176 lines
6.8 KiB
HTML
176 lines
6.8 KiB
HTML
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
|
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="lgazmail v1.2M.l">
|
|
<TITLE>The Answer Guy 45: <TT>/bin</TT> vs <TT>/sbin</TT> and the FHS Revisited</TITLE>
|
|
</HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000"
|
|
LINK="#3366FF" VLINK="#A000A0">
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<center>
|
|
<H1><A NAME="answer">
|
|
<img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)"
|
|
border="0" align="middle">
|
|
<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
|
|
<img src="../../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)"
|
|
border="0" align="middle">
|
|
</A></H1>
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<H4>By James T. Dennis,
|
|
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
|
|
LinuxCare,
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">http://www.linuxcare.com/</A>
|
|
</H4>
|
|
</center>
|
|
|
|
<p><hr><p>
|
|
<!-- endcut ======================================================= -->
|
|
<!-- begin 9 -->
|
|
<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
|
|
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
|
|
><TT>/bin</TT> vs <TT>/sbin</TT> and the FHS Revisited</H3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p><strong>From Greg Morse on Fri, 20 Aug 1999
|
|
</strong></p>
|
|
<!-- ::
|
|
<TT>/bin</TT> vs <TT>/sbin</TT> and the FHS Revisited
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
:: -->
|
|
<P><STRONG>
|
|
I enjoyed your little write up on bin vs <TT>/sbin</TT> etc.
|
|
Is there somewhere that a file standard for non-linux systems exists?
|
|
I have heard reference to a system V standard. How different is it from
|
|
Linux?
|
|
</STRONG></P>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
There are many standards that relate to various facets
|
|
of various forms of UNIX. However, I don't know of anything
|
|
quite like the FHS for non-Linux systems.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
I've heard that HP was looking at the Linux FHS as a
|
|
possible model for their own HP-UX filesystem/layout
|
|
specification. However that is an unsubstantiated
|
|
rumor. Of course UNIX vendors are welcome to adopt the
|
|
FHS and adapt their systems to match it. This would be
|
|
of benefit to all UNIX and Linux users.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
Also linux does not seem to have a <TT>/opt</TT> filesystem which is quite
|
|
heavily used on my AIX and HPUX boxes. What is the Linux equivalent?
|
|
</STRONG></P>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
Linux does offer <TT>/opt.</TT> I usually make mine a symlink to
|
|
<TT>/usr/local/opt.</TT> It is supposed to be for "applications
|
|
binaries" (so things like <A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A>,
|
|
WordPerfect, Applixware, and StarOffice would all go into the
|
|
<TT>/opt</TT> hierarchy).
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
I would also appreciate it if you could go a bit deeper down the
|
|
directory tree, explaining as you go. The whole unix directory structure
|
|
is a mess and could really do with some xplanation as to what the common
|
|
idoms are.
|
|
Thank you.
|
|
</STRONG></P>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
Oooh! That would be a bit of a project. I don't think I
|
|
have time for it this month (that two week trip to Japan
|
|
and the demands of a full-time job are catching up to me).
|
|
However, I'll leave this in my inbox until the end of the
|
|
month in case I can spend a bit more time on it.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Note that there is a bit of a fractal quality to some parts
|
|
of the typical/conventional Linux/UNIX directory tree.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
For example we find bin, sbin, etc, lib and doc subdirectories
|
|
under <TT>/usr/local/</TT> which serve purposes that are analogous
|
|
to the same directories that are found under <TT>/</TT> and/or under
|
|
<TT>/usr</TT>. We commonly find a similar set of directories under
|
|
<TT>/opt</TT>. It's also common to see users who put tmp, bin, src,
|
|
and even lib subdirectories under their home directories.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Some of the same things can be seen under the <TT>/usr/X11R6</TT>
|
|
directory tree.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Beyond that quite a bit of the directory structure is
|
|
specific to the packages that are installed.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Remember all of these are guidelines rather than strict
|
|
rules. Sysadmins frequently will set things a bit
|
|
differently --- though deviating too far from the
|
|
expectations of their software will require quite a bit
|
|
of programming and patching on their part.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<!-- sig -->
|
|
|
|
<!-- end 9 -->
|
|
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
|
|
>Copyright ©</a> 1999, James T. Dennis
|
|
<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 45 September 1999</H5>
|
|
<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML transformation by
|
|
<A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of
|
|
Starshine Technical Services,
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
|
|
</H6>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- begin tagnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-->
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="98%"><TR VALIGN="center" ALIGN="center">
|
|
<TD ROWSPAN="2" COLSPAN="2" WIDTH="42%"><A
|
|
HREF="../lg_answer45.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/answernew.gif"
|
|
ALT="[ Answer Guy Index ]"></A></td>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="1.html">1</A></TD>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="2.html">2</A></TD>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="3.html">3</A></TD>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="4.html">4</A></TD>
|
|
</TR><TR VALIGN="center" ALIGN="center">
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="5.html">5</A></TD>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="6.html">6</A></TD>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="7.html">7</A></TD>
|
|
<TD WIDTH="14%"><A HREF="8.html">8</A></TD>
|
|
</TR><TR VALIGN="center" ALIGN="center">
|
|
<TD><A HREF="9.html" >9</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="10.html">10</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="11.html">11</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="12.html">12</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="13.html">13</A></TD>
|
|
</TR></TABLE>
|
|
<!-- end tagnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- begin lgnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<A HREF="../index.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ Table Of Contents ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="/index.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ Front Page ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="../lg_bytes45.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/back2.gif" ALT="[ Previous Section ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="../lg_tips45.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/fwd.gif" ALT="[ Next Section ]"></A>
|
|
<!-- end lgnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
</BODY></HTML>
|
|
<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
|