As a Windows user using Windows Subsystem for Linux (available for Windows 8 / 10), I was intimidated by all the folders in my Ubuntu home directory and I wanted to find more about the purpose of each folder. It’s important to note that Ubuntu as a WSL isn’t what you expect from Ubuntu OS so some things (like no trash folder). WSL only provides you bash(or terminal) and no GUI. Here is how my root Ubuntu (WSL) folder looks like in Windows Explorer:
Linux uses Unix standards and has a forward slash “/” instead of the back slash “\”. Linux can also have multiple files in the same folder capitalized differently TeST.file vs test.file
bin: binaries. basic functions like ls and cat are stored here
sbin: system administrator binaries
lost+found: recovered bits of corrupted files
boot: boot folder
dev: devices, application/drivers access hardware based on naming conventions
etc: etc. system-wide configurations. specific user configurations are not stored here
lib: libraries. files that applications can use to perform functions
mnt/media: other mounted drives (usb, 2nd hard drive)
opt: optional folder. manually installed software from vendors
proc : processes pseudo files, you can look up the ID of a process and find the corresponding folder with files pertaining to that process
root: root user’s home folder, need root permissions to access
run: temporary file system, cleared on shutdown
snap: snap packages, contained applications in the form of packaged software
srv: service directory. if you’re running a server, you can place files in that folder which can be accessed by other users
sys: system folder, gets created on startup
tmp: temporary, autosaves etc go here, cleared on shutdown
usr: user application space — applications installed here by the user (like bin but for user)
var: variable directory. for files that are supposed to grow in size (logs, crash reports)
home: store personal files, individual application settings like to store data here in hidden directories. Hidden directories start with a period, hidden by default. Start Ubuntu starts you in a user folder \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home for me this is \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\andrey
To view hidden files in terminal you can use the $ ls -a <path> command. You can access files on your windows machine (outside WSL) by mounting the C drive with the command $ cd /mnt/c in linux bash shell
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbgzrKJvDRw
https://askubuntu.com/questions/232649/how-to-show-or-hide-a-hidden-file
