Installation guide

20 Chapter 1. File System Structure

that are not designed to be directly utilized by users or shell scripts. The libexec directory contains

small helper programs called by other programs, sbin is for system administration binaries (those

that do not belong in /sbin), share contains ﬁles that are not architecture-speciﬁc, src is for source

code, and X11R6 is for the X Window System (XFree86 on Red Hat Linux).

1.2.1.9. The /usr/local Directory

The FHS says:

"The /usr/local hierarchy is for use by the system administrator when installing software locally. It

needs to be safe from being overwritten when the system software is updated. It may be used for programs

and data that are shareable among a group of hosts, but not found in /usr."

The /usr/local directory is similar in structure to the /usr directory. It has the following subdirec-

tories, which are similar in purpose to those in the /usr directory:

/usr/local

|- bin

|- doc

|- etc

|- games

|- include

|- lib

|- libexec

|- sbin

|- share

|- src

1.2.1.10. The /var Directory

Since the FHS requires that you be able to mount /usr read-only, any programs that write log ﬁles or

need spool or lock directories should write them to the /var directory. The FHS states /var is for:

"...variable data ﬁles. This includes spool directories and ﬁles, administrative and logging data, and transient

and temporary ﬁles."

Below are some of the directories which should be subdirectories of /var:

/var

|- account

|- arpwatch

|- cache

|- crash

|- db

|- empty

|- ftp

|- gdm

|- kerberos

|- lib

|- local

|- lock

|- log

|- mail -> spool/mail

|- mailman