# Linux Directories

By [Ram Ghimire](https://paragraph.com/@ram-ghimire) · 2022-07-07

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which (binary)

**_cd/_** —> root

**_/bin_** —> contains essential executables like cd, ls, mkdir, bash, etc

**_/sbin_** —> system binaries only executed by root user eg mount, route, reboot, ping, etc

**_/usr_** —> /bin —> non-essential installed binaries intended for end user

                /local —> /bin contains locally compiled binaries — echo $PATH
    

**_/etc_** —> editable text configuration, text based config file that you can edit, ends in .conf

**_/home_** —> contains different users

**_~_** —> squiggly, normal file path when opening a terminal session

**_/boot_** —> contains files to boot the system eg. linux kernel

**_/dev_** —> (device files) interface with hardware or drivers as if they were regular files.

**_/opt_** —> optional or addon files

**_/var_** —> variable files like log and cache files

**_/tmp_** —> temporary files that wont be persisted between reboot

**_/proc_** —> does not exist in disk but is created in-memory on the fly by linux kernel to keep track of running processes

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*Originally published on [Ram Ghimire](https://paragraph.com/@ram-ghimire/linux-directories)*