Default folders in linux

Linux Root Folders Explained

In this post, you will finally get the Linux root folders explained. You will learn how these folders are used by your Linux system and how you can use them.

When you open your file manager, you are usually located in your home directory. But if you go two levels up, you will see this set of directories:

This post exactly about all these directories. You can watch the video where these Linux root folders explained or continue reading below.

Linux Root folders

I won’t use the terminal here and I will show you some visual presentation. But you are of course are encouraged to open the terminal and explore all these directories. Let’s get started.

/ – The Root

Everything begins in your system from this directory. All your folders, hard drives, USB drivers, everything is located in this root folder. You cannot go above this directory.

Also, the root directory is designated by the slash sign.

The concept of the root directory may be difficult to understand for Windows users who are used to see something like disk C, disk D and disk E. In Linux, every disk is a represented as a folder that is mounted under this root directory.

This Linux Directory Structure may look like a mess, but believe me when you learn it, you will realize how much sense it makes.

/bin – Binaries

The /bin folder contains programs that are essential for the system to boot and run. So, if you destroy this folder, your system won’t boot and run.

These programs are stored in the binary format. In other words, they are not in text format. You cannot open and read the content of these programs. The advantage of such format is that a computer can read and execute these programs very fast.

/boot – Boot Files

It is easy to guess from the name. This folder is needed to boot your system. It contains the Linux kernel, initial RAM disk image for drives need at boot time, and the bootloader.

I also would like to point out that within this boot folder, you can find the grub folder that contains grub configuration files.

If you read my Arch Linux post, you should remember than I used this command to generate the GRUB configuration file.

The boot folder also contains the Linux kernel.

/dev – Device Nodes

Here, I need to introduce another important concept of Linux – everything is a file. The /dev folder contains files for all devices your Linux is able to recognize.

If you have some Linux experience, you may recall that when you mount a hard drive, you use a name such as /dev/sda1 . The sda is the name of a first hard drive recognized by your Linux kernel and it is located in the dev folder. When the disk is mounted, you see it as a folder in that mounting point.

You can also find here USB devices, CPU etc.

/etc – Configuration Files

The /etc folder comprises all system-wide configuration files and some shell scripts that are executed during the system boot. All files here are text files, so they are human readable.

If you ever did any system-wide configuration, you probably edited some files here.

For example, there is /etc/fstab file that contains a table of storage devices and their mounting points.

/home – Users’ Folder

The home directory contains a home folder for each regular user on your Linux system. For example, I have tow folders in my /home folder. ALU is my home folder. The second folder belongs to another user, whom I named User2. So, the home folder of every user is named by its username.

You have as many folders as many users you have on your system.

These users’ folders are where users store their private data such as documents, videos, picture, music etc. When you open your file manager or your terminal by default you are located in you user’s home folder. It is also often marked as

/lib – Libraries

You already know the /bin directory that contains programs, this /lin folder contains libraries required by those programs from the /bin folder.

A library is a set of functions that are shared between programs. Thus, this /lib folder is also essential for your system to work correctly.

/lost+found – Recovered Files

You will have this directory if you use the ext4 file system. Most of the modern Linux distros use ext4, so most likely you have this folder. This is a file system specific folder that is used for data recovery in case of file corruption. Unless something bad has happened, this folder should be empty on your system.

This /lost+found folder is produced on every separate partition. So, if your /home folder is on a separate partition, you should have this /lost+found folder in your home directory too.

/media – Automatic mount point

This folder is used for automatic mounting of removable media such as USB drives, CD-ROM etc. For example, if your system is configured for automatic mounting, when you insert a USB drive it will be mounted to this folder.

/mnt – Manual mount point

The /mnt folder is similar to the /media folder, it is also used to mount devices, but usually, it is used for manual mounting. You, of course, can manually mount your devices to /media , but to keep some order in your system it is better to separate these two mounting points.

/opt – Optional Software

This folder is not essential for your system to work. Usually, it is used to install commercial programs on your system. For example, my Dropbox installation is located in this folder.

/proc – Kernel Files

This is a virtual file-system maintained by the Linux kernel. Usually, you do not touch anything in this folder. It is needed only for the kernel to run different processes.

/root – Root Home

This is the home directory of your root user. Don’t mix it with the / root directory. The / directory is the parental directory for the whole system, whereas this /root directory is the same as your user home directory but it is for the root account.

If you log in as a root, you will be located in this directory by default. This is a folder for private data and account specific setting of your root account.

/run – Early temp

The /run is a recently introduced folder that is actually a temporary file-system. It is used to store temporary files very early in system boot before the other temporary folders become available.

/sbin – System Binaries

Similar to /bin this folder contains binaries for essential system tasks but they are meant to be run by the super user, in other words, the administrator of the system.

/srv – Service Data

This directory contains service files installed on your system. For example, if you installed a web-served on your Linux system, it will be located in this folder.

/tmp – Temporary Files

This is just a place where programs store temporary files on your system. This directory is usually cleaned on reboot.

/usr – User Binaries

This is probably the largest folder after your home folder. It contains all programs used by a regular user.

