The Linux Filesystem Tree

Picture an upside-down tree. It has one starting point at the top. Large branches lead to smaller branches, and those lead to files. Linux calls the single starting point the root directory and writes it as one forward slash: /.

The root directory is not the same as the root user. One is the top folder; the other is a powerful administrator account.

Several first-level branches have common jobs. /home contains ordinary users’ personal folders. /etc contains system configuration. /var contains changing data such as logs. /tmp is for temporary files.

Unlike Windows, Linux does not normally organize everything under drive letters such as C:. Other disks and devices are connected somewhere within the same tree.