• @cogman
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      3312 days ago

      usr does mean user. It was the place for user managed stuff originally. The home directory used to be a sub directory of the usr directory.

      The meaning and purpose of unix directories has very organically evolved. Heck, it’s still evolving. For example, the new .config directory in the home directory.

      • JATth
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        12 days ago

        For example, the new .config directory in the home directory.

        I hope slowly but surely no program will ever dump its config(s) as ~/.xyz.conf (or even worse in a program specific ~/.thisapp/; The ~/.config/ scheme works as long as the programs don’t repeat the bad way of dumping files as ~/.config/thisconfig.txt. (I’m looking at you kde folks…) A unique dir in .config directory should be mandatory.

        If I ever need to shed some cruft accumulated over the years in ~/.config/ this would make it a lot easier.

        • @dafo
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          12 days ago

          I don’t trust a graphic which explains /boot as “system boot loader files”…

          • @irreticent
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            412 days ago

            Why? What’s inaccurate about it? I have no idea and would like to learn.

            • @dafo
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              12 days ago

              It’s not wrong, but it feels a bit like some tech articles you’ll see which are obviously just created to fluff up a CV. I wouldn’t say avyttring here is flat out wrong, just kinda… lacking.

              But yeah, /boot holds “system boot loader files”, sure, but that’s a bit vague. It should contain your kernel and initramcpio and IIRC Grub also had its config here. That’s pretty much it. I would’ve rather said /boot contains the kernel.

              “device files” it’s so vague that it’s almost wrong IMO. At first glaze I would’ve thought that it means drivers rather than, say, “interfaces to devices”

          • @[email protected]
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            412 days ago

            It kind of makes sense on many BIOS/UEFI-less systems where e.g. Uboot is used. And it does contain things like kernel images, sometimes initRD files etc. (which may not be bootloader files but are still system boot files).

          • @AngryCommieKender
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            112 days ago

            Well that’s a shame for me. This graphic finally made the Linux file directory structure make sense to me

      • @[email protected]
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        2112 days ago

        According to this, it’s been around since the 70’s and was originally just a catch-all for files that didn’t fit in the other default directories, but over time has come to be mostly used for config files. I assume it would cause utter mayhem to try and change the name now so I guess it just sticks. Someone suggested “Edit To Configure” as a backronym to try and make it make more sense if that helps anyone lol.

      • @cm0002
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        1012 days ago

        Is there a historical reason?

        If you’re asking that in anything Linux related, it’s probably a Yes 99% of the time LMAO

        • @orangeboats
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          812 days ago

          Not just Linux… 99% of the time you see something weird in the computing world, the reason is going to be “because history.”

          • @cm0002
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            812 days ago

            Looks at the entire networking stack

            Yup (unfortunately)

      • @[email protected]
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        212 days ago

        Try naming a folder “CON” in Windows and learn the magic of old spaghetti code by a multi billion dollar company.

      • @[email protected]
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        112 days ago

        It’s probably the standard in both POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification, so I guess ask Ken Thompson?

    • @InverseParallax
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      212 days ago

      It meant user, as in user-installed programs and libraries for this system over the core system programs and libraries of the operating system in /bin and /lib.

      Someone learned it wrong, but otherwise I think the image is right.