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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)hier.7 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 33.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man7/hier.7,v 1.29.2.17 2003/01/13 21:43:50 ceri Exp $ 34.\" 35.Dd July 25, 2010 36.Dt HIER 7 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm hier 40.Nd layout of filesystems 41.Sh DESCRIPTION 42A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy. 43.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /modules/" 44.It Pa / 45root directory of the filesystem 46.It Pa /bin/ 47user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 48.It Pa /boot/ 49programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap 50.Pp 51.Bl -tag -width ".Pa defaults/" -compact 52.It Pa defaults/ 53default bootstrapping configuration files; see 54.Xr loader.conf 5 55.It Pa kernel 56pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory 57at boot time). 58.It Pa modules/ 59loadable kernel modules; 60see 61.Xr kldstat 8 62.El 63.It Pa /dev/ 64block and character device files 65.Pp 66.Bl -tag -width ".Pa fd/" -compact 67.It Pa fd/ 68file descriptor files; 69see 70.Xr \&fd 4 71.El 72.It Pa /etc/ 73system configuration files and scripts 74.Pp 75.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 76.It Pa bluetooth/ 77bluetooth configuration files 78.It Pa defaults/ 79default system configuration files; 80see 81.Xr rc 8 82.It Pa dma/ 83.Xr dma 8 84configuration files 85.\".It Pa firmware/ 86.\"Firmware image files; 87.\"see 88.\".Xr firmware 9 89.It Pa isdn/ 90isdn4bsd configuration files; 91see 92.Xr isdnd 8 93.It Pa localtime 94local timezone information; 95see 96.Xr ctime 3 97.It Pa mail/ 98Sendmail control files 99.It Pa mtree/ 100mtree configuration files; 101see 102.Xr mtree 8 103.It Pa pam.d/ 104configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 105library 106.It Pa periodic/ 107scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 108.Xr cron 8 ; 109see 110.Xr periodic 8 111.It Pa ppp/ 112ppp configuration files; 113see 114.Xr ppp 8 115.It Pa rc.d/ 116System and daemon startup/control scripts; 117see 118.Xr rc 8 119.It Pa ssh/ 120OpenSSH configuration files; 121see 122.Xr ssh 1 123.It Pa ssl/ 124OpenSSL configuration files 125.It Pa upgrade/ 126Files relevant to system upgrades 127.It Pa uucp/ 128uucp configuration files; 129see 130.Xr uucp 1 131.El 132.It Pa /home/ 133HOME directories of non-root users 134.It Pa /mnt/ 135empty directory commonly used by 136system administrators as a temporary mount point 137.It Pa /proc/ 138process file system; 139see 140.Xr procfs 5 , 141.Xr mount_procfs 8 142.It Pa /root/ 143root's HOME directory 144.It Pa /sbin/ 145system programs and administration utilities 146fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 147.It Pa /sys/ 148the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to 149.Pa /usr/src/sys ) 150.It Pa /tmp/ 151temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 152.It Pa /usr/ 153contains the majority of user utilities and applications 154.Pp 155.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 156.It Pa bin/ 157common utilities, programming tools, and applications 158.It Pa games/ 159useful and semi-frivolous programs 160.It Pa include/ 161standard C include files 162.Pp 163.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libmilter/" -compact 164.It Pa arpa/ 165C include files for Internet service protocols 166.It Pa c++/ 167C++ include files 168.It Pa cam/ 169C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 170.Pp 171.