File System Layout - What Goes Where, and Why?

OdinsDream · Veteran Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 1057

I was wondering if there's somewhere to go for an overview of the purpose of all the different directories on a Gentoo system.

I know there's some philosophy and reason behind this all, but I'm not sure I'm clear on it. I've got a functioning system, and I'm pleased with it, but I find myself all too often using "updatedb && locate XXX" whenever I need to find something.

I'm sure if I knew the idea behind where stuff goes, I could find it easier. For instance, why is vmware in /opt/vmware/bin/vmware instead of /usr/bin/?

A quick breakdown would be nice :-)

arkane · l33t Joined: 30 Apr 2002 Posts: 918 Location: Phoenix, AZ

Well, that has been an age-old Solaris practice.. putting binary packages (well, packages from vendors that is) into the /opt partition/directory. As far as the rest of it, I'm not sure you'll find a specific answer other than historical significance, and religious wars

The ebuild howto has something on placement of files, but it's only like a sentence or two talking about KDE placement difference in Gentoo. I really haven't noticed much different other than the /etc configuration file placement which is different no matter which Linux distribution you use.

Well, and the obligatory KDE/Gnome and library placements are different in some cases.

splooge · l33t Joined: 30 Aug 2002 Posts: 636

It's the file heirarchy standard.

Try this:

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

rac · Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2002 9:54 pm Post subject:

Why portage is where it is. is a good resource.
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