CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 5: The Linux Operating System       9  The Major Components and Interfaces of Linux and Their Functions

The Major Components and Interfaces of Linux and Their Functions 1 Linux Path Names and File Names

The grounding of understanding Linux is the basic knowledge of the directory structure and the major files and directories found on a system. Typical systems may have many of thousands of directories and files; however, the basic organization of where these files and directories are located is relatively standard across most Linux distributions. Linux uses a basic directory structure as shown below:

/

|-- bin

|-- boot

|-- dev

|-- etc

|-- home

\-- usersdirectories

|-- lib

|-- mnt

|-- opt

|-- proc

|-- root

|-- sbin

|-- tmp

|-- usr

\-- var

The top-level directory / is called the root directory and all other directories and files are located within this directory. In the above example, a tree’s listings of the root directory are several major directories that will be discussed in this section.

To understand how Linux directories and filenames are formed let us compare by remembering how Windows files are referenced (their complete path names). Each file system on a hard disk partition is referred to by a drive letter such as C:\ or D:\ and has a root directory as indicated by the \ character. Additional sub directories and files can be addressed by the form c:\Windows\Program Files where c: indicates the drive, \ indicates the root directory, within the root directory going to the directory Windows and then a sub directory as indicated by the \ character and then going to the directory Program Files.

The Major Components and Interfaces of Linux and Their Functions 1 Linux Path Names and File Names