Hi soon-to-be Linux geek :) - regarding Apache and more generally most applications in the Linux/UNIX world, the point of "scattering" the directories is to separate the location of the various files in order to be able (among other things) to mount them from various partitions, possibly from the network. Most important are: - /etc : configuration files => changed but not often by administrators - /usr : binaries of the applications => once they are installed, they just need to be read (so typically they can be shared between many physical machines on the network) - /var : variable data => e.g. database files which get continuously written, or logs of the application The fact that /var/www is tha base directory for Apache file is a bit historical and debated, but is standard (some distributions put it under /srv, which is for server data). I am personally a (Java) developer and not a professional Linux admin (although my desktop and target platforms are Linux) so there are plenty of people in the list which could be much more precise (and accurate) than me. But I thought this brief overview woudl be useful. For more details read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html Once you get use to it, you will find it very logical and clean: it saves a lot of time to have a standard, so that you don't need to reinvent conventions all the time. - Regarding Java (which more my field), I definitely encourage you to use the package. Since Sun set Java free/open source, they basically share the same codebase. But the OpenJDK rebuilt and repackaged by the various distributions are better integrated, and most important much easier to update! If you go to the package route though (I personanly still have to deploy JDK 1.5, 1.4 and even 1.3 from Sun for testing), I recommend that you unpack them under /opt. Cheers, Mathieu On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 08:46, vijay shanker <vijaydshanker at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Linux geeks, > > I have just started to setup a production server with centos; and moved from > windows server to centos. My first encounter with this great linux distro is > good. > > I am not able to understand what is the point of having scattered folders > for apache server installation. > > when i see the /etc/httpd folder; it has only conf folder and links to logs, > module and , run. As i have been working on Windows where all these files > are stored in a single installation folder. > > So, this makes me quite confused to start with. > > Can anyone tell me what is the idea behind using such a installation > pattern. > > Now i am going to install java, I have two options via RPM and other is > extracting the distro and use it. i have a feeling if i use first option, > all the folders like jre and jdk will be palced any where. Not to be found. > > Please tell me or point to any relevant link. so i can go ahead without any > doubt over this issue. > > > > -- > Regards, > Vijay Shanker > > > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > >