Outline of File Hierarchy Systems in RHEL, CentOS and SL

The location of the files and directories in RHEL or its clone system are based on the Filesystem Hierarchy System (FHS) guidelines. For more information on the Filesystem Hierarchy System (FHS), do read the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

1. /bin/ (Essential Commands for admins and users)
2. /usr/bin/ (Common commands for admins and users)
3. /sbin/ (Essential commands for admins)
4. /usr/sbin (Common commands for admins)
5. /tmp/ (Temporary files for all users)
6. /usr/local/ (Location for locally-installed software indepndent of operating systems updates)
7. /usr/share/man (Manual Pages)
8. /usr/src (source code)
9. /var/ (variable files such as spool and log files)
10. /var/log/ (Log files)
11. /etc/ (Configuration files)
12. /proc/ (Kernel virtual file system)
13. /dev/ (Device file)

Much of these information is derived from  "Red Hat Enteprise Linux Administration Unleased"