On 10/10/2012 07:33 PM, Wally Lepore wrote: > On 10/10/2012 03:22 AM, Wally Lepore wrote: >>> Based on the above, can a directory/partition be named /usr/local ? >>> and /var/mail ? I thought a directory can have only one name (i.e. >>> /usr -or- /local -or- /var -or- /mail). > > On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 2:17 AM, Linux-Fan <ma_sys...@web.de> wrote: >> You can have /var on your "main" partition (which also contains "/") and >> mount another partition in the subdirectory "/var/mail". > > Hi Linux-Fan, > > Appreciate the help. I have to read-up on the file structure in Linux. > I totally understand the concept in windows. But when you said, > >> "You can have /var on your "main" partition (which also contains "/")and >> mount >another partition in the subdirectory "/var/mail". > > Can you give me an example please (in a file tree format) such as below? > > /var > /var/mail
In Linux, directories can be used as "mount-points" that look like normal folders but represent a different filesystem on another partition or even on another hard drive (Windows also has this for NTFS, but it is hidden somewhere in the Volume Manager). For example if you connect a USB Stick to your computer that has only one partition it might get the device name /dev/sdc1. You could mount that device in a directory (graphical Desktop Environments will usually do this for you and create a directory named /media/something that provides the mount-point for your removable device). This means a folder's contents in a linux system can exist on a different device than you would expect them to be: /var can be on /dev/sdb1 (your root partition where /bin, /etc, /usr and all the others are also located) and the contents of the subdirectory /var/mail can be on a different partition (e.g. /dev/sdb2). You could have something like that / on /dev/sdb1 (which I called "main" partition before) /boot on /dev/sdb2 /var on /dev/sdb1 /var/mail on /dev/sdb3 /home on /dev/sdb4 While your original idea was to have (if I got it correctly) / on /dev/sdb1 /boot on /dev/sdb2 /var on /dev/sdb1 /var/mail on /dev/sdb1 /home on /dev/sdb3 I have not read it completely but this could probably help (If I was not able to claify this completely): http://www.linfo.org/mounting.html > Thank you -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5075bb07.20...@web.de