The Path
In any modern operating system, the file structure is hierarchical and
depends on the directories. In general, the file system structure resembles a
tree structure, each node being composed of a directory or folder, which
contains other directories or files. In Windows, each disk drive is identified
as a basic folder that serves as root to others. On Linux, there is a single
root called / from which all files and directories hang, and that is
independent of which devices are connected to the computer.
The path or path of a file or directory is the sequence of directories that
must be traversed to access a certain file separated by /.
There are two forms of the path:
❖
The absolute path that shows the entire path to a file,
/home/luis/Carta.txt
❖
The path relative to a certain directory, for example, if we cannot
find the / home directory, the path relative to the file Letter.txt is Luis
/ Letter.txt
To complicate matters further, all directories contain two
special directories:
❖
The current directory, represented by the point “."
❖
The parent directory represented by a colon ".."
Being in the directory/home you can access Carta.txt with
/home/luis/Carta.txt (absolute path) or /luis/Carta.txt (relative path). In Luis
as ./Carta.txt or simply Letter.txt.
The Linux file system follows all UNIX conventions, which means it has a
structure determined, compatible and homogeneous with the rest of UNIX
systems. Unlike in Windows or MS-DOS the file system on any Unix
system is not directly linked to the hardware structure, that is, it does not
depend on whether a given computer has 1, 2 or 7 hard drives to create the
c: \, d: \ or m: \ drives.
Every UNIX file system has a unique root or root origin represented by /.
Under this directory you will find all the files that the operating system can
access. These files are organized in different directories whose mission and
name are standard for all Unix systems.
❖
/: Root of the file system
❖
/ dev: Contains system files representing the devices that are
physically installed in the computer
❖
/ etc: This directory is reserved for system configuration files
In this directory, no binary files (programs) should appear. Under this, two
other subdirectories should appear:
❖
/ etc / X11: X Window configuration files
❖
/ etc / skel: Basic configuration files that are copied to the user's
directory when one is created new
❖
/ lib: Contains the libraries needed to run programs that reside in /
bin (not libraries of user programs)
❖
/ proc: Contains special files that either receive or send information
to the system kernel (It recommends not modifying the contents of
this directory and its files)
❖
/ sbin: Contains programs that are only accessible to the superuser
or root
❖
/ usr: This is one of the most important directories of the system
since it contains the usage programs common to all users. Its structure
is usually similar to the following:
❖
/ usr / X11R6: Contains the programs to run X Window
❖
/ usr / bin: General purpose programs, which includes the C / C ++
compiler
❖
/ usr / doc: General system documentation
❖
/ usr / etc: General configuration files
❖
/ usr / include: C / C ++ header files (.h)
❖
/ usr / info: GNU information files
❖
/ usr / lib: General libraries of the programs
❖
/ usr / man: Manuals accessible with the man command
❖
/ usr / sbin: System administration programs
❖
/ usr / src: Source code of programs
In addition to the previous ones, there are other directories that are usually
located in the / usr directory, such as the folders of the programs that are
installed in the system.
❖
/ var: This directory contains temporary information about the
programs (which does not imply that you can delete its content, in
fact, it should not be done)
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