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Understanding OSS Directories ​

The following description of typical folders you see in open (and closed) source projects was taken from stackoverflow.

  • src/: "source" files to build and develop the project. This is where the original source files are located, before being compiled into fewer files to dist/, public/ or build/.

  • dist/: "distribution", the compiled code/library, also named public/, build/, or target/. The files meant for production or public use are usually located here.

    There may be a slight difference between these three:

    • build/: is a compiled version of your src/ but not a production-ready.
    • dist/: is a production-ready compiled version of your code.
    • public/: usually used as the files runs on the browser. which it may be the server-side JS and also include some HTML and CSS.

  • assets/: static content like images, video, audio, fonts etc.

  • lib/: external dependencies (when included directly).

  • test/: the project's tests scripts, mocks, etc.

  • node_modules/: includes libraries and dependencies for JS packages, used by Npm.

  • vendor/: includes libraries and dependencies for PHP packages, used by Composer.

  • bin/: files that get added to your PATH when installed.

Markdown/Text Files:

  • README.md: A help file which addresses setup, tutorials, and documents the project. README.txt is also used.
  • LICENSE.md: any rights given to you regarding the project. LICENSE or LICENSE.txt are variations of the license file name, having the same contents.
  • CONTRIBUTING.md: how to help out with the project. Sometimes this is addressed in the README.md file.

Specific (these could go on forever):

  • package.json: defines libraries and dependencies for JS packages, used by Npm.
  • package-lock.json: specific version lock for dependencies installed from package.json, used by Npm.
  • composer.json: defines libraries and dependencies for PHP packages, used by Composer.
  • composer.lock: specific version lock for dependencies installed from composer.json, used by Composer.
  • gulpfile.js: used to define functions and tasks to be run with Gulp.
  • .travis.yml: config file for the Travis CI environment.
  • .gitignore: Specification of the files meant to be ignored by Git.