Ubuntu adheres to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for directory and file naming. This standard allows users and software
programs to predict the location of files and directories. The root level
directory is represented simply by the slash /.
At
the root level, all Ubuntu systems include these directories:
/bin is a place for most commonly used terminal commands,
like ls, mount, rm, etc.
/boot contains files needed to start up the system, including the Linux
kernel, a RAM disk image and bootloader configuration files.
/dev contains all device
files, which are not regular files but instead refer to various
hardware devices on the system, including hard drives.
/etc contains system-global configuration files, which affect the
system's behavior for all users.
/home home sweet home, this is the place for users' home directories.
/lib contains very important dynamic libraries and kernel modules
/media is intended as a mount point for external devices, such as hard
drives or removable media (floppies, CDs, DVDs).
/mnt is also a place for mount points, but dedicated specifically to
"temporarily mounted" devices, such as network filesystems.
/opt can be used to store addition software for your system, which is
not handled by the package manager.
/proc is a virtual filesystem that provides a mechanism for kernel to
send information to processes.
/root is the superuser's
home directory, not in /home/ to
allow for booting the system even if /home/ is not
available.
/sbin contains important administrative commands that should generally
only be employed by the superuser.
/srv can contain data directories of services such as HTTP (/srv/www/) or FTP.
/sys is a virtual filesystem that can be accessed to set or obtain
information about the kernel's view of the system.
/tmp is a place for temporary files used by applications.
/usr contains the majority of user utilities and applications, and
partly replicates the root directory structure, containing for instance, among
others,/usr/bin/ and /usr/lib.
/var is dedicated variable data that potentially changes rapidly; a
notable directory it contains is /var/log where
system log files are kept.
Important considerations:
The following is a list of important considerations regarding
directories and partitions. Note that disk usage varies widely given system
configuration and specific usage patterns. The recommendations here are general
guidelines and provide a starting point for partitioning.
·
The
root partition / must always physically contain /etc, /bin, /sbin, /lib and /dev,
otherwise you won't be able to boot. Typically 150–250MB is needed for the root
partition.
·
/usr: contains all user programs (/usr/bin), libraries (/usr/lib),
documentation (/usr/share/doc),
etc. This is the part of the file system that generally takes up most space.
You should provide at least 500MB of disk space. This amount should be
increased depending on the number and type of packages you plan to install. A
standard Ubuntu desktop requires a minimum of 1.5GB here. A generous
workstation or server installation should allow 4–6GB.
·
/var: variable data like news articles, e-mails, web sites, databases,
the packaging system cache, etc. will be placed under this directory. The size
of this directory depends greatly on the usage of your system, but for most people
will be dictated by the package management tool's overhead. If you are going to
do a full installation of just about everything Ubuntu has to offer, all in one
session, setting aside 2 or 3 GB of space for /var should be sufficient. If you are going to
install in pieces (that is to say, install services and utilities, followed by
text stuff, then X, ...), you can get away with 300–500 MB. If hard drive space
is at a premium and you don't plan on doing major system updates, you can get
by with as little as 30 or 40 MB.
·
/tmp: temporary data created by programs will most likely go in this
directory. 40–100MB should usually be enough. Some applications — including
archive manipulators, CD/DVD authoring tools, and multimedia software — may use/tmp to temporarily store image files. If you
plan to use such applications, you should adjust the space available in /tmpaccordingly.
·
/home: every user will put his
personal data into a subdirectory of this directory. Its size depends on how
many users will be using the system and what files are to be stored in their
directories. Depending on your planned usage you should reserve about 100MB for
each user, but adapt this value to your needs. Reserve a lot more space if you
plan to save a lot of multimedia files (pictures, MP3, movies) in your home
directory.
