Learning Programmer
As you might have guessed from my other threads, I'm am quite a newbie at Linux, and I cannot understand the file structure. In Linux it is confusing to me as I am new to Linux. In Windows I used to install programs into c:\Programs\<Program Name>. So if I install Net Beans, it would be in c:\Programs\NetBeans and Open Office would be in c:\Programs\OpenOffice. But In Linux when I install something, where does it go? There might be a structure, but I haven't figured it out. Can you enlighten me with what this "/" means and mounting is all about?
Linux doesn't have the concept of drive letters. Instead, every device is mounted into the file system. "/" is the root of the file system. It contains hooks into every device in your system: hard drives, files, modems, mice, video cards, everything!
/home contains the folders for individual users on the system. This is equivalent to C:\Documents and Settings on Windows.
/usr contains a lot of the installed programs. For example, /usr/games contains all the games I've installed.
/bin contains additional programs. This is sort of like c:\windows\system32
/dev contains the devices on your system. Hooks into wifi cards, modems, etc.
There are several other important folders as well, such as /etc which contains a lot of configuration files.
mounting is how you make a disk drive accessible to the file system. They are usually in /mnt
You can read more about them at these sites:
Linux's directory structure
Linux Directory Structure
Linux Directory Structure Overview -- Debian Admin
Linux doesn't have the concept of drive letters. Instead, every device is mounted into the file system. "/" is the root of the file system. It contains hooks into every device in your system: hard drives, files, modems, mice, video cards, everything!
/home contains the folders for individual users on the system. This is equivalent to C:\Documents and Settings on Windows.
/usr contains a lot of the installed programs. For example, /usr/games contains all the games I've installed.
/bin contains additional programs. This is sort of like c:\windows\system32
/dev contains the devices on your system. Hooks into wifi cards, modems, etc.
There are several other important folders as well, such as /etc which contains a lot of configuration files.
mounting is how you make a disk drive accessible to the file system. They are usually in /mnt
You can read more about them at these sites:
Linux's directory structure
Linux Directory Structure
Linux Directory Structure Overview -- Debian Admin
Learning Programmer
So the programs installed are 'scattered' around through all the system?
Basically, yes. The same is true in Windows, but people tend to be less aware of it there. There is an organization, but it is not the same as the Windows model.
Learning Programmer
Windows does that too? Hmm, as far as I know all my programs are installed all in the Program Files folder.. although there might be some dll files scattered around... but the main program is in Program Files, isn't that true?
The OS programs tend to be in c:\windows\system32, .dll's are there. Settings are stored in Documents and settings\All Users, Documents and settings\[user], the registry, etc. As you start digging, you find that things are a little more scattered than is immediately obvious. You can install a program and have information in multiple folders, the registry, etc.
Learning Programmer
Now that I'm thinking about it, you are absolutely right... only the main files are in program files... thanks for the explanation
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