Joomla! CMS File system structure

gistfile1.txt

+-- administrator                // This is where the administrator application lives
¦   +-- cache                    
¦   +-- components               // Components specific to administrator
¦   +-- help                     // Help files for administrator
¦   +-- includes            
¦   +-- language                 // Administrator language files 
¦   +-- manifests                // Installation manifests
¦   +-- modules                  // Administrator modules
¦   +-- templates                // Administrator templates
+-- cache
+-- cli                          // Command line interface (CLI) applications
+-- components                   // Site components (not all components are displayed)
¦   +-- com_banners                
¦   +-- com_contact
¦   +-- com_content
¦   +-- com_weblinks             // com_weblinks is expanded as an example, we see its internal structure
¦       +-- controllers          // Component controllers
¦       +-- helpers              // Helpers for the weblinks component
¦       +-- models               // Models for the weblinks component
¦       +-- views                // Views for the weblinks component
+-- images
+-- includes
+-- installation                 // The installer application
+-- language                     // Site language files
¦   +-- en-GB                    // English
¦   +-- overrides                // This can be used to override specific language keys
+-- libraries                    // All the libraries live here
¦   +-- cms                      // Library classes specific to the CMS
¦   +-- joomla                   // The "heart" of Joomla!, this is where the Joomla! Platform lives
¦   +-- phpmailer                // 3rd party library
¦   +-- phputf8                  // 3rd party library
¦   +-- simplepie                // 3rd party library
+-- logs
+-- media                        // The media folder is where extensions should store their css, images and media
¦   +-- com_finder               // As an example we see the finder component storing its css and js in here
¦   ¦   +-- css                  // CSS specific to com_finder
¦   ¦   +-- js                   // JS specific to com_finder
¦   +-- system                   // This is special, used in conjunction with the system template
¦       +-- css
¦       +-- images
¦       +-- js
¦       +-- swf
+-- modules                      // Modules for the frontend (not all modules are displayed)
¦   +-- mod_articles_news        // Example of a module
¦   +-- mod_articles_popular     // Example of a module
¦   +-- mod_banners              // Example of a module
+-- plugins                      // Plugins
¦   +-- authentication           // This is the authentication plugin group
¦       +-- joomla               // Joomla authentication plugin
¦       +-- ldap                 // LDAP authentication plugin
¦       +-- gmail                // GMail authentication plugin
¦   +-- captcha
¦   +-- content
¦   +-- editors
¦   +-- editors-xtd
¦   +-- extension
¦   +-- finder
¦   +-- quickicon
¦   +-- search
¦   +-- system                   // System plugins are the only group that are alway loaded
¦   +-- user
+-- templates                    // Frontend templates
¦   +-- atomic                   // The core atomic template
¦   ¦   +-- html                 // HTML overrides for atomic
¦   ¦   ¦   +-- mod_login        // An override of the layout for the login module
¦   ¦   ¦   +-- mod_menu         // An override of the layout for the menu module
¦   ¦   +-- images               // Images specific to this template
¦   ¦   +-- js                   // JavaScript specific to this template
¦   ¦   +-- language             // Language files for the template
¦   ¦       +-- en-GB            // English language files
¦   +-- beez_20                  // The core Beez2.0 (XHTML) template
¦   +-- beez5                    // The core Beez5 (HTML5) template
¦   +-- system                   // The system template is special, it is system-wide, generally there's no need to edit this
¦       +-- css                  // System-wide stylesheets
¦       +-- html                 // System-wide HTML overrides
¦       +-- images               // System-wide images
+-- tmp                          // Temp folder, used when installing extensions