3.3. Standards
Standards, whether generic of UNIX or particular to GNU/Linux, allow us to follow a few basic criteria that guide us in learning how to execute a task and that offer us basic information for starting our job.
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In GNU/Linux we can find standards, such as the FHS (filesystem hierarchy standard) [Linb], which tells us what we can find in the our system's file system structure (or where to look for it), or the LSB (Linux standard base), which discusses the different components that we tend to find in the systems [Linc]. |
The FHS filesystem hierchachy standard describes the main file system tree structure (/), which specifies the structure of the directories and the main files that they will contain. This standard is also used to a greater or lesser extent for commercial UNIX, where originally there were many differences that made each manufacturer change the structure as they wished. The standard originally conceived for GNU/Linux was made to normalise this situation and avoid drastic changes. Even so, the standard is observed to varying degrees, most distributions follow a high percentage of the FHS, making minor changes or adding files or directories that did not exist in the standard.
Example 3-3. Note
The FHS standard is a basic tool that allows us to understand the structure and functionality of the system's main file system.
A basic directories scheme could be:
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/bin: basic system utilities, normally programs used by users, whether from the system's basic commands (such as /bin/ls, list directory), shells (/bin/bash) etc.
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/boot: files needed for booting the system, such as the image of the Linux kernel, in /boot/vmlinuz.
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/dev: here we will find special files that represent the different possible devices in the system, access to peripherals in UNIX systems is made as if they were files. We can find files such as /dev/console, /dev/modem, /dev/mouse, /dev/cdrom, /dev/floppy... which tend to be links to more specific devices of the driver or interface type used by the devices: /dev/mouse, linked to /dev/psaux, representing a PS2 type mouse; or /dev/cdrom to /dev/hdc, a CD-ROM that is a device of the second IDE connector and master. Here we find IDE devices such as /dev/hdx, scsi /dev/sdx... with x varying according to the number of the device. Here we should mention that initially this directory was static, with the files predefined, and/or configured at specific moments, nowadays we use dynamic technology techniques (such as hotplug or udev), that can detect devices and create /dev files dynamically when the system boots or while running, with the insertion of removable devices.
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/etc: configuration files. Most administration tasks will need to examine or modify the files contained in this directory. For example: /etc/passwd contains part of the information on the system's user accounts.
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/home: it contains user accounts, meaning the personal directories of each user.
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/lib: the system's libraries, shared by user programs, whether static (.a extension) or dynamic (.so extension). For example, the standard C library, in libc.so files or libc.a. Also in particular, we can usually find the dynamic modules of the Linux kernel, in /lib/modules.
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/mnt: point for mounting (mount command) file systems temporarily; for example: /mnt/cdrom, for mounting a disk in the CD-ROM reader temporarily.
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/media: for common mounting point of removable devices.
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/opt: the software added to the system after the installation is normally placed here; another valid installation is in /usr/local.
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/sbin: basic system utilities. They tend to be command reserved for the administrator (root). For example: /sbin/fsck to verify the status of the file systems.
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/tmp: temporary files of the applications or of the system itself. Although they are for temporary running, between two executions the application/service cannot assume that it will find the previous files.
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/usr: different elements installed on the system. Some more complete system software is installed here, in addition to multimedia accessories (icons, images, sounds, for example in: /usr/share) and the system documentation (/usr/share/doc). It also tends to be used in /usr/local for installing software.
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/var: log or status type files and/or error files of the system itself and of various both local and network services. For example, log files in /var/log, e-mail content in /var/spool/mail, or printing jobs in /var/spool/lpd.
These are some of the directories defined in the FHS for the root system, then for example it specifies some subdivisions, such as the content of /usr and /var, and the typical data and/or executable files expected to be found at minimum in the directories (see references to FHS documents).
Regarding the distributions, Fedora/Red Hat follows the FHS standard very closely. It only presents a few changes in the files present in /usr, /var. In /etc there tends to be a directory per configurable component and in /opt, /usr/local there is usually no software installed unless the user installs it. Debian follows the standard, although it adds some special configuration directories in /etc.
Another standard in progress is the LSB (Linux standard base) [Linc]. Its idea is to define compatibility levels between the applications, libraries and utilities, so that portability of applications is possible between distributions without too many problems. In addition to the standard, they offer test sets to check the compatibility level. LSB in itself is a collection of various standards applied to GNU/Linux.