How to Organize User Files in Linux
Created On: 2016-07-22 Updated On: 2016-07-24
Intended User
Every computer user should know where their data is stored and create proper backup for their data. User purchased or created data is the most valuable thing to backup in a computer. Today, computers are used in many areas and users usually download or create many files when using a computer. If you are happy with how computer handle your files now, you may ignore this post. On the other hand, if you have lots of file to organize, don't know where you should put things and often forget where you put things, this post could help out. I will talk file system and directory structure in Linux, since that's what I use. Some concepts can be used in other OS, but I won't go into the details of applying it to other OS.
Type of Files
Before I talk about the real thing, you should know there are different type of files. Usually we use different dir to store them.
Based on the creator of the file, there are
- User created files, such as text files, spreadsheet, drawings, diagrams.
- Transferred file or downloaded file, such as photos, movies, songs, documents sent to you by other friends.
- Program managed files, such as a database.
- Programs. Usually we are not interested in these files.
Based on the uniqueness of the file, there are
- Easy to get files. Publicly distributed, products from high profile company. Such as the JDK installer, drivers for your graphic card.
- Files shared for a group of people. Such as travel photos, company administration documents.
- Files created and owned privately by yourself.
The directory layout
Usually I just put these dirs in HOME dir.
| directory | description |
|---|---|
| ./texts/ | User created text or textual files, could be plain text files, config files etc. |
| ./texts/howto/ | Record how to do things, for example, ./texts/howto/zfs-on-linux contains how to use zfs on linux. |
| ./texts/install/ | Record how to install software. Only for things that are difficult to install, of course. |
| ./texts/daylogs/<hostname> | Keep daylogs for each desktop and server here. Every config change should be recorded. Read more about Keep a Daylog. |
| ./texts/receipts/ | Keep your receipts here. HTML, PDF, JPG could also stay here as long as they are receipts. |
| ./texts/cheatsheet/ | Printable cheatsheets for varies languages and tools. |
| ./texts/choose-a/ | Compare goods or service before buying. For example, ~/texts/choose-a/pad |
| ./texts/config/ | Common config files templates, such as nginx site file, samba config file, fabfile. |
| ./texts/talk-notes/ | Video or talk notes. |
| ./<lang>/ | Programming language notes and projects, such as ./python/. |
| ./<lang>/testing-only/ | Test scripts or projects. |
| ./projects/<project-name> | Everything that worth a dir or a git repo to track its content and progress. Usually programming related. Such as a side project. |
| ./projects/obsolete-projects/ | Obsolete projects are moved to this sub-directory. |
| ./case/<case-name> | Usually only contains downloaded documents or files for resolving a problem. |
| ./office/<thing-name> | Everything that worth a dir or a git repo to track its content and progress. Usually not programming related. Such as a travel plan. |
| ./sysadmin/<foo>/ | Build files and configs for complicated sysadmin work. Config and log backup for some production system is also here. |
| ./videos/ | Short videos from the internet. |
| ./keys/ | GPG key, ssh key, SSL cert backup. |
| ./<xxx>-office/ | If you work in a company, here goes the company office related files. |
| ./btdownload/ | Torrent download. completed downloads should be moved/copied to ./persist/ |
| ./vbox/ | VirtualBox VMs and snapshots. |
| ./hdimages/ | General hard disk images. |
| ./cdimages/ | General disc images. |
| ./system-images/ | Specific system image or backup image. |
| ./persist/ | File that needs to be stored permanently, but usually the content doesn't change anymore. |
| ./persist/movies/ | |
| ./persist/tv-series/ | |
| ./persist/music/ | |
| ./persist/ebook/ | |
| ./persist/user-guides/ | User guide for electronics, cars, software, etc. |
| ./persist/paper/ | |
| ./persist/slides/ | Talk slides. |
| ./persist/videos/ | |
| ./persist/pictures/ | |
| ./persist/pictures/Screenshots | |
| ./persist/pictures/map | |
| ./persist/pictures/info | |
| ./persist/pictures/food | |
| ./persist/photos/ | |
| ./persist/soft/ | Software installer or source files |
| ./persist/android/ | Android apks |
| ./persist/winsoft/ | Software for windows |
| ./persist/wingame/ | Windows games |
| ./persist/wingame-saves/ | Game save backup for windows games |
| ./persist/macsoft/ | Mac OS X software |
| ./persist/fonts/ | |
| ./persist/cache/ | Software that can be downloaded but is large in size or too slow to download from original source, such as the GHC compiler. |