Gentoo Filesystem

The basic filesystem layout and purpose is as follows:

    /bin: Boot-critical applications
    /etc: System administrator controlled configuration files
    /lib: Boot-critical libraries
    /opt: Binary-only applications.
    /sbin: System administrator boot-critical applications
    /tmp: Temporary data
    /usr: General applications
        /usr/bin: Applications
        /usr/lib: Libraries
        /usr/local: Non-portage applications. Ebuilds must not install here.
        /usr/sbin: Non-system-critical system administrator applications
        /usr/share: Architecture independent application data and documentation
    /var: Program generated data
        /var/cache: Long term data which can be regenerated
        /var/lib: General application generated data
        /var/log: Log files

* Gentoo does not consider the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard to be an authoritative standard, although much of our policy coincides with it.