.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd December 11, 2021
.Dt HIER 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm hier
.Nd layout of file systems
.Sh DESCRIPTION
A sketch of the file system hierarchy.
.Bl -tag -width "/libexec/"
.It Pa /
root directory of the file system
.It Pa /bin/
user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
.It Pa /boot/
programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
.It Pa defaults/
default bootstrapping configuration files; see
.Xr loader.conf 5
.It Pa dtb/
Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see
.Xr fdt 4
and
.Xr dtc 1
.It Pa efi/
Mount point for EFI System Partition (ESP) on UEFI systems
.It Pa firmware/
loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware for hardware that needs
firmware downloaded to it to function
.It Pa kernel/
pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
at boot time) and kernel modules
.It Pa modules/
third-party loadable kernel modules, such as the ones installed from
.Xr ports 7
.It Pa overlays/
Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; see
.Xr fdt 4
and
.Xr dtc 1
.It Pa zfs/
.Xr zfs 8
zpool cache files
.El
.It Pa /cdrom/
default mount point for CD-ROM drives
.It Pa /compat/
normally a link to
.Pa /usr/compat .
If not, then the
.Pa /usr/compat
comments apply
.It Pa /dev/
device special files managed by
.Xr devfs 5
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
.It Pa fd/
file descriptor files;
see
.Xr \&fd 4
.El
.It Pa /etc/
system configuration files and scripts
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
.It Pa defaults/
default system configuration files;
see
.Xr rc 8
.It Pa bluetooth/
bluetooth configuration files
.It Pa localtime
local timezone information;
see
.Xr ctime 3
.It Pa mail/
Sendmail control files
.It Pa mtree/
mtree configuration files;
see
.Xr mtree 8
.It Pa pam.d/
configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
library
.It Pa periodic/
scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via
.Xr cron 8 ;
see
.Xr periodic 8
.It Pa rc.d/
system and daemon startup/control scripts;
see
.Xr rc 8
.It Pa security/
OpenBSM audit configuration files;
see
.Xr audit 8
.It Pa ppp/
ppp configuration files;
see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa ssh/
OpenSSH configuration files;
see
.Xr ssh 1
.It Pa ssl/
OpenSSL configuration files
.El
.It Pa /lib/
critical system libraries needed for binaries in
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /sbin
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
.It Pa casper/
service-specific
.Xr libcasper 3
Capsicum support libraries
.It Pa geom/
class-specific libraries for the
.Xr geom 8
utility
.It Pa nvmecontrol/
vendor-specific libraries to extend the
.Xr nvmecontrol 8
utility
.El
.It Pa /libexec/
critical system utilities needed for binaries in
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /sbin
.It Pa /media/
contains subdirectories to be used as mount points
for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and
floppy disks
.It Pa /mnt/
empty directory commonly used by
system administrators as a temporary mount point
.It Pa /net/
automounted NFS shares;
see
.Xr auto_master 5
.It Pa /proc/
process file system;
see
.Xr procfs 5
.It Pa /rescue/
statically linked programs for emergency recovery;
see
.Xr rescue 8
.It Pa /root/
root's HOME directory
.It Pa /sbin/
system programs and administration utilities
fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
.It Pa /tmp/
temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
.It Pa /usr/
contains the majority of user utilities and applications
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
.It Pa bin/
common utilities, programming tools, and applications
.It Pa compat/
files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems;
see
.Xr linux 4
.It Pa include/
standard C include files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa arpa/
C include files for Internet service protocols
.It Pa bsnmp/
C include files for the SNMP daemon
.It Pa c++/
C++ include files
