1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)hier.7 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 29.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man7/hier.7,v 1.29.2.17 2003/01/13 21:43:50 ceri Exp $ 30.\" 31.Dd April 21, 2018 32.Dt HIER 7 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm hier 36.Nd layout of filesystems 37.Sh DESCRIPTION 38A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy. 39.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /modules/" 40.It Pa / 41root directory of the filesystem 42.It Pa /bin/ 43user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 44.It Pa /boot/ 45programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap 46.Pp 47.Bl -tag -width ".Pa modules.local/" -compact 48.It Pa defaults/ 49default bootstrapping configuration files; see 50.Xr loader.conf 5 51.It Pa kernel/ 52pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory 53at boot time) and loadable kernel modules; 54see 55.Xr kldstat 8 56.It Pa modules.local/ 57local loadable kernel modules and wrapped external firmware images; see 58.Xr firmware 9 59.El 60.It Pa /compat/ 61files related to compatibility layers 62.Pp 63.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ndis/" -compact 64.It Pa ndis/ 65firmware for 66.Xr ndis 4 67drivers 68.El 69.It Pa /dev/ 70block and character device files 71.Pp 72.Bl -tag -width ".Pa fd/" -compact 73.It Pa fd/ 74file descriptor files; 75see 76.Xr \&fd 4 77.El 78.It Pa /etc/ 79system configuration files and scripts 80.Pp 81.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 82.It Pa autofs/ 83shell scripts to implement special maps and directory services via 84.Xr autofs 5 85.It Pa bluetooth/ 86bluetooth configuration files 87.It Pa defaults/ 88default system configuration files; 89see 90.Xr rc 8 91.It Pa devd/ 92hardware specific 93.Xr devd 8 94configuration files 95.It Pa dma/ 96.Xr dma 8 97configuration files 98.It Pa localtime 99local timezone information; 100see 101.Xr ctime 3 102.It Pa mail/ 103Sendmail control files 104.It Pa mtree/ 105mtree configuration files; 106see 107.Xr mtree 8 108.It Pa pam.d/ 109configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 110library 111.It Pa periodic/ 112scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 113.Xr cron 8 ; 114see 115.Xr periodic 8 116.It Pa ppp/ 117ppp configuration files; 118see 119.Xr ppp 8 120.It Pa rc.d/ 121System and daemon startup/control scripts; 122see 123.Xr rc 8 124.It Pa ssh/ 125OpenSSH configuration files; 126see 127.Xr ssh 1 128.It Pa ssl/ 129LibreSSL configuration files 130.It Pa upgrade/ 131Files relevant to system upgrades 132.El 133.It Pa /home/ 134HOME directories of non-root users 135.It Pa /lib/ 136critical system libraries needed for binaries in 137.Pa /bin 138and 139.Pa /sbin 140.It Pa /libexec/ 141critical system utilities needed for binaries in 142.Pa /bin 143and 144.Pa /sbin 145.It Pa /mnt/ 146empty directory commonly used by 147system administrators as a temporary mount point 148.It Pa /net/ 149automounted NFS shares; 150see 151.Xr auto_master 5 152.It Pa /pfs/ 153pseudo file system directory (on 154.Xr hammer 5 155root file systems) 156.It Pa /proc/ 157process file system; 158see 159.Xr procfs 5 , 160.Xr mount_procfs 8 161.It Pa /root/ 162root's HOME directory 163.It Pa /sbin/ 164system programs and administration utilities 165fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 166.It Pa /sys/ 167the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to 168.Pa /usr/src/sys ) 169.It Pa /tmp/ 170temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 171.It Pa /usr/ 172contains the majority of user utilities and applications 173.Pp 174.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 175.It Pa bin/ 176common utilities, programming tools, and applications 177.It Pa dports/ 178The 179.Dx 180.Xr dports 7 181collection (optional). 182.It Pa games/ 183useful and semi-frivolous programs 184.It Pa include/ 185standard C include files 186.Pp 187.Bl -tag -width ".Pa protocols/" -compact 188.It Pa arpa/ 189C include files for Internet service protocols 190.It Pa c++/ 191C++ include files 192.It Pa cam/ 193C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 194.Pp 195.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scsi/" -compact 196.It Pa scsi/ 197The SCSI device on top of CAM 198.El 199.Pp 200.It Pa dev/ 201C include files for programming various 202.Dx 203devices 204.It Pa fs/ 205.Pp 206.Bl -tag -width ".Pa autofs/" -compact 207.It Pa autofs/ 208automounter filesystem 209.It Pa smbfs/ 210SMB/CIFS filesystem 211.El 212.Pp 213.It Pa isofs/ 214.Pp 215.Bl -tag -width ".Pa cd9660/" -compact 216.It Pa cd9660/ 217iso9660 filesystem 218.El 219.Pp 220.It Pa libprop/ 221C include files for libprop 222.It Pa machine/ 223machine-specific C include files 224.It Pa msdosfs/ 225MS-DOS file system 226.It Pa net/ 227misc network C include files 228.It Pa netinet/ 229C include files for Internet standard protocols; 