I would like to stop little more on sub-directories of this /usr folder.

/usr/bin contains the programs installed by your Linux distribution. There are usually thousands of programs here.

The libraries for this /usr/bin executables are located in the /usr/lib folder.

The /usr/local doesn’t have any programs by default, but if you compile and install a program system-wide it will be placed here.

The most useful folder is /usr/share . It contains all the shared data used by the programs from /usr/bin .

All default configuration files, themes, icons, wallpapers, sound files are stored here, one more folder I would like to mention here is the /usr/share/doc folder, where you can find the documentation files for programs installed on your system.

/var – Variable Files

The /var contains files that are of variable content, so their content is not static and it constantly changes. For example, this is where the log files are stored. If you don’t know, a log file is a file that records all events happening in your system while it is running. These log files often help to find out if something is not working correctly in your system.

Conclusion

Now you have some clue about all those folders in your Linux system.

Please, feel free to add anything in the comments bellow in case I missed something.

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Thread: Changing default locations for folders

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Changing default locations for folders

I have a dual boot Windows 8/ Ubuntu 13.04 computer. I store all my documents in a Data partition. Ubuntu can access this partition, but, it’s default folders for pictures, music, documents, and downloads, are in the same partition where Ubuntu is installed Is there a way to change this? What I want is for Windows and Ubuntu to use the same Data partition and the same folders for my files, that way I can create and edit files in either OS and the files are in the same location.

Re: Changing default locations for folders

IF you mount folders from Windows while running Ubuntu, you risk corrupting the Windows filesystem. Windows can’t read the Linux filesystem, so that rules out using it.

What you want is a separate DATA partition, formatted in NTFS, to hold those folders and files.

Both Linux and Windows can read/write NTFS partitions.

Re: Changing default locations for folders

Assuming that your Data partition is NTFS so that both Ubuntu and Windows can read/write to it, delete all your default folders in your Ubuntu home: pictures, music, etc. (You only need do this if the names are the same as the folders you have created on your Data partition.) Then simply create symlinks to the Data partition folders in your home folder. Then, if you open your Ubuntu home folder you will see symlink folders (ordinary folder icons with an arrow) which will open in the linked folders in your Data partition. Your Data partition needs to be mounted to the same mountpoint each time you boot up, so you may wish to mount the Data partition with a line in /etc/fstab to ensure consistency.

For Windows, simply create shortcuts in your home to the folders in the Data partition. Again, you may have to delete, move or rename the default folders in your Windows home, if the names are the same.

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Re: Changing default locations for folders

Precisely, that is what I have, a Data Partition in NTFS. Windows uses it as the location for my files, documents, music, pictures, etc. I can also access it in Ubuntu. I use LibreOffice in both, so, I would like to make Ubuntu’s default folders for pictures, documents, etc., be the same as Windows (the folders in the Data Partition).

Re: Changing default locations for folders

Will these links be used by Ubuntu apps as the default location for storing their files?

Re: Changing default locations for folders

You can name symlinks in Ubuntu whatever you want. A folder in your Data partition named «My_Pictures» can have a symlink to it in your Ubuntu home folder named «Data_Partition_Pictures». I don’t know about Windows shortcuts, but I’m sure the same applies.

Quick tip for creating symlinks in the GUI is you don’t want to use the terminal. This is in Ubuntu with Unity — I don’t know whether this works in desktops such as Xfce or KDE.

1. Open a file browser window to the Data partition and a second one to your Ubuntu home folder.
2. Right-click on the folder in your Data partition that you want to link to and select «Make Link». Let’s assume the folder was «Videos». A link will appear in the Data partition named «Link to Videos». Now drag and drop that across to your home folder. You can now rename «Link to Videos» in your home folder to whatever you want — presumably «Videos». And you can now delete the link in the Data partition as it wont be of any further practical use.
3. Voila — you have a symlink in your home folder. Repeat for anything else you want to link.

As far as default locations for storing files, you’ll have to set that up individually for each app — it’s easy enough in LibreOffice under Tools -> Options. Some apps use hidden default folders and you can do the same thing so long as you are careful about folder naming and copying the pre-existing contents of hidden default folders to a temporary location before you create your symlinks so that you can then move them to the corresponding folders in Data. For example, Thunderbird and Xchat create .thunderbird and .xchat folders in home by default for all your saved stuff and configurations. I have symlinks named the same in my home linked to folders in my data partition. I was careful to backup the contents of .thunderbird and .xchat before setting up the symlinks otherwise I would have lost all my emails and xchat logs.

A word of warning. Be careful when deleting default folders in your Ubuntu home — ditto in Windows. Check to see what they contain first, as in the thunderbird example I give. If you delete the default Downloads folder, Firefox will get confused until you redirect it back to the symlink you create called Downloads — or it did a few years ago when I first did this. You’ll also lose the pretty special icons on Music, Pictures and the like when you delete the default icons. I’m sure there’s a way of applying them to the symlink folders, but I haven’t looked into this.

And a repeat word of warning. You data partition needs to be mounted on the same mountpoint each time you boot up otherwise the links will break.

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