Working with Filenames and Path and Globing

Motivation

Here you will get an rough overview of where to find things in the file system and how to navigate the file system.

File System Hierarchy

In Unix/Linux the Top of the file system is the root directory named /. There are no drive letters as you know them from a certain other operating system. What you find below is a structure that exists since the early days of Unix. Here are the most important directories and what they are used for in Linux.

Filsystem Hierarchy

/	everything starts here.
/etc	System-wide configuration files.
/usr	Program Files (executable, libraries and files the programs need)
/bin	System programs
/lib	Important system libraries
/sbin	Important system programs that usually only the root user needs
/usr/lib	libraries for user programs
/usr/local	Stuff that is not part of your linux distribution, things you installed locally
/opt	Optional - used if you do not want to follow the filesystem standard
/mnt	A place where you would want to mount extra filesystems
/media	Below /media the system automatically mounts your CD drive or your USB thumb drive, ...
/home	Every regular user of the system has their home directory below /home. E.g /home/anna
/root	Only the root user has his/her home directory here.
/dev	Here you find device files which are placeholders to directly access almost any hardware on our system. E.g. you could directly read the naked hard-drive.
/proc	It looks like there are many files, but those are actually just a simulation that allows you a direct view into some kernel data. E.g. try cat /proc/cpu to see your CPUs.
/sys	Similar to proc but better organized
/var	If programs need to store data they should put it here. (/usr is for data that is only read and not written)
/tmp	Temporary files - usually deleted on startup.