Linux File Systems

The Linux file system is layout as an upside down tree. From the top of the tree - called the root filesystem, you'll find subdirectories such as the following illustration. There subdirectories are further subdivided into more specific directories. Here we will only cover the top most directories, this will give you a general idea of the layout.

The general function of these subdirectories are as follows:

The "/" or the so called root directory is the container for all subdirectories,
the "home" directory is where each users save their own work.
the "usr" directory contains user applications and programs that are not part of the Linux OS.
the "boot" directory contains the Linux kernel, initramfs image, grub configuration files.
the "etc" directory contains the application/systems configurations, boot up script files, etc, ...
the "dev" directory contains device files. e.g. /dev/dsp is the sound device.
the "mnt/media" are directories used as mount points for mounting CD ROMs, etc.
the "bin/sbin" are directories storing basic Linux applications/system applications.
the "sys/proc" are dynamically created. They are for system and device communications.
the "var" directory contains mostly log files, dynamically created session files, caches, etc.
the "tmp" directory contains application temporary files.
the "..." or other directories are less important for a first look.

A collection of these directories are often grouped together into a partition on the disk during the installation process, these groups are mounted as filesystems. There is one partition which is hidden and not mentioned above, that is the swap partition; a swap partition is a borrowed space for when applications ran out of physical ram.

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