Linux directory structure explained:/etc folder

ETC is a folder which contain all your system configuration files in it. Then why the etc name?

“etc” is an English word which means etcetera i.e in layman words it is “and so on”. The naming convention of this folder is having some interesting history.

The history /etc folder in Linux/Unix

In initial days of UNIX OS development there is a folder for each type of data like /bin folder for all your executable binaries

/boot folder for all booting related information.

/dev folder for all hardware devices attached to machine.

But people encountered a situation to keep some files which can be a config file or a data file or a socket file or some other files. So they implemented a folder to keep all these files in it and they named it as /etc(As said earlier etcetera). As time passed the meaning of this folder has changed but not the name “etc”. Now /etc folder means a central location for all your configuration files are located and this can be treated as nerve centre of your Linux/Unix machine.

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