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==Description of the file system hierarchy==

A lot of linux(unix) beginners have trouble finding files in the filsystem hierarchy.

This article could be a help for that problem.

A typical Linux system has, among others, the following directories:

/      This  is  the  root  directory.   This  is  where the whole tree
        starts.
 /bin   This directory contains executable programs which are needed  in
        single user mode and to bring the system up or repair it.
 /boot  Contains  static files for  the boot loader. This directory only
        holds the files  which are  needed during  the boot process. The
        map  installer and  configuration  files should go  to /sbin and
        /etc.
 /dev   Special or device files, which refer to physical  devices.   See
        mknod(1).
 /dos   If both MS-DOS and Linux are run on one computer, this is a typ-
        ical place to mount a DOS file system.
 /etc   Contains configuration files which are  local  to  the  machine.
        Some larger software packages, like X11, can have their own sub-
        directories below /etc.  Site-wide configuration  files  may  be
        placed  here  or  in  /usr/etc.   Nevertheless,  programs should
        always look for these files in /etc and you may have  links  for
        these files to /usr/etc.
 /etc/opt
        Host-specific   configuration   files  for  add-on  applications 
        installed in /opt.
 /etc/sgml
        This directory contains the configuration files for SGML and XML
        (optional).
 /etc/skel
        When  a  new  user account is created, files from this directory
        are usually copied into the user's home directory.
 /etc/X11
        Configuration files for the X11 window system (optional).
 /home  On machines with home directories for users, these  are  usually
        beneath  this directory, directly or not.  The structure of this
        directory depends on local administration decisions.
 /lib   This directory should hold those shared libraries that are  nec-
        essary  to  boot  the system and to run the commands in the root
        filesystem.
 /mnt   This directory contains mount  points  for  temporarily  mounted
        filesystems.
 /opt   This  directory  should  contain  add-on  packages  that contain
        static files.
 /proc  This is a mount point for the proc  filesystem,  which  provides
        information  about  running  processes  and  the  kernel.   This
        pseudo-file system is described in more detail in proc(5).
 /root  This directory is usually the home directory for the  root  user
       (optional).
 /sbin  Like /bin, this directory holds commands needed to boot the sys-
        tem, but which are usually not executed by normal users.
 /tmp   This directory contains temporary files  which  may  be  deleted
        with no notice, such as by a regular job or at system boot up.
 /usr   This directory is usually mounted from a separate partition.  It
        should hold only sharable, read-only data, so  that  it  can  be
        mounted by various machines running Linux.
 /usr/X11R6
        The X-Window system, version 11 release 6 (optional).
 /usr/X11R6/bin
        Binaries which belong to the X-Windows system; often, there is a
        symbolic link from the more traditional /usr/bin/X11 to here.
 /usr/X11R6/lib
        Data files associated with the X-Windows system.
 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11
        These contain miscellaneous files needed to run X;  Often, there
        is a symbolic link from /usr/lib/X11 to this directory.
 /usr/X11R6/include/X11
        Contains  include  files needed for compiling programs using the
        X11 window  system.   Often,  there  is  a  symbolic  link  from
        /usr/include/X11 to this directory.
 /usr/bin
        This  is  the  primary  directory for executable programs.  Most
        programs executed by normal users which are not needed for boot-
        ing  or  for  repairing  the  system and which are not installed
        locally should be placed in this directory.
 /usr/bin/X11
        is the traditional place to look for X11 executables; on  Linux,
        it usually is a symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/bin.
 /usr/dict
        Replaced by /usr/share/dict.
 /usr/doc
        Replaced by /usr/share/doc.
 /usr/etc
        Site-wide  configuration  files  to  be  shared  between several
        machines may be stored in  this  directory.   However,  commands
        should  always  reference  those files using the /etc directory.
        Links from files in /etc should point to the  appropriate  files
        in /usr/etc.
 /usr/games
        Binaries for games and educational programs (optional).
 /usr/include
        Include files for the C compiler.
 /usr/include/X11
        Include files for the C compiler and the X-Windows system.  This
        is usually a symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/include/X11.
 /usr/include/asm
        Include files which declare some assembler functions.  This used
        to be a symbolic link to /usr/src/linux/include/asm.
 /usr/include/linux
        This  contains  information which may change from system release
        to  system  release  and  used  to  be  a   symbolic   link   to
        /usr/src/linux/include/linux to get at operating system specific
        information.
        (Note that one should have include files there  that  work  cor-
        rectly  with  the current libc and in user space. However, Linux
        kernel source is not designed to be used with user programs  and
        does  not know anything about the libc you are using. It is very
        likely that things will break if you  let  /usr/include/asm  and
        /usr/include/linux point at a random kernel tree. Debian systems
        don't do this and use headers from a known good kernel  version,
        provided in the libc*-dev package.)
 /usr/include/g++
        Include files to use with the GNU C++ compiler.
 /usr/lib
        Object  libraries,  including  dynamic libraries, plus some exe-
        cutables which usually are not invoked directly.   More  compli-
        cated programs may have whole subdirectories there.
 /usr/lib/X11
        The  usual  place for data files associated with X programs, and
        configuration files for the X system itself.  On Linux, it  usu-
        ally is a symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11.
 /usr/lib/gcc-lib
        contains  executables  and include files for the GNU C compiler,
        gcc(1).
 /usr/lib/groff
        Files for the GNU groff document formatting system.
 /usr/lib/uucp
        Files for uucp(1).
 /usr/local
        This is where programs which are local to the site typically go.
 /usr/local/bin
        Binaries for programs local to the site.
 /usr/local/doc
        Local documentation.
 /usr/local/etc
        Configuration  files associated with locally installed programs.
 /usr/local/games
        Binaries for locally installed games.
 /usr/local/lib
        Files associated with locally installed programs.
 /usr/local/include
        Header files for the local C compiler.
 /usr/local/info
        Info pages associated with locally installed programs.
 /usr/local/man
        Man pages associated with locally installed programs.
 /usr/local/sbin
        Locally installed programs for system administration.
 /usr/local/share
        Local application data that can be shared among different archi-
        tectures of the same OS.
 /usr/local/src
        Source code for locally installed software.
 /usr/man
        Replaced by /usr/share/man.
 /usr/sbin
        This  directory contains program binaries for system administra-
        tion which are not essential for the boot process, for  mounting
        /usr, or for system repair.
 /usr/share
        This directory contains subdirectories with specific application
        data, that can be shared among different  architectures  of  the
        same  OS.   Often  one  finds  stuff  here  that used to live in
        /usr/doc or /usr/lib or /usr/man.
 /usr/share/dict
        Contains the word lists used by spell checkers.
 /usr/share/doc
        Documentation about installed programs.
 /usr/share/games
        Static data files for games in /usr/games.
 /usr/share/info
        Info pages go here.
 /usr/share/locale
        Locale information goes here.
 /usr/share/man
        Manpages go here in subdirectories according  to  the  man  page
        sections.
 /usr/share/man/man[1-9]
        These  directories  contain manual pages for the specific locale
        in source code form. Systems which use  a  unique  language  and
        code set for all manual pages may omit the  substring.
 /usr/share/misc
        Miscellaneous  data that can be shared among different architec-
        tures of the same OS.
 /usr/share/nls
        The message catalogs for native language support go here.
 /usr/share/sgml
        Files for SGML and XML.
 /usr/share/terminfo
        The datebase for terminfo.
 
