Linux directory structure - Revision history

Theleruby at 14:18, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:18:48Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:18, 9 February 2026
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	"Modifiable" column indicates whether or not you can write to this directory on the Atomic Desktop. If the column says "yes" then these files are kept separate from the atomic image and will be preserved regardless of which deployment you boot. If the column is blank, these files are part of the deployment and can't be altered directly (although you can install and uninstall packages using rpm-ostree).		"Modifiable" column indicates whether or not you can write to this directory on the Atomic Desktop. If the column says "yes" then these files are kept separate from the atomic image and will be preserved regardless of which deployment you boot. If the column is blank, these files are part of the deployment and can't be altered directly (although you can install and uninstall packages using rpm-ostree).

			"Overlayed" folder is a special type of folder where files placed in the overlay directory are overlayed over the top of the original files in the ostree image, this is used for the themes directory so you can install extra themes or modify existing themes. Consider it to work like layers in Paint.NET or Photoshop.

	/etc folder is special; this directory is kept as part of the deployment but is also writable. The contents are essentially kept as a diff, when a new deployment is created the diff gets applied over the top of it using a 3-way merge.		/etc folder is special; this directory is kept as part of the deployment but is also writable. The contents are essentially kept as a diff, when a new deployment is created the diff gets applied over the top of it using a 3-way merge.

Theleruby at 14:16, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:16:47Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:16, 9 February 2026
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	\| /usr/share/sddm/themes		\| /usr/share/sddm/themes
	\| /var/sddm_themes/themes		\| /var/sddm_themes/themes
	\| ~~yes~~		\| overlayed
	\| Contains "Simple Desktop Display Manager" themes		\| Contains "Simple Desktop Display Manager" themes
	\|		\|

Theleruby at 14:15, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:15:49Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:15, 9 February 2026
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	\| /usr/share/sddm/themes		\| /usr/share/sddm/themes
	\| /var/sddm_themes/themes		\| /var/sddm_themes/themes
			\| yes
	\| Contains "Simple Desktop Display Manager" themes		\| Contains "Simple Desktop Display Manager" themes
	\|		\|

Theleruby at 14:15, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:15:27Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:15, 9 February 2026
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	\|-		\|-
	\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Overlay folders		\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Overlay folders
			\|-
	\| /usr/share/sddm/themes		\| /usr/share/sddm/themes
	\| /var/sddm_themes/themes		\| /var/sddm_themes/themes

Theleruby at 14:15, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:15:09Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:15, 9 February 2026
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	\| Temp folder where normal people have r/w access		\| Temp folder where normal people have r/w access
	\| AppData\Local\Temp\		\| AppData\Local\Temp\
			\|-
			\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Overlay folders
			\| /usr/share/sddm/themes
			\| /var/sddm_themes/themes
			\| Contains "Simple Desktop Display Manager" themes
			\|
	\|-		\|-
	\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Special directories		\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Special directories

Theleruby at 14:12, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:12:38Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:12, 9 February 2026
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	\|		\|
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| Variable data files not specific to a particular user (e.g. log files)		\| Variable data files not specific to a particular user (e.g. log files)<br/>Atomic Desktop stores all modifiable files here that aren't 3-way merged
	\| C:\ProgramData\		\| C:\ProgramData\
	\|-		\|-

Theleruby at 14:12, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:12:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:12, 9 February 2026
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	\| Drive letters in My Computer		\| Drive letters in My Computer
	\|-		\|-
	\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| ~~Folders~~ managed by the administrator		\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Main folders managed by the administrator
	\|-		\|-
	\| /etc		\| /etc
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	\| System-wide configuration files, installing packages sometimes puts files here		\| System-wide configuration files, installing packages sometimes puts files here
	\| Registry		\| Registry
			\|-
			\| /var
			\|
			\| yes
			\| Variable data files not specific to a particular user (e.g. log files)
			\| C:\ProgramData\
			\|-
			\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Symlinked folders managed by the administrator
	\|-		\|-
	\| /mnt		\| /mnt
	\|		\| /var/mnt
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| Temporary or permanent mounts for any purpose (e.g. secondary hard drives, remote network shares)		\| Temporary or permanent mounts for any purpose (e.g. secondary hard drives, remote network shares)
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	\|-		\|-
	\| /opt		\| /opt
	\|		\| /var/opt
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| Third-party software which isn't installed via the package manager and doesn't follow package structure		\| Third-party software which isn't installed via the package manager and doesn't follow package structure
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	\|-		\|-
	\| /srv		\| /srv
	\|		\| /var/srv
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| Contains server data files<br/>Probably not useful unless you're running server programs		\| Contains server data files<br/>Probably not useful unless you're running server programs
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	\|-		\|-
	\| /usr/local		\| /usr/local
	\|		\| /var/usrlocal
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| Third-party file directory with a layout that looks like the normal structure of /usr<br/>Contains subfolders like bin, lib, lib64, sbin which behave like the distro counterparts including being on PATH		\| Third-party file directory with a layout that looks like the normal structure of /usr<br/>Contains subfolders like bin, lib, lib64, sbin which behave like the distro counterparts including being on PATH
	\| C:\Program Files\		\| C:\Program Files\
	\|-
	~~\| /var~~
	\|
	~~\| yes~~
	~~\| Variable data files not specific to a particular user (e.g. log files)~~
	~~\| C:\ProgramData\~~
	\|-		\|-
	\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| User-level directories		\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| User-level directories
	\|-		\|-
	\| /home		\| /home
	\|		\| /var/home
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| User folders for the standard user		\| User folders for the standard user
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	\|-		\|-
	\| /root		\| /root
	\|		\| /var/roothome
	\| yes		\| yes
	\| User folder for the root user		\| User folder for the root user

Theleruby at 14:09, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:09:38Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:09, 9 February 2026
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	\|		\|
	\|-		\|-
	\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Temp folders		\|colspan="5" style="background-color:#444;"\| Temp folders, files are kept in RAM and lost when the system shuts down
	\|-		\|-
	\| /run		\| /run
	\|		\|
	\|		\| yes
	\| Used by system packages to store small amounts of runtime data, essentially a system package temp folder, only writable by root		\| Used by system packages to store small amounts of runtime data, essentially a system package temp folder, only writable by root
	\| C:\Windows\TEMP\		\| C:\Windows\TEMP\

Theleruby at 14:08, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:08:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:08, 9 February 2026
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	\|		\|
	\|		\|
	\| Folder containing files relating specifically to atomic desktop		\| Folder containing files relating specifically to atomic desktop<br/>ostree deployment data is symlinked from /sysroot/ostree to /ostree
	\|		\|
	\|}		\|}

Theleruby at 14:07, 9 February 2026

2026-02-09T14:07:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:07, 9 February 2026
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	\| /run/media		\| /run/media
	\|		\|
	\| Temporary automatic mounts for external storage, such as removable USB drives, CD/DVD/Blu-ray disks		\| Temporary automatic mounts for external storage, such as removable USB drives, CD/DVD/Blu-ray disks, SD cards
	\| Drive letters in My Computer		\| Drive letters in My Computer
	\|-		\|-