The filesystem tree

The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) describes the conventional directory layout of Unix-like systems. Linux conforms to this standard, essentially making it “the official folder structure of Linux.” The FHS is a standardized tree structure where every file and directory stems from the root (a directory simply named “/"). This hierarchy is crucial: although there’s a place for end-users to go wild with their own directory structure, every single subdirectory inside of / (the root directory) has a specific purpose.

The basic layout of this filesystem hierarchy doesn’t take long to learn, and by investing a few minutes now, you’ll develop an intuition for where things go – whether they’re application binaries, logs, data files, or external devices that your code needs access to. In other words, it eases both development and troubleshooting: when you know where things should be, you spend less time...