In Linux, there are many folders created at the root of the system hard drive mount point. But what exactly is each folder displayed for? We'll list them below.
The root we are talking about here is the location under "/"
- /bin: Binaries of essential system commands, such as bash (terminal) for example
- /boot: Static bootloader files, such as GRUB
- /dev: Files representing devices, such as hard drives, USB sticks, or serial devices
- /etc: Contains machine-specific configurations. This contains Apache or Zabbix agent configuration files, for example.
- /home: Home directory of the machine's users (does not include root)
- /lib: System shared libraries and Linux kernel modules
- /mnt: Folder used for mount points for temporary partitions, such as USB flash drives or external hard drives. Can also be used for NFS network mount points.
- /opt: Folder containing additional application packages on the machine that have no dependencies on other libraries. Often used for optional packages of a distribution
- /root: Home folder of the "root" user
- /sbin: Folder containing essential system binaries
- /tmp: Folder intended to store temporary files and folders
- /usr: Folder containing applications used by system users.
- /var: Folder containing variable data, but which are not applications. This includes logs, or even web files from a web server.
Some distributions add folders to the root mount point, but they are not part of the official Linux kernel folders.
