System and Network
Administration Linux based
File System Hierarchy
Lecture 8-Week 4,
May 2020.
Recap of the previous Lecture
File System Structure
Ubuntu Terminal/Bash
Linux File System
I Nodes
Agenda for Today’s Class
File System Structure
File System Structure and
Hierarchy
Structure and commands of
Subdirectories
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
Started by Dennis Ritchie, 1993
Defines the main directories and their
contents in most Linux-based
systems.
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FHS
There is not any drive i.e. C:, D:, E:,
and so on.
All directories are under “/”
“/” is the Root Directory
It is possible
to have multiple partitions
to multiple filesystems
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The Hierarchical Structure of
the Linux File System
The Role of the Linux File
System
- The data is organized and can be easily
located .
- The data can be easily retrieved at any
later point in time .
-The integrity of the data is preserved .
The “/”
The primary hierarchy in FHS
The root of tree of filesystem
All paths start form here
There is only one “/” in filesystem
/root is root user’s home directory,
which is not same as /
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The “/”
boot bin dev etc lib proc root sbin tmp usr var
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Notice that the topmost directory in the
structure is the / directory, that is called
the root directory.
Beneath the root directory, there are a
series of subdirectories.
Specifications for how these directories
are to be named contained in the
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS).
/boot
Linux kernel
Boot loader configuration
If you lost boot
You cannot boot your OS
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/boot
boot
vmlinuz-2.6.12 config-2.6.12 grub
grub.conf
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/bin
Contains several useful commands that are
of use to both the system administrator as
well as non-privileged users.
Usually contains the shells like bash, csh,
etc.... and commonly used commands like
cp, mv, rm, ls.
There are no (real) subdirectories in /bin
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bin
bin
bash bzip2 cat ... gzip ls mv rm
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1. /bin …(cont)
cat hostname rm
chgrp kill rmdir
chmod ln sed
chown login sh
ls stty
cp
mkdir
date su
mknod
dd more sync
df mount true
dmesg mv umount
echo ps uname
false pwd
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/bin detail
cat → Utility to concatenate files to standard output
chmod → Utility to change file access permissions
cp → Utility to copy files and directories
date → Utility to print or set the system date and time
df → Utility to report filesystem disk space usage
echo → Utility to display a line of text
false → Utility to do nothing, unsuccessfully
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/bin detail (cont)
hostname → Utility to show or set the system's host name
kill → Utility to send signals to processes
ln → Utility to make links between files
login → Utility to begin a session on the system
ls → Utility to list directory contents
mkdir → Utility to make directories
more → Utility to page through text
mount → Utility to mount a filesystem
mv → Utility to move/rename files
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/bin detail (cont)
pwd → Utility to print name of current working directory
rm → Utility to remove files or directories
rmdir → Utility to remove empty directories
sh → The Bourne command shell
su → Utility to change user ID
sync → Utility to flush filesystem buffers
true → Utility to do nothing, successfully
umount → Utility to unmount file systems
uname → Utility to print system information
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/dev
Usually is the location of device files
A device and a file both can be read from and
written to. So config a device is same with edit
a file. EXP: sending data to /dev/ttyS0 that
means you are sending data to a
communication device, such as a modem.
'block devices' are devices that store or hold
data
'character devices' can be thought of as
devices that transmit or transfer data
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/dev … detail
/dev/ttyS0 → Device connected to Com1 (Modem, mouse,..)
/dev/psaux → PS/2 mouse connection
/dev/lp0 → First parallel port
/dev/dsp → Sound card (digital signal processor)
/dev/usb → USB device nodes.
/dev/sda → First SCSI device
/dev/scd → First SCSI CD-ROM device
/dev/cdrom → CD-ROM drive
/dev/fd0 → floppy drive
/dev/had → The partition on primary hdd
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Sub Directories……
The lecture will continue in the next
class