.It Pa cam/
C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa scsi/
SCSI device on top of CAM
.El
.It Pa dev/
C include files for programming various
.Fx
devices
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa ic/
various header files describing driver- and bus-independent
hardware circuits
.It Pa ofw/
Open Firmware support
.It Pa pbio/
8255 PPI cards;
see
.Xr pbio 4
.It Pa ppbus/
parallel port bus;
see
.Xr ppbus 4
.It Pa usb/
USB subsystem
.El
.It Pa fs/
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa fdescfs/
per-process file descriptors file system
.It Pa msdosfs/
MS-DOS file system
.It Pa nfs/
C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4
.It Pa nullfs/
loopback file system
.It Pa procfs/
process file system
.It Pa smbfs/
SMB/CIFS file system
.It Pa udf/
UDF file system
.It Pa unionfs
union file system
.El
.It Pa geom/
GEOM framework
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa concat/
CONCAT GEOM class
.It Pa gate/
GATE GEOM class
.It Pa mirror/
MIRROR GEOM class
.It Pa nop/
NOP GEOM class
.It Pa raid3/
RAID3 GEOM class
.It Pa stripe/
STRIPE GEOM class
.El
.It Pa libmilter/
C include files for libmilter,
the
.Xr sendmail 8
mail filter API
.It Pa machine/
machine-specific C include files
.It Pa net/
miscellaneous network C include files
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa altq/
C include files for alternate packet queueing; see
.Xr altq 4
.El
.It Pa net80211/
C include files for 802.11 wireless networking;
see
.Xr net80211 4
.It Pa netinet/
C include files for Internet standard protocols;
see
.Xr inet 4
.It Pa netinet6/
C include files for Internet protocol version 6;
see
.Xr inet6 4
.It Pa netipsec/
kernel key-management service;
see
.Xr ipsec 4
.It Pa netsmb/
SMB/CIFS requester
.It Pa nfs/
C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy)
.It Pa openssl/
OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers
.It Pa protocols/
C include files for Berkeley service protocols
.It Pa rpc/
remote procedure calls;
see
.Xr rpc 3
.It Pa rpcsvc/
definition of RPC service structures; see
.Xr rpc 3
.It Pa security/
PAM; see
.Xr pam 8
.It Pa sys/
system C include files (kernel data structures)
.\" .It Pa tcl/
.\" Tcl language;
.\" see
.\" .Xr Tcl n
.\" .Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.\" .It Pa generic/
.\" ???
.\" .It Pa unix/
.\" ???
.\" .El
.It Pa ufs/
C include files for UFS (The U-word File System)
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa ffs/
Fast file system
.It Pa ufs/
UFS file system
.El
.It Pa vm/
virtual memory;
see
.Xr vmstat 8
.El
.Pp
.It Pa lib/
shared and archive
.Xr ar 1 Ns -type
libraries
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa aout/
a.out archive libraries
.It Pa compat/
shared libraries for compatibility
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa aout/
a.out backward compatibility libraries
.El
.It Pa debug/
standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
.It Pa dtrace/
DTrace library scripts
.It Pa engines/
OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
.El
.Pp
.It Pa libdata/
miscellaneous utility data files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa gcc/
.Xr gcc 1
configuration data
.It Pa ldscripts/
linker scripts;
see
.Xr ld 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa libexec/
system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa aout/
utilities to manipulate a.out executables
.It Pa elf/
utilities to manipulate ELF executables
.It Pa lpr/
utilities and filters for LP print system;
see
.Xr lpr 1
.It Pa sendmail/
the
.Xr sendmail 8
binary;
see
.Xr mailwrapper 8
.It Pa sm.bin/
restricted shell for
.Xr sendmail 8 ;
see
.Xr smrsh 8
.El
.Pp
.It Pa local/
local executables, libraries, etc.
Also used as the default destination for the
.Xr ports 7
framework.
Within
.Pa local/ ,
the general layout sketched out by
.Nm
for
.Pa /usr
should be used.
Exceptions are the
ports documentation
.Po in
.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc ,
and
.Pa /usr/local/etc
.Po mimics
.Pa /etc Ns Pc .
