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
The filesystem standard has been designed to be used by Unix distribution developers, package developers, and system implementors. However, it is primarily intended to be a reference and is not a tutorial on how to manage a Unix filesystem or directory hierarchy.
You can find the document here: http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

[robg adds: I haven't read the whole thing, but it looks to be a good overview of generic UNIX filesystem structure. There will clearly be areas where OS X differs, but this should be a nice starting point if you're wondering what all those directories are for.]
    •    
  • Currently 3.00 / 5
  You rated: 5 / 5 (4 votes cast)
 
[9,741 views]  

An overview of a generic UNIX filesystem hierarchy | 2 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'An overview of a generic UNIX filesystem hierarchy' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
An overview of a generic UNIX filesystem hierarchy
Authored by: ataraxia on Mar 19, '04 12:42:09PM
You can also read the hier (7) man page for a quick overview of these things, and this one (naturally) is Apple-specific.

[ Reply to This | # ]
hier(7) man page
Authored by: sjk on Mar 19, '04 03:45:52PM

Uhh, I wouldn't say "naturally" because there are many incomplete, out-of-date, and erroneously misleading man pages on OS X and other flavors of Unix. But Apple gets credit for updating this one, at least to some degree. :-)



[ Reply to This | # ]