The Filesystem Tree
Understand the root directory, home directory, and how the filesystem is organized as a tree.
Every file and folder on your computer lives inside a single tree structure. At the very top is the root directory, written as
/. Everything — your documents, your programs, even the operating system itself — branches off from this single root.Inside the root you'll find standard directories that each have a purpose.
/bin holds essential programs (like ls and cd). /etc stores system configuration files. /usr contains user-installed software. /var keeps variable data like logs. /tmp is for temporary files that can be safely deleted on reboot. And /home is where each user gets their own personal directory./ ← root (the very top)
├── bin/ ← essential programs
├── etc/ ← system configuration
├── home/ ← user home directories
│ └── user/ ← your home directory (~)
├── tmp/ ← temporary files
├── usr/ ← user-installed software
└── var/ ← logs, caches, variable dataYour home directory is your personal space. It's usually at
/home/your-username, and you can refer to it with the shorthand ~ (tilde). When you open a fresh terminal, you almost always start here.●
Think of the filesystem like an upside-down tree. The root is at the top and branches grow downward. Every path starts from root and follows branches down to the file or directory you want.
WIN
On Windows, the root of each drive is a letter like C:\. There's no single root — each drive is its own tree. In WSL, the Linux filesystem starts at / and your Windows drives are accessible at /mnt/c/, /mnt/d/, etc.
Let's explore the root. Run
ls / to see what directories live at the top level of the filesystem.ls /Practice