‫دافغانستان اسالمي امارت‬

‫دتخنیکي او مسلکي زده کړو اداره‬

‫‪System Administration Tools‬‬

‫‪Linux File Systems‬‬

o Course: System Administration Tools
o Topic: Linux File System
o Lecture: Hafizrahman Jabarkhil
o Faculty: Computer Science
o Department: Information Technology
 Objectives

• Describing Linux File Systems

• Describing Linux File System Types
• Describing Linux File System Hierarchy
• Describing Mounting File Systems
• Describing Linux Directory Structure

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 File Systems

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A file system is the methods and data structures that an
operating system uses to keep track of files on a disk or
partition.
●
that is, the way the files are organized on the disk.
●
It also supports control of access to files and directories and
manages the disk space accorded to it.

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The storage devices on your Linux system are presented as a
collection of file systems that you can manage.
●
When you want to add a new storage device, you need to
format it as a file system and then attach it to your Linux file
structure.
●
Hard drives can be divided into separate storage devices called
partitions, each of which has its own file system.

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 Linux File System types

●
Minix: The MINIX file system is the native file system of the
MINIX operating system(created by Professor Andrew
Tanenbaum).
●
The MINIX file system was designed for use with MINIX.
●
This soon proved problematic, since MINIX restricted filename
lengths to fourteen characters (thirty in later versions), it limited
partitions to 64 megabytes.

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EXT: The extended file system, or ext, was implemented in
April 1992 as the first file system created specifically for the
Linux kernel.
●
Designed by Rémy Card to overcome certain limitations of the
MINIX file system.
●
It could handle file systems up to 2 gigabytes (GB) in size.

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EXT2: It was initially designed by Rémy Card as a replacement
for the extended file system (ext).
◆
Files as large as 2GB.
●
Directories as large as 2TB.
Max. file name length of 255 characters.

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EXT3: ext3, or third extended file system, is a journaled file
system that is commonly used by the Linux kernel.
●
It is the default file system for many popular Linux distributions.
A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of
changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by
recording the intentions of such changes in a data structure
known as a "journal”.
●
Journaling provides for fast and effective recovery in case of
disk crashes.
●
With journaling, a log is kept of all file system actions, which are
placed in a journal file.
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EXT4: The ext4 or fourth extended file system is a journaling
file system for Linux, developed as the successor to ext3.
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Large file system: The ext4 file system can support volumes
with sizes up to 1 exbibyte (EiB) and files with sizes up to 16
tebibytes (TiB).
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Unlimited number of subdirectories: Ext4 allows an
unlimited number of subdirectories. (In ext3 a directory can
have at most 32,000 subdirectories.)
●
Backward compatibility: ext4 is backward compatible with
ext3 and ext2, making it possible to mount ext3 and ext2 as
ext4.
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 Linux File System Hierarchy

●
In Linux there is a single file hierarchy, every accessible file is
in this single file hierarchy, no matter how many disks are
attached.
●
There is no such thing as the “C” drive or “E” drive in Linux.
This is because of the concept of mounting.
●
Linux organizes its files and directories into one overall
interconnected tree, beginning from the root directory and
extending down to system and user directories.

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A typical Linux file system (also called a directory structure)

might look like this:

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Absolute Pathnames: Every file can be referenced by its
absolute pathname, which starts at the root directory and
traipses down the inverted tree structure, with each entry also
separated by a forward slash.
●
For example, the absolute pathname for the directory jose
is:/home/jose

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Relative Pathnames: Whereas absolute pathnames always
start from the root, relative pathnames start from your current
location (i.e., your working directory). The notation relies on the
use of two dots (..) to serve as an abbreviation for the
immediate parent of the current directory.
●
As an example, in the picture above, if your working directory is
dane, the relative pathname of the home directory is simply: ..
●
if your working directory is bob, the relative pathname of the
directory Hacking would be: .../Dane/Hacking

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 Mounting File Systems

●
Attaching a file system on a storage device to your main
directory tree is called mounting the device.
●
In Linux a file system maybe mounted onto the single file
hierarchy by attaching that file system’s root to some directory
in the hierarchy.
●
The directory in the file structure to which the new file system is
attached is referred to as the mount point.
●
For example, to access files on a CD-ROM, first you have to
mount the CD-ROM.
●
Mounting file systems can normally be done only as the root
user.

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Linux Directory Structure

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 Linux Directory Structure

/ : Root directory
●
The root directory is the starting point of your directory structure.
This is where the Linux system begins. Every other file and
directory on your system I s under the root directory.

/bin : Command line programs

This directory contains a lot of programs for the system.
The /bin directory contains the most important programs that the
system needs to operate, such as the shells, ls, grep, and other
essential things.

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 Linux Directory Structure

/boot : kernels, boot loader files

This is the place where Linux keeps information that it needs when
booting up.
For example, this is where the Linux kernel is kept.

/dev : Devices
All the devices that a Linux kernel can understand are located
under this directory.

/etc : Configuration files

Stores the configuration files for the Linux system.

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 Linux Directory Structure

/home : user's home directories

This is where users keep their personal files. Every user has their
own directory under /home, and usually it's the only place where
normal users are allowed to write files.

/lost+found :
Here Linux keeps the files that it restores after a system crash or
when a partition hasn't been unmounted before a system
shutdown. This way you can recover files that would otherwise hav
e been lost.

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 Linux Directory Structure

/media and /mnt: mount points

These directories are used for mount points.

/opt : optional software

A rarely used directory in Linux for Optional Software Packages.

/root : home directory for root

The administrative user's home directory.

/sbin :
Holds administration-level commands and any commands used by
the root user.
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 Linux Directory Structure

/bin:
Holds the essential user commands and utility programs.

/tmp: temporary files and directories

A temporary file system which hold temporary files which are clear
ed at system reboot.

/usr: unix system resources (bin, doc, lib,… )

Holds those files and commands used by the system.

/var: log files, spool files, temp. email files

Holds files that vary, such as mailbox, web, and FTP files.
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