I am pleased to announce the release of FHS 2.0, a new filesystem hierarchy standard for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. FHS defines a common arrangement of the many files and directories in Unix-like systems (the filesystem hierarchy) that different developers (primarily Linux ones) have agreed to use. See below for details on retrieving the standard.
FHS 2.0 is the direct successor for FSSTND 1.2, which is currently implemented by most major Linux distributions (I've lost track, but the list includes Red Hat, Debian, and others. I am interested in hearing from compliant and non-compliant developers). The name was changed because we didn't like the old one, which was somewhat misleading, difficult to enunciate, and usually spelled wrong.
It has been while since FSSTND 1.2, so there have been some significant, but sorely needed changes. Some tweaks and clarifications may be necessary. If so, the FHS group will release a 2.1 version as soon as is feasible. However, we will continue work hard to avoid superfluous changes to the standard.
Finally, the FHS is not really directed at end-users. The intended audience are the implementors of Linux and Unix distributions, applications, documentation, etc. Still, many system administrators and users have found the standard a useful resource.
The release is available at:
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/Finally, supplementary information such as transition notes, a list of changes since 1.2, and an updated hier.7 manual page will be made available at the FHS web site as soon as they are finished.
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/docs/linux-standards/fsstnd/
Daniel Quinlan
FHS editor