230see 231.Xr inet 4 232.It Pa netinet6/ 233C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 234see 235.Xr inet6 4 236.It Pa netsmb/ 237SMB/CIFS requester 238.It Pa nfs/ 239C include files for NFS (Network File System) 240.It Pa pcap/ 241Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 242see 243.Xr pcap 3 244.It Pa pccard/ 245PC-CARD controllers 246.It Pa protocols/ 247C include files for Berkeley service protocols 248.It Pa readline/ 249get a line from a user, with editing; 250see 251.Xr readline 3 252.It Pa rpc/ 253remote procedure calls; 254see 255.Xr rpc 3 256.It Pa rpcsvc/ 257definition of RPC service structures; see 258.Xr rpc 3 259.It Pa security/ 260PAM; see 261.Xr pam 8 262.It Pa sys/ 263system C include files (kernel data structures) 264.It Pa ufs/ 265C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 266.Pp 267.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ffs/" -compact 268.It Pa ffs/ 269Fast filesystem 270.It Pa mfs/ 271memory file system; 272see 273.Xr mount_mfs 8 274.It Pa ufs/ 275UFS filesystem 276.El 277.Pp 278.It Pa vm/ 279virtual memory; 280see 281.Xr vmstat 8 282.El 283.Pp 284.It Pa lib/ 285archive libraries 286.It Pa libdata/ 287misc. utility data files 288.It Pa libexec/ 289system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 290.Pp 291.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils225/" -compact 292.It Pa binutils225/ 293.Pp 294.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 295.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 296linker plugins 297.It Pa ldscripts/ 298linker scripts; 299see 300.Xr ld 1 301.El 302.Pp 303.It Pa binutils227/ 304.Pp 305.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 306.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 307linker plugins 308.It Pa ldscripts/ 309linker scripts; 310see 311.Xr ld 1 312.El 313.Pp 314.It Pa lpr/ 315utilities and filters for LP print system; 316see 317.Xr lpr 1 318.El 319.Pp 320.It Pa local/ 321local executables, libraries, etc. 322Also used as the default destination for the 323.Dx 324.Xr dports 7 325framework. 326Within 327.Pa local/ , 328the general layout sketched out by 329.Nm 330for 331.Pa /usr 332should be used. 333Exceptions are the 334.Pa man 335directory 336.Po directly under 337.Pa local/ 338rather than under 339.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 340ports documentation 341.Po in 342.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 343and 344.Pa /usr/local/etc 345.Po mimics 346.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 347.It Pa obj/ 348architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 349.Pa /usr/src 350tree 351.It Pa sbin/ 352system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 353.It Pa share/ 354architecture-independent files 355.Pp 356.Bl -tag -width ".Pa groff_font/" -compact 357.It Pa calendar/ 358a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 359see 360.Xr calendar 1 361.It Pa dict/ 362word lists; 363see 364.Xr look 1 365.Pp 366.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact 367.It Pa web2 368words from Webster's 2nd International 369.It Pa words 370common words 371.It Pa papers/ 372reference databases; 373see 374.Xr refer 1 375.El 376.Pp 377.It Pa doc/ 378miscellaneous documentation 379.Pp 380.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact 381.It Pa legal/ 382License files for vendor supplied firmware 383.El 384.Pp 385.It Pa examples/ 386various examples for users and programmers 387.It Pa games/ 388ASCII text files used by various games 389.It Pa groff_font/ 390device description file for device name 391.It Pa i18n/ 392internationalization databases; see 393.Xr iconv 3 394.It Pa info/ 395GNU Info hypertext system 396.It Pa libg++/ 397libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 398.It Pa locale/ 399localization files; 400see 401.Xr setlocale 3 402.It Pa man/ 403manual pages 404.It Pa me/ 405macros for use with the me macro package; 406see 407.Xr me 7 408.It Pa misc/ 409misc system-wide ASCII text files 410.Pp 411.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 412.It Pa termcap 413terminal characteristics database; 414see 415.Xr termcap 5 416.El 417.Pp 418.It Pa mk/ 419templates for make; 420see 421.Xr make 1 422.It Pa nls/ 423national language support files; 424see 425.Xr nls 7 426.It Pa sendmail/ 427sendmail configuration files; 428see 429.Xr sendmail 8 430.It Pa skel/ 431example . (dot) files for new accounts 432.It Pa syscons/ 433files used by 434.Xr syscons 4 435.Pp 436.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 437.It Pa fonts/ 438console fonts; 439see 440.Xr vidcontrol 1 441and 442.Xr vidfont 1 443.It Pa keymaps/ 444console keyboard maps; 445see 446.Xr kbdcontrol 1 447and 448.Xr kbdmap 1 449.It Pa scrnmaps/ 450console screen maps 451.El 452.Pp 453.It Pa tabset/ 454tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 455the termcap file; 456see 457.Xr termcap 5 458.It Pa terminfo/ 459compiled 460.Xr terminfo 5 461database files 462.It Pa tmac/ 463text processing macros; 464see 465.Xr nroff 1 466and 467.Xr troff 1 468.It Pa vi/ 469localization support and utilities for 470.Xr vi 1 471.It Pa zoneinfo/ 472timezone configuration information; 473see 474.Xr tzfile 5 475.El 476.Pp 477.It Pa src/ 478.Bx , 479third-party, and/or local source files 480.Pp 481.