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scsi/" -compact 172.It Pa scsi/ 173The SCSI device on top of CAM 174.El 175.Pp 176.It Pa dev/ 177C include files for programming various 178.Dx 179devices 180.It Pa emulation/ 181Include Files for various emulation layers 182.It Pa fs/ 183.Pp 184.Bl -tag -width ".Pa smbfs/" -compact 185.It Pa smbfs/ 186SMB/CIFS filesystem 187.El 188.Pp 189.It Pa isofs/ 190.Pp 191.Bl -tag -width ".Pa cd9660/" -compact 192.It Pa cd9660/ 193iso9660 filesystem 194.El 195.Pp 196.It Pa libmilter/ 197C include files for libmilter, 198the sendmail mail filter API 199.It Pa libprop/ 200C include files for libprop 201.It Pa machine/ 202machine-specific C include files 203.It Pa msdosfs/ 204MS-DOS file system 205.It Pa net/ 206misc network C include files 207.It Pa netatalk/ 208Appletalk protocol 209.It Pa netatm/ 210ATM include files; 211see 212.Xr atm 8 213.It Pa netinet/ 214C include files for Internet standard protocols; 215see 216.Xr inet 4 217.It Pa netinet6/ 218C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 219see 220.Xr inet6 4 221.It Pa netipx/ 222IPX/SPX protocol stacks 223.It Pa netkey/ 224kernel key-management service 225.It Pa netnatm/ 226NATM include files; 227see 228.Xr natm 4 229.It Pa netns/ 230Xerox NS protocols 231.It Pa netsmb/ 232SMB/CIFS requester 233.It Pa nfs/ 234C include files for NFS (Network File System) 235.It Pa objc/ 236Objective C include files 237.It Pa openssl/ 238OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 239.It Pa pcap/ 240Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 241see 242.Xr pcap 3 243.It Pa pccard/ 244PC-CARD controllers 245.It Pa protocols/ 246C include files for Berkeley service protocols 247.It Pa readline/ 248get a line from a user, with editing; 249see 250.Xr readline 3 251.It Pa rpc/ 252remote procedure calls; 253see 254.Xr rpc 3 255.It Pa rpcsvc/ 256definition of RPC service structures; see 257.Xr rpc 3 258.It Pa security/ 259PAM; see 260.Xr pam 8 261.It Pa sys/ 262system C include files (kernel data structures) 263.It Pa ufs/ 264C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 265.Pp 266.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ffs/" -compact 267.It Pa ffs/ 268Fast filesystem 269.It Pa mfs/ 270memory file system; 271see 272.Xr mount_mfs 8 273.It Pa ufs/ 274UFS filesystem 275.El 276.Pp 277.It Pa vm/ 278virtual memory; 279see 280.Xr vmstat 8 281.El 282.Pp 283.It Pa lib/ 284archive libraries 285.Pp 286.Bl -tag -width ".Pa compat/" -compact 287.It Pa aout/ 288a.out archive libraries 289.It Pa compat/ 290shared libraries for compatibility 291.Pp 292.Bl -tag -width ".Pa aout/" -compact 293.It Pa aout/ 294a.out backward compatibility libraries 295.El 296.El 297.Pp 298.It Pa libdata/ 299misc. utility data files 300.Pp 301.Bl -tag -width ".Pa stallion/" -compact 302.It Pa doscmd/ 303files used by doscmd (drivers, fonts, etc.); 304see 305.Xr doscmd 1 306.Pp 307.Bl -tag -width ".Pa fonts/" -compact 308.It Pa fonts/ 309fonts used by doscmd 310.El 311.Pp 312.It Pa lint/ 313various prebuilt lint libraries; 314see 315.Xr lint 1 316.It Pa stallion/ 317holds the download firmware images 318.El 319.Pp 320.It Pa libexec/ 321system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 322.Pp 323.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils217/" -compact 324.It Pa binutils217/ 325.Pp 326.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ldscripts/" -compact 327.It Pa ldscripts/ 328linker scripts; 329see 330.Xr ld 1 331.El 332.Pp 333.It Pa lpr/ 334utilities and filters for LP print system; 335see 336.Xr lpr 1 337.It Pa sendmail/ 338the sendmail binary; 339see 340.Xr mailwrapper 8 341and 342.Xr sendmail 8 343.It Pa sm.bin/ 344restricted shell for sendmail; 345see 346.Xr smrsh 8 347.It Pa uucp/ 348uucp utilities; 349see 350.Xr uucp 1 351.El 352.Pp 353.It Pa local/ 354local executables, libraries, etc. 355Within 356.Pa local/ , 357the general layout sketched out by 358.Xr hier 7 359for 360.Pa /usr 361should be used. 362Exceptions are the 363.Pa man/ 364directory (directly under 365.Pa local/ 366rather than under 367.Pa local/share/ ) , 368documentation (in 369.Pa share/doc/<app>/ ) , 370and 371.Pa /usr/local/etc 372.Pf ( mimics 373.Pa /etc ) . 