Linux Some basic partitioning doubts.

[Yrus]

Hi,

I have some doubts regarding Linux File systems,

/ is root
/usr is where the software gets installed
/var is where things are constantly being updated
/tmp is temporary partition
/swap is page-file like
/home is for the Users files

The above can be called partitions right?

1. Suppose there are multiple users, then will it be like /home/user1 and /home/user2 ? Is this equivalent to C:\Documents And Settings\User1?

2. In windows lets say I have D: and E: for music and videos respectively, what is its Linux equivalent(are 2 partitions created under /home or something or is it like new partitions say /music and /videos, this would be their mount points?)

3. And which partitions are read-only in Linux?

4. I have an 80GB disk, In XP I would have made C: around 20GB for mainly XP+Programs, and the rest for everything else, in Linux how would this be done?

Is it similar in Linux and BSD?

 

[Dark Star]

The above can be called partitions right?

No

1. Suppose there are multiple users, then will it be like /home/user1 and /home/user2 ? Is this equivalent to C:\Documents And Settings\User1?

Exactly . and yes it is equivalent to what you wrote

2. In windows lets say I have D: and E: for music and videos respectively, what is its Linux equivalent(are 2 partitions created under /home or something or is it like new partitions say /music and /videos, this would be their mount points?)

Now we get to real part. Windows naming scheme is different, windows naming scheme is designed in such a way that every partition is treated as a separate disk, now linux deals things in a completely different manner.

Linux naming scheme for listing disk partitons are like /dev/hdaX or /dev/sdaX . Where hda represents IDE drives and SDA represents SCSI drives. X represents portion number. Depending upon the partition number it represents the windows counterpart.

3. And which partitions are read-only in Linux?

There can be 2 cases for ro. Either it is specifically defined in /etc/fstab or you don't have the permission o write . Rest almost all partition are rw capable.

4. I have an 80GB disk, In XP I would have made C: around 20GB for mainly XP+Programs, and the rest for everything else, in Linux how would this be done?

For linux around 15 Gb would suffice. Make sure you make swap partition.

Is it similar in Linux and BSD?

Depends.

 

[Yrus]

^Thanks,

Now lets say I allocate 20GB for Linux Base System+Apps,

/ - 1.5GB, /swap - 1.5GB, /var - 4GB, /usr - 13GB,

/home/any user - remaining

So basically all my multimedia stuff, data, downloads etc. go into my /home/yrus directory, correct?

There is nothing like having a /music or /videos partition or can they exist?

Please explain this stuff a little more as I'm finding it a bit tough to understand :S

 

[Gaurish]

Hi,

I have some doubts regarding Linux File systems,

/ is root

/usr is where the software gets installed

/var is where things are constantly being updated

/tmp is temporary partition

/swap is page-file like

/home is for the Users files

The above can be called partitions right?

No, its called Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Partitioning your disk simply refers to the act of breaking up your disk into sections. Each section is then independent of the others. It's roughly equivalent to putting up walls inside a house; if you add furniture to one room it doesn't affect any other room.

Read more about this here

1. Suppose there are multiple users, then will it be like /home/user1 and /home/user2 ? Is this equivalent to C:\Documents And Settings\User1?

See Darky's response.

2. In windows lets say I have D: and E: for music and videos respectively, what is its Linux equivalent(are 2 partitions created under /home or something or is it like new partitions say /music and /videos, this would be their mount points?)

Please see:

https://help.ubuntu.com/10.10/installation-guide/i386/device-names.html

3. And which partitions are read-only in Linux?

It depends, on mount flags(ro vs rw) which are given at time of mounting partition,type of storage(hdd vs cdrom) etc.

4. I have an 80GB disk, In XP I would have made C: around 20GB for mainly XP+Programs, and the rest for everything else, in Linux how would this be done?

Create two partitions:

15GB for OS mounted at /

2X of size your ram as SWAP

read for your own data mounted at /home

Is it similar in Linux and BSD?

Both are different but have same roots. if I was to explain this in plain english. it would like this

"Linux & BSD are two sons of same father(Unix). The have same background but have set on different paths on their life. BSD is introvert type which does few things but does them very well. Linux is kid which is learning new tricks every day, is quite popular & everything likes him. "

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

^Thanks,

Now lets say I allocate 20GB for Linux Base System+Apps,

/ - 1.5GB, /swap - 1.5GB, /var - 4GB, /usr - 13GB,

/home/any user - remaining

Why you need separate partitions for /var & /usr? I

So basically all my multimedia stuff, data, downloads etc. go into my /home/yrus directory, correct?

There is nothing like having a /music or /videos partition or can they exist?

you can mount a partition anywhere, so /music or /video are possible. But the question is why you need such non-standard scheme? what is the problem in keeping your stuff under /home?

Please explain this stuff a little more as I'm finding it a bit tough to understand :S

Its because all these are completly new concepts, so it would take some for you to wrap your head around you.

Where hda represents IDE drives

Correction: hda naming scheme is dead, its not longer used. IDE hdd also uses sda naming.

 

[Dark Star]

So basically all my multimedia stuff, data, downloads etc. go into my /home/yrus directory, correct?

There is nothing like having a /music or /videos partition or can they exist?

Please explain this stuff a little more as I'm finding it a bit tough to understand

Well it depends on you. When you can access your windows partition from linux, whats the point of dumping stuff at multiple place?

Keep it as simple. Linux treats every thing as a file, so as far as the location is correct you can create a partition anywhere (a file linking to starting Block ID/INODE of your partition ) . Be it /music or /xyz whatever

@Gaurish : Thanks for pointing

Edit : Mounting /usr else where is not recommended at all.