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 482.It Pa bin/ 483source code for files in 484.Pa /bin 485.It Pa contrib/ 486source code for contributed software 487.It Pa crypto/ 488source code for contributed cryptography software 489.It Pa etc/ 490source code for files in 491.Pa /etc 492.It Pa games/ 493source code for files in 494.Pa /usr/games 495.It Pa gnu/ 496Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 497.It Pa include/ 498source code for files in 499.Pa /usr/include 500.It Pa lib/ 501source code for files in 502.Pa /usr/lib 503.It Pa libexec/ 504source code for files in 505.Pa /usr/libexec 506.It Pa nrelease/ 507files required to produce a 508.Dx 509release 510.It Pa sbin/ 511source code for files in 512.Pa /sbin 513.It Pa share/ 514source for files in 515.Pa /usr/share 516.It Pa sys/ 517kernel source code 518.It Pa tools/ 519tools used for maintenance and testing of 520.Dx 521.It Pa usr.bin/ 522source code for files in 523.Pa /usr/bin 524.It Pa usr.sbin/ 525source code for files in 526.Pa /usr/sbin 527.El 528.El 529.It Pa /var/ 530multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 531.Pp 532.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 533.It Pa account/ 534system accounting files 535.Pp 536.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 537.It Pa acct 538execution accounting file; 539see 540.Xr acct 5 541.El 542.Pp 543.It Pa at/ 544timed command scheduling files; 545see 546.Xr \&at 1 547.Pp 548.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 549.It Pa jobs/ 550directory containing job files 551.It Pa spool/ 552directory containing output spool files 553.El 554.Pp 555.It Pa backups/ 556misc. backup files 557.It Pa crash/ 558default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 559.Xr crash 8 560and 561.Xr savecore 8 562.It Pa cron/ 563files used by cron; 564see 565.Xr cron 8 566.Pp 567.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 568.It Pa tabs/ 569crontab files; 570see 571.Xr crontab 5 572.El 573.Pp 574.It Pa db/ 575misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 576.It Pa empty/ 577empty directory used by 578.Xr sshd 8 579for privilege separation 580.It Pa games/ 581misc. game status and score files 582.It Pa hammer/ 583per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 584.Xr hammer 5 585file systems 586.It Pa log/ 587misc. system log files 588.Pp 589.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 590.It Pa wtmp 591login/logout log; 592see 593.Xr wtmp 5 594.El 595.Pp 596.It Pa mail/ 597user mailbox files 598.It Pa msgs/ 599system messages database; 600see 601.Xr msgs 1 602.It Pa preserve/ 603temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 604of an editor; 605see 606.Xr \&ex 1 607.It Pa quotas/ 608filesystem quota information files 609.It Pa run/ 610system information files describing various info about 611system since it was booted 612.Pp 613.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ppp/" -compact 614.It Pa ppp/ 615writable by the 616.Dq network 617group for command connection sockets; see 618.Xr ppp 8 619.It Pa utmp 620database of current users; 621see 622.Xr utmp 5 623.It Pa sem/ 624rendez-vous files for posix named semaphores; 625see 626.Xr sem_open 3 627.El 628.Pp 629.It Pa rwho/ 630rwho data files; 631see 632.Xr rwhod 8 , 633.Xr rwho 1 , 634and 635.Xr ruptime 1 636.It Pa spool/ 637misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 638.Pp 639.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 640.It Pa clientmqueue/ 641undelivered submission mail queue; 642see 643.Xr sendmail 8 644.It Pa dma/ 645undelivered mail queue; 646see 647.Xr dma 8 648.It Pa ftp/ 649commonly 650.Pa ~ftp ; 651the anonymous ftp root directory 652.It Pa mqueue/ 653undelivered mail queue; 654see 655.Xr sendmail 8 656.It Pa output/ 657line printer spooling directories 658.El 659.Pp 660.It Pa tmp/ 661temporary files that are kept between system reboots 662.Pp 663.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 664.It Pa vi.recover/ 665the directory where recovery files are stored 666.El 667.Pp 668.It Pa yp/ 669the NIS maps 670.El 671.El 672.Sh NOTES 673This manual page documents the default 674.Dx 675filesystem layout, but 676the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 677administrator's discretion. 678A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 679this document. 680.Sh SEE ALSO 681.Xr apropos 1 , 682.Xr find 1 , 683.Xr finger 1 , 684.Xr grep 1 , 685.Xr ls 1 , 686.Xr whatis 1 , 687.Xr whereis 1 , 688.Xr which 1 , 689.Xr fsck 8 690.Sh HISTORY 691A 692.Nm 693manual page appeared in 694.At v7 . 695