You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
63 points
*

wait /usr doesn’t mean user?

/etc has to be the worst name in there

permalink
report
reply
34 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points
*

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-2 points

Per the graphic, it means Unix System Resources…

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points
*

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

I wonder why that isn’t /cfg? Is there a historical reason?

permalink
report
parent
reply
22 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

I too expected it to be “et cetera”.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Is there a historical reason?

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

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

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply

Linux

!linux@lemmy.ml

Create post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

  • Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
  • No misinformation
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Community stats

  • 9.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 6.1K

    Posts

  • 170K

    Comments