 /usr/share/tmac   
        Troff macros that are not distributed with groff.
 
 /usr/share/zoneinfo
        Files for timezone information.
 
 /usr/src
        Source files for different parts of the  system,  included  with
        some  packages for reference purposes. Don't work here with your
        own projects, as files below /usr  should  be  read-only  except
        when installing software.
 
 /usr/src/linux
        This was the traditional place for the kernel source.  Some dis-
        tributions put here the source for the default kernel they ship.
        You should probably use another directory when building your own
        kernel.
 
 /usr/tmp   
        Obsolete. This should be a  link  to  /var/tmp.   This  link  is
        present only for compatibility reasons and shouldn't be used.
 
 /var   This  directory contains files which may change in size, such as
        spool and log files.
 
 /var/adm
        This directory is superseded by /var/log and should  be  a  sym-
        bolic link to /var/log.
 
 /var/backups   
        Reserved for historical reasons.
 
 /var/cache
        Data cached for programs.
 
 /var/catman/cat[1-9] or /var/cache/man/cat[1-9]
        These directories contain preformatted manual pages according to
        their man page section. (The use of preformatted manual pages is
        deprecated.)
 
 /var/cron
        Reserved for historical reasons.
 
 /var/lib
        Variable state information for programs.
 
 /var/local
        Variable data for /usr/local.
 
 /var/lock
        Lock  files are placed in this directory.  The naming convention
        for device lock files is LCK..  where  is  the  device's name in
        the filesystem.  The format used  is that of HDU UUCP lock files,
        i.e.  lock files  contain  a  PID  as  a  10-byte  ASCII  decimal
        number, followed by a newline character.
 
 /var/log
        Miscellaneous log files.
 
 /var/opt
        Variable data for /opt.
   
 /var/mail
        Users' mailboxes. Replaces /var/spool/mail.
 
 /var/msgs
        Reserved for historical reasons.
 
 /var/preserve
        Reserved for historical reasons.
 
 /var/run
        Run-time  variable files, like files holding process identifiers
        (PIDs) and logged user information (utmp).  Files in this direc-
        tory are usually cleared when the system boots.
 
 /var/spool
        Spooled (or queued) files for various programs.
 
 /var/spool/at
        Spooled jobs for at(1).
 
 /var/spool/cron
        Spooled jobs for cron(1).
 
 /var/spool/lpd
        Spooled files for printing.
 
 /var/spool/mail
        Replaced by /var/mail.
 
 /var/spool/mqueue
        Queued outgoing mail.
 
 /var/spool/news
        Spool directory for news.
 
 /var/spool/rwho
        Spooled files for rwhod(8).
 
 /var/spool/smail
        Spooled files for the smail(1) mail delivery program.
 
 /var/spool/uucp
        Spooled files for uucp(1).
 
 /var/tmp
        Like  /tmp,  this  directory holds temporary files stored for an
        unspecified duration.
 
 /var/yp
        Database files for NIS.
   
 CONFORMS TO
        The  Filesystem  Hierarchy  Standard,  Version  2.2
        name.com/fhs/
 
 BUGS
        This  list is not exhaustive; different systems may be configured
        differently.

Taken from the manpage of hier ("man hier")

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