My main question is about /run/user/1000:

  • Should I avoid touching it?
  • Could I delete it?
  • Is there something wrong with it?

Background: I’m fairly new to Linux and just getting used to it.

I use fsearch to quickly find files (because my filenaming convention helps me to get nearly everything in mere seconds). Yesterday I decided to let it index from root and lower instead of just my home folder.

Then I got a lot of duplicate files. For example in subfolders relating to my mp3 player I even discovered my whole NextCloud ‘drive’ is there again: /run/user/1000/doc/by-app/org.strawberrymusicplayer.strawberry/51b78f5c/N

Searching: Looking for answers I read these, but couldnt make sense of it.

Puzzled:

  • Is this folder some RAM drive so my disk doesnt show anything strange? Because this folder doesnt even show up at the root level.
  • Are these even real? Because the size of it (aprox 370 GB) is even bigger then my disksize (screenshot).

Any tips about course of (in)action appreciated.

  • @[email protected]English
    41•10 months ago

    https://serverfault.com/questions/24523/meaning-of-directories-on-unix-and-unix-like-systems

    • /bin - Binaries.
    • /boot - Files required for booting.
    • /dev - Device files.
    • /etc - Et cetera. The name is inherited from the earliest Unixes, which is when it became the spot to put config-files.
    • /home - Where home directories are kept.
    • /lib - Where code libraries are kept.
    • /media - A more modern directory, but where removable media gets mounted.
    • /mnt - Where temporary file-systems are mounted.
    • /opt - Where optional add-on software is installed. This is discrete from /usr/local/ for reasons I’ll get to later.
    • /run - Where runtime variable data is kept.
    • /sbin - Where super-binaries are stored. These usually only work with root.
    • /srv - Stands for “serve”. This directory is intended for static files that are served out. /srv/http would be for static websites, /srv/ftp for an FTP server.
    • /tmp - Where temporary files may be stored.
    • /usr - Another directory inherited from the Unixes of old, it stands for “UNIX System Resources”. It does not stand for “user” (see the Debian Wiki). This directory should be sharable between hosts, and can be NFS mounted to multiple hosts safely. It can be mounted read-only safely.
    • /var - Another directory inherited from the Unixes of old, it stands for “variable”. This is where system data that varies may be stored. Such things as spool and cache directories may be located here. If a program needs to write to the local file-system and isn’t serving that data to someone directly, it’ll go here.
    • Joël de BruijnOP
      0•10 months ago

      Thanks, this doesn’t say anything tho about 2 levels deep in bullet 10. But I get anything in run/user/1000 serves the same purpose.

      • @nottellingEnglish
        11•10 months ago

        The above is accurate, and can be considered accurate for any directory below or at well.

        Per /run, it’s also mounted in memory, so trying to “declutter” it won’t get you anywhere and things will return on reboot.