LDP Filesystem Hierarchy Version 0.04 2001-0509 Latest issue at http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/LFH.txt Abstract: This document defines the various directories that make up the hierarchy of an integrated LDP documentation tree. It is designed to function under the FHS, FSSTND as well as standalone setups. Background: The Linux Documentation Project has accumulated a huge number of documents of various kinds, formats and in numerous languages. Up to now integration by inter document linking has not been possible due to lack of standard layout. As new tools are about to come into use this deficiency is becoming more pronounced. This document shall define file locations making it possible to integrate the LDP documents. Applications: Interlinking: making it possible to link from one document to another, certain it will work in all installations. This also makes it possible to collect and link document by topics. Distributions: currently distributions often use out-of-date LDP collections. By defining a hierarchy it will be possible to make a tool that collects the LDP works, making a snapshot that is guaranteed to work. The same tool will also make it more attractive for, say, magazines to bundle an LDP snapshot on their bundled CD ROM. Customising: this makes it possible (using the above tool) to extract documents in a specific language or format that suits the audience. Navigation: each directory will have indexing files such as 00-INDEX and index.html that aids navigation through the tree of extensive document collection. Specifics: In the documentation directory FHS: /usr/share/doc/ FSSTND: /usr/doc/ FAQ/ Usenet News FAQs HOWTO/ HOWTO directory LDP/ the root of the LDP collection RFC/ collection of internet RFCs TR/ collection of WWW consortium documents Some distributions already include FAQ and RFC in which case these are left untouched. Otherwise these are all links to LDP. For legacy reasons as well as recognition the HOWTO directory is a link to a sub directory in LDP. Note that not all HOWTOs are part of LDP, the issue of aggregation must be considered with care. LDP: + aux Auxilliary non-LDP documents |\ |+ FAQ Note: check copyright for all auxilliary |+ RFC documents. Also these may be available as |+ TR plain text as well as HTML. |+ magazines | \ | + GNU announcements, news (translations available) | + LF Linux Focus | + LG Linux Gazette | + LWN Linux Weekly News | + (other magazines) | + misc single issue articles etc. | + Guides English language Guides + HOWTO English language HOWTOs |\ |+ HTML Single and/or multiple file HOWTOs |+ PDF |+ PostScript |+ SGML |+ txt | + Intros English language "Introduction To..." + QuickRefs English language Quick References + de Non English documents with sub directories + jp as for English language HOWTOs, Guides etc + no | + images various logos and images used for web pages + man (link to?) man pages + notes application notes (proposed) + projects |\ |+ jargon The Jargon file |+ wikipedia snapshot of wiki pages | + topics documents that link to collection of HOWTOs (TBD) + wiki snapshot of wiki pages In the LDP/ directory itself there will be a few files too: - a language independent file to quickly navigate to appropriate non-English language - a starting page (possibly index.html) that forms the hub (or portal) for futher navigation in English - various indexing pages There is no en/ directory, purely for historical reasons. Translations will be under LDP// and follow the same structure as LDP/ without of course the / sub directories themselves. In the images directory we should also have something suitable for printing on CD ROMs. The man pages is part of LDP but these are usually located elsewhere in which case a link would be needed. The issue of multiple languages is determined by the FHS. The software directory cannot be located under the .../doc/ directory (FHS or FSSTND) since the NOEXEC might be set in the mount options. Possible location is /opt/LDP/bin/ with appropriate links placed in /opt/bin/ since structure below is entirely determined by the LDP. In the software directory there can be software used for creating LDP works but also to read documentation and for updating. Support for multiple OS platforms is useful but should also be selectable. The topics/ directory could be unnecessary if topics are listed in a single (HTML/txt/etc) file. For specifics on the FHS and the older FSSTND, refer to http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ --------------------------------------- OK, that is third draft of what is going to be a long process. Since this will make bundling in packages part of our work we should consdier this very carefully. From what I can see making this standard and making the packaging tool is the only way we can guarantee linking between documents will work equally well across all Linux distributions. It should be sufficiently self contained that it could be - browsable using a HTML browser - practical to copy across to a documentation directory - usable to read using 'cd', 'ls' and 'more' - self starting under DOS/Win/NT, even Mac - bootable with a tiny free standing Linux distro just to make it possible to give anyone a taste of Linux and LDP. Done right it should also increase our visibility and also usefulness significantly. Regards, Stein Gjoen