374.It Pa obj/ 375architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 376.Pa /usr/src 377tree 378.It Pa pkg/ 379default destination directory for the 380.Xr pkgsrc 7 381collection. 382Within 383.Pa pkg/ , 384the general layout sketched out by 385.Xr hier 7 386for 387.Pa /usr 388should be used. 389Exceptions are the 390.Pa man/ 391directory (directly under 392.Pa pkg/ 393rather than under 394.Pa pkg/share/ ) , 395documentation (in 396.Pa share/doc/<pkg>/ ) , 397and 398.Pa /usr/pkg/etc 399.Pf ( mimics 400.Pa /etc ) . 401.It Pa pkgsrc/ 402The 403.Xr pkgsrc 7 404collection (optional). 405.It Pa sbin/ 406system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 407.It Pa share/ 408architecture-independent files 409.Pp 410.Bl -tag -width ".Pa groff_font/" -compact 411.It Pa calendar/ 412a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 413see 414.Xr calendar 1 415.It Pa dict/ 416word lists; 417see 418.Xr look 1 419.Pp 420.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact 421.It Pa web2 422words from Webster's 2nd International 423.It Pa words 424common words 425.It Pa papers/ 426reference databases; 427see 428.Xr refer 1 429.El 430.Pp 431.It Pa doc/ 432miscellaneous documentation 433.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact 434.It Pa legal/ 435License files for vendor supplied firmwares 436.El 437.Pp 438.It Pa examples/ 439various examples for users and programmers 440.It Pa games/ 441ASCII text files used by various games 442.It Pa groff_font/ 443device description file for device name 444.It Pa i18n/ 445internationalization databases; see 446.Xr iconv 3 447.It Pa info/ 448GNU Info hypertext system 449.It Pa isdn/ 450ISDN 451.It Pa libg++/ 452libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 453.It Pa locale/ 454localization files; 455see 456.Xr setlocale 3 457.It Pa man/ 458manual pages 459.It Pa me/ 460macros for use with the me macro package; 461see 462.Xr me 7 463.It Pa misc/ 464misc system-wide ASCII text files 465.Pp 466.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 467.It Pa termcap 468terminal characteristics database; 469see 470.Xr termcap 5 471.El 472.Pp 473.It Pa mk/ 474templates for make; 475see 476.Xr make 1 477.It Pa nls/ 478national language support files; 479see 480.Xr mklocale 1 481.It Pa openssl/ 482.Pp 483.Bl -tag -width ".Pa man/" -compact 484.It Pa man/ 485OpenSSL manual pages 486.El 487.Pp 488.It Pa sendmail/ 489sendmail configuration files; 490see 491.Xr sendmail 8 492.It Pa skel/ 493example . (dot) files for new accounts 494.It Pa syscons/ 495files used by 496.Xr syscons 4 497.Pp 498.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 499.It Pa fonts/ 500console fonts; 501see 502.Xr vidcontrol 1 503and 504.Xr vidfont 1 505.It Pa keymaps/ 506console keyboard maps; 507see 508.Xr kbdcontrol 1 509and 510.Xr kbdmap 1 511.It Pa scrnmaps/ 512console screen maps 513.El 514.Pp 515.It Pa tabset/ 516tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 517the termcap file; 518see 519.Xr termcap 5 520.It Pa tmac/ 521text processing macros; 522see 523.Xr nroff 1 524and 525.Xr troff 1 526.It Pa vi/ 527localization support and utilities for 528.Xr vi 1 529.It Pa zoneinfo/ 530timezone configuration information; 531see 532.Xr tzfile 5 533.El 534.Pp 535.It Pa src/ 536.Bx , 537third-party, and/or local source files 538.Pp 539.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 540.It Pa bin/ 541source code for files in 542.Pa /bin 543.It Pa contrib/ 544source code for contributed software 545.It Pa crypto/ 546source code for contributed cryptography software 547.It Pa etc/ 548source code for files in 549.Pa /etc 550.It Pa games/ 551source code for files in 552.Pa /usr/games 553.It Pa gnu/ 554Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 555.It Pa include/ 556source code for files in 557.Pa /usr/include 558.It Pa lib/ 559source code for files in 560.Pa /usr/lib 561.It Pa libexec/ 562source code for files in 563.Pa /usr/libexec 564.It Pa nrelease/ 565files required to produce a 566.Dx 567release 568.It Pa sbin/ 569source code for files in 570.Pa /sbin 571.It Pa secure/ 572build directory for files in 573.Pa /usr/src/crypto 574.It Pa share/ 575source for files in 576.Pa /usr/share 577.It Pa sys/ 578kernel source code 579.It Pa tools/ 580tools used for maintenance and testing of 581.Dx 582.It Pa usr.bin/ 583source code for files in 584.Pa /usr/bin 585.It Pa usr.sbin/ 586source code for files in 587.Pa /usr/sbin 588.El 589.El 590.It Pa /var/ 591multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 592.Pp 593.