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The One Linux Command That Tells You What Every Folder Is For
A plain guide to /usr, /var, /opt, /srv and /etc that you will actually remember
I knew /home was mine. I knew /etc had config files somewhere inside yet, I forget why /etc existed. The rest looked like a pile of short names with no story.
Then I found out Linux ships its own map of the whole filesystem. You do not need a blog post or a cheat sheet. You need one command. I will show it first. Then we will walk through the five folders that confuse many people.
The one command
man hierThe man command opens the manual page for a topic. The word hier is short for hierarchy. So you are asking Linux to show you the page that describes how its folders are laid out.
A page opens inside your terminal. The title at the top reads hier. Below it you get a list of folders. Each one has a short note about what belongs inside. Use the arrow keys or the space bar to scroll. Type a forward slash and a word to search. Type q to leave.
Two things make this page worth knowing. It lives on your own machine so it works offline. It also describes the layout your distribution follows. Blog posts can be wrong or old. This page matches the system in…
