This is our 6th post on understanding first level directories in /. Knowing these folders in detail or at least what each is meant for will help you understand Linux/Unix in whole. we already covered below directories, please have a look at those to understand them. In this post we will see two more directories ie /home and /root directory. These directories are meant for similar purpose. The /root is meant for just root user and /home is for all the remaining users.
Linux Directory Structure explained: /bin folder
Linux Directory Structure explained: /boot folder
Linux Directory Structure explained: /dev folder
Linux directory structure explained:/etc folder
What is lost+found directory in Linux/Unix?
A brief intro to /home directory in Linux/Unix
The /home directory is a place where by default all user home directories are created.
OK, what are user home directories for?
These directories are a kind of personal place(Working space) for all the users other than root. There will be a separate folder for each user in /home directory. For example if you have a user called ???Tom???, then his default home directory is /home/tom. We can change this default folder when creating user in Linux. Our Tom user can do what ever he wants in /home/tom folder where he have full rights on the files he created and owned in that folder.
The properties of /home folder?
1) A separate sub folder ie /home/ is present for each user.
2) Only user who owns this sub folder can access its content other than root user. So, tom user can not access Barbi user home directory content which is located at /home/barbi.
3) All his terminal properties, command history file, application setting files(~/.vimrc, ~/.ssh) etc everything is located in this folder.
4) System admins when try to implement quota for users they will implement it on /home directory. This /home directory should be mounted on a separate partition.
Each user home directory is important and frequently used directory for that user, we have alias name for it. This alias is set to ~ so that when ever user wants to navigate to his home directory, he do not have to use /home/ but just use below short cuts.