Linux directory names

[clif2]

Why are /etc and /usr so called?

[Duty]

etc is short for Etcetera, meaning everything else.
usr is short for UNIX System Resources, but can also be thought of as "user's stuff".

[akvalentine]

Both names come from the history of Unix, where

/etc is the abreviation for etcetera.
That is where stuff goes that the original people thought had no other good place. Now it is a place for configuration stuff.

and

/usr stands for "user" (as opposed to "system" or "kernel")
That was where the users had their home directories (and other _user_ related files were stored).

[Billy_Witchdoctor]

/usr stands for "user" (as opposed to "system" or "kernel")
That was where the users had their home directories (and other _user_ related files were stored).

Actually, read the post above yours, usr is not user, it is unix system resources.

[khiloa]

/usr stands for "user" (as opposed to "system" or "kernel") That was where the users had their home directories (and other _user_ related files were stored).

Thats what I thought too..

[STEDevil]

Why are /etc and /usr so called?

Why? Becuse someone back in the 1970-ties thought it was a good idea to have aqward names for folders and then things kind of stuck.

There are some few dists that are trying to change things into more logical naming, eg Gobo linux, and everytime I forget where exactly a specific file is placed I wonder if they are not really on to something in that dist.

(This article on the gobolinux site is quite an interseting read if you are wondering about foldernames http://www.gobolinux.org/index.php?lang ... s/clueless )

[clif2]

/etc is the abreviation for etcetera.
That is where stuff goes that the original people thought had no other good place. Now it is a place for configuration stuff.

That's what I would have thought it stood for , but I had to ask 'cos I couldn't figure why it was used for conf files. But it makes sense given the history of UNIX.

I was wondering if it had a specific meaning relating to conf files, because some of the software I use, places conf files in the /etc directory inside its installation tree. But I guess, wether its good or bad pratice, it's just an extension of standard system terminology. Personally, in this situation I'd probably use [software_inst]/conf -- so as to be explicit about the directory's purpose. But then again why not just use system /etc anyway?

Thanks for clearing up the mysteries.

Any other info relating the history of unix directory names?

[grover]

/usr stands for "user" (as opposed to "system" or "kernel")
That was where the users had their home directories (and other _user_ related files were stored).

Actually, read the post above yours, usr is not user, it is unix system resources.

Not its not. /usr is short for user. In the early versions of unix, it was used for storing the users files as the post above mentions. Unix System Resources was made up some time later when /usr was no longer used for that purpose.

[DaveArb]

/usr stands for "user" (as opposed to "system" or "kernel")
That was where the users had their home directories (and other _user_ related files were stored).

Actually, read the post above yours, usr is not user, it is unix system resources.

Not its not. /usr is short for user. In the early versions of unix, it was used for storing the users files as the post above mentions. Unix System Resources was made up some time later when /usr was no longer used for that purpose.

"User" is the way I remember it, too. In my old UNIX Version 7 manual, that's what was described. "UNIX System Resources" is some new thing...

Dave

[clif2]

Thanks for the responses. I suppose it's fair to say that /usr, has at various times stood for User and/or Unix System Resources. I think I'll remember it as "user", to me that seems easiest.

While we're on the topic of users, I take it that /home is so named because it is now the base directory for storing user's home directories. Thus replacing the original purpose of /usr -- as described above, right?

Whilst /usr is now used primarily to store application software -- hence "user", as opposed to system/kernel software.

[miqorz]

I'm almost positive /opt means - optional.

[shash]

Yeah, and /dev is devices and /bin is binaries!

Well, I suggest that you go to the experts for the real stuff: The filesystem hierarchy standard

[lbrtuk]

Whilst /usr is now used primarily to store application software -- hence "user", as opposed to system/kernel software.

Yes. Userspace as opposed to kernel space.

[Cerement]

Why? Becuse someone back in the 1970-ties thought it was a good idea to have aqward names for folders and then things kind of stuck.

from In the Beginning was the Command Line:

Note the obsessive use of abbreviations and avoidance of capital letters; this is a system invented by people to whom repetitive stress disorder is what black lung is to miners. Long names get worn down to three-letter nubbins, like stones smoothed by a river.