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 594.It Pa account/ 595system accounting files 596.Pp 597.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 598.It Pa acct 599execution accounting file; 600see 601.Xr acct 5 602.El 603.Pp 604.It Pa at/ 605timed command scheduling files; 606see 607.Xr \&at 1 608.Pp 609.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 610.It Pa jobs/ 611directory containing job files 612.It Pa spool/ 613directory containing output spool files 614.El 615.Pp 616.It Pa backups/ 617misc. backup files 618.It Pa crash/ 619default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 620.Xr crash 8 621and 622.Xr savecore 8 623.It Pa cron/ 624files used by cron; 625see 626.Xr cron 8 627.Pp 628.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 629.It Pa tabs/ 630crontab files; 631see 632.Xr crontab 5 633.El 634.Pp 635.It Pa db/ 636misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 637.It Pa empty/ 638empty directory used by 639.Xr sshd 8 640for privilege separation 641.It Pa games/ 642misc. game status and score files 643.It Pa log/ 644misc. system log files 645.Pp 646.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 647.It Pa wtmp 648login/logout log; 649see 650.Xr wtmp 5 651.El 652.Pp 653.It Pa mail/ 654user mailbox files 655.It Pa msgs/ 656system messages database; 657see 658.Xr msgs 1 659.It Pa preserve/ 660temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 661of an editor; 662see 663.Xr \&ex 1 664.It Pa quotas/ 665filesystem quota information files 666.It Pa run/ 667system information files describing various info about 668system since it was booted 669.Pp 670.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ppp/" -compact 671.It Pa ppp/ 672writable by the 673.Dq network 674group for command connection sockets; see 675.Xr ppp 8 676.It Pa utmp 677database of current users; 678see 679.Xr utmp 5 680.El 681.Pp 682.It Pa rwho/ 683rwho data files; 684see 685.Xr rwhod 8 , 686.Xr rwho 1 , 687and 688.Xr ruptime 1 689.It Pa spool/ 690misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 691.Pp 692.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 693.It Pa clientmqueue/ 694undelivered submission mail queue; 695see 696.Xr sendmail 8 697.It Pa dma/ 698undelivered mail queue; 699see 700.Xr dma 8 701.It Pa ftp/ 702commonly 703.Pa ~ftp ; 704the anonymous ftp root directory 705.It Pa mqueue/ 706undelivered mail queue; 707see 708.Xr sendmail 8 709.It Pa output/ 710line printer spooling directories 711.It Pa uucp/ 712uucp spool directory 713.It Pa uucppublic/ 714commonly 715.Pa ~uucp ; 716public uucp temporary directory 717.El 718.Pp 719.It Pa tmp/ 720temporary files that are kept between system reboots 721.Pp 722.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 723.It Pa vi.recover/ 724the directory where recovery files are stored 725.El 726.Pp 727.It Pa yp/ 728the NIS maps 729.El 730.El 731.Sh NOTES 732This manual page documents the default 733.Dx 734filesystem layout, but 735the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 736administrator's discretion. 737A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 738this document. 739.Sh SEE ALSO 740.Xr apropos 1 , 741.Xr find 1 , 742.Xr finger 1 , 743.Xr grep 1 , 744.Xr ls 1 , 745.Xr whatis 1 , 746.Xr whereis 1 , 747.Xr which 1 , 748.Xr fsck 8 749.Sh HISTORY 750A 751.Nm 752manual page appeared in 753.At v7 . 754