[colug-432] Stoopid Question

[Rob Funk]

On Tuesday, January 25, 2011 09:00:12 pm Steve VanSlyck wrote:
> How easy/difficult/impossible and/or unwise would it be to install Linux
> such that all of the OS files" are consinged to their own subdirectory,
> such as /Linux/var and so on, instead of the normal layout of sitting on
> root?

Difficult and unwise; it's better just to learn the Linux/Unix way of doing 
things.


All the OS files are in these root subdirectories:
  /usr - The primary OS files, which require no writing
     (/usr/local being a historical exception)
  /bin and /lib - core OS files needed at bootup
  /boot - pre-OS-boot files
  /var - files that the OS needs to write to
  /etc - configuration files
  /dev - pseudo-files used for access to hardware devices
  /proc and /sys - pseudo-filesystems giving access to kernel information

User-controlled files are in:
  /home - user-by-user data
  /root - root user's home directory
  /srv - server data outside of OS control
  /opt or /usr/local - add-on software packages outside the packaging system

/opt is probably the closest equivalent of Windows' Program Files or MacOS's 
Applications, except that it doesn't include any applications that came with 
the system (or were installed with the native package system).

Jim mentioned the Filesystem Hierarchy standard, and I just want to reiterate 
that it's an extremely important thing to understand for anyone dealing with 
the Linux/Unix directory structure.
  http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard

All that said, it's notable that Android moves many of the usual root-level 
directories to a new /system directory, and adds an "app" directory there for 
applications, though I'm not sure if they're run directly from there (I see 
package files there).