Last edited 4 months ago

File Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

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SUMMARY
This article lists and describes the OpenSTLinux file-system hierarchy (Weston and core).

1. Introduction[edit source]

Linux® is a file-oriented operating system. This means that any application, library, or other information related, for example, to configurations and running applications is stored in files only.

The Template:Highlight defines the directory structure and directory contents in Linux distributions.
It is maintained by the Linux Foundation. Template:Highlight

The main parts described by the FHS are:

  • the physical filesystem: any mass storage devices (NAND/eMMC/... partitions, USB key partitions, and so on)
  • pseudo filesystem: created dynamically at boot-up (and/or at runtime) to store various information and configurations related to the software being run
  • remote filesystem: rootfs can contain links to a network filesystem

OpenSTLinux images respect the latest FHS definition: 3.0

2. Root filesystem content[edit source]

  • The filesystem root of any Linux Distribution (OpenSTLinux included) is named '/' or 'root' (do not confuse with the 'root' super user name).

There are no files in the root path, only directories that shape the Linux FHS, as listed below:

bin/ Essential command binaries
boot/ Static boot loader files
dev/ Device files (temporary filessytem devtmpfs)
etc/ Host-specific system configuration
lib/ Essential shared libraries and kernel modules
media/ Mount point for removable media
mnt/ Mount point for temporarily mounting a filesystem
proc/ Kernel and process information (pseudo filesystem procfs)
opt/ Add-on application software packages
run/ Data relevant to running processes
sbin/ Essential system binaries
sys/ Kernel and system information (pseudo filesystem sysfs))
srv/ Data for system-provided services
tmp/ Temporary files
usr/ Secondary filesystem-hierarchy
var/ Variable data
  • As a standard Linux distribution, the OpenSTLinux distribution includes the optional user directories:
/home User home directories (optional)
/root Home directory for the root user (optional)

Details of the directory purpose, content or sub-hierarchy can be found in the official documentation: FHS-3.0

  • OpenSTLinux also integrates a vendorfs filesystem, mounted on a dedicated Flash-memory partition (that is, /dev/mmcblk0p5):
/vendor Vendor dedicated directory

This directory allows the storage of specific vendor libraries.

3. References[edit source]