Capire il “layout” del nostro filesystem

Un comando poco conosciuto:

C’e’ poco da dire, ma tanto da leggere :-) :

[host1:~] user1% man hier
NAME
     hier - layout of filesystems

DESCRIPTION
     A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy.
     /             root directory of the filesystem
     /bin/         user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-
                   user environments
     /dev/         block and character device files
                   fd/  file descriptor files; see fd(4)
     /etc/         system configuration files and scripts
     /mach_kernel  kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
                   at boot time).
     /sbin/        system programs and administration utilities fundamental to
                   both single-user and multi-user environments
     /tmp/         temporary files
     /usr/         contains the majority of user utilities and applications
                   bin/      common utilities, programming tools, and applica-
                             tions
                   include/  standard C include files
                             arpa/       C include files for Internet service
                                         protocols
                             hfs/        C include files for HFS
                             machine/    machine specific C include files
                             net/        misc network C include files
                             netinet/    C include files for Internet standard
                                         protocols; see inet(4)
                             nfs/        C include files for NFS (Network File
                                         System)
                             objc/       C include files for Objective-C
                             protocols/  C include files for Berkeley service
                                         protocols
                             sys/        system C include files (kernel data
                                         structures)
                             ufs/        C include files for UFS
                   lib/      archive libraries
                   libexec/  system daemons & system utilities (executed by
                             other programs)
                   local/    executables, libraries, etc. not included by the
                             basic operating system
                   sbin/     system daemons & system utilities (executed by
                             users)
                   share/    architecture-independent data files
                             calendar/  a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
                                        see calendar(1)
                             dict/      word lists; see look(1)
                                        web2        words from Webster's 2nd
                                                    International
                                        words       common words
                             man/       manual pages
                             misc/      misc system-wide ascii text files
                             mk/        templates for make; see make(1)
                             skel/      example . (dot) files for new accounts
                             tabset/    tab description files for a variety of
                                        terminals; used in the termcap file;
                                        see termcap(5)
                             zoneinfo/  timezone configuration information;
                                        see tzfile(5)
     /var/         multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
                   at/        timed command scheduling files; see at(1)
                   backups/   misc. backup files
                   db/        misc. automatically generated system-specific
                              database files
                   log/       misc. system log files
                              wtmp        login/logout log; see wtmp(5)
                   mail/      user mailbox files
                   run/       system information files describing various info
                              about system since it was booted
                              utmp        database of current users; see
                                          utmp(5)
                   rwho/      rwho data files; see rwhod(8), rwho(1), and
                              ruptime(1)
                   spool/     misc. printer and mail system spooling directo-
                              ries
                              mqueue/     undelivered mail queue; see
                                          sendmail(8)
                   tmp/       temporary files that are kept between system
                              reboots

Per approfondimenti:

Se volete approfondire, la Apple mette a disposizione un documento File System Overview che spiega i concetti e le convenzioni del File System di MacOS X, la sua architettura e le sue peculiarità.