.It Pa obj/
architecture-specific target tree produced by building the
.Pa /usr/src
tree
.It Pa ports/
.Fx
ports collection; see
.Xr ports 7
.It Pa sbin/
system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
.It Pa share/
architecture-independent files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa calendar/
a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
see
.Xr calendar 1
.It Pa dict/
word lists;
see
.Xr look 1
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa freebsd
.Fx Ns -specific
terms, proper names, and jargon
.It Pa web2
words from Webster's 2nd International
.El
.It Pa doc/
miscellaneous documentation;
source for most of the printed
.Bx
manuals (available
from the
.Tn USENIX
association)
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa FAQ/
Frequently Asked Questions
.It Pa IPv6/
implementation notes for IPv6
.It Pa es/
Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
.It Pa handbook/
.Fx
Handbook
.It Pa ja/
Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
.It Pa legal/
License files for vendor supplied firmware files
.It Pa ncurses/
HTML documents pertaining to ncurses;
see
.Xr ncurses 3
.It Pa ntp/
HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol
.It Pa ru/
Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
.It Pa tutorials/
.Fx
tutorials
.It Pa zh/
Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
.El
.It Pa examples/
various examples for users and programmers
.It Pa firmware/
firmware images loaded by userland programs
.It Pa games/
ASCII text files used by various games
.It Pa keys/
known trusted and revoked keys
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa pkg/
fingerprints for
.Xr pkg 7
and
.Xr pkg 8
.El
.It Pa locale/
localization files;
see
.Xr setlocale 3
.It Pa man/
manual pages
.It Pa misc/
miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa fonts/
???
.It Pa termcap
terminal characteristics database;
see
.Xr termcap 5
.El
.It Pa mk/
templates for make;
see
.Xr make 1
.It Pa nls/
national language support files
.It Pa security/
data files for security policies such as
.Xr mac_lomac 4
.It Pa sendmail/
.Xr sendmail 8
configuration files
.It Pa skel/
example
.Pa .\&
(dot) files for new accounts
.It Pa snmp/
MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa defs/
tree definition files for use with
.Xr gensnmptree 1
.It Pa mibs/
MIB files
.El
.It Pa syscons/
files used by syscons;
see
.Xr syscons 4
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa fonts/
console fonts;
see
.Xr vidcontrol 1
and
.Xr vidfont 1
.It Pa keymaps/
console keyboard maps;
see
.Xr kbdcontrol 1
and
.Xr kbdmap 1
.It Pa scrnmaps/
console screen maps
.El
.It Pa tabset/
tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
the termcap file;
see
.Xr termcap 5
.It Pa vi/
localization support and utilities for
.Xr vi 1
.It Pa vt/
files used by vt;
see
.Xr vt 4
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa fonts/
console fonts;
see
.Xr vidcontrol 1
and
.Xr vidfont 1
.It Pa keymaps/
console keyboard maps;
see
.Xr kbdcontrol 1
and
.Xr kbdmap 1
.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/
.\" console screen maps
.El
.It Pa zoneinfo/
timezone configuration information;
see
.Xr tzfile 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa src/
.Fx
source code; see
.Xr development 7
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
.It Pa bin/
source code for files in /bin
.It Pa cddl/
utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License
.It Pa contrib/
source code for contributed software
.It Pa crypto/
source code for contributed cryptography software
.It Pa etc/
source code for files in
.Pa /etc
.It Pa gnu/
utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
.It Pa include/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/include
.It Pa kerberos5/
build infrastructure for Kerberos version 5
.It Pa lib/
source code for files in
.Pa /lib
and
.Pa /usr/lib
.It Pa libexec/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/libexec
.It Pa release/
files required to produce a
.Fx
release
.It Pa rescue/
source code for files in
.Pa /rescue
.It Pa sbin/
source code for files in
.Pa /sbin
.It Pa secure/
build directory for files in
.Pa /usr/src/crypto
.It Pa share/
source for files in
.Pa /usr/share
.It Pa stand/
boot loader source code
.It Pa sys/
kernel source code
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa amd64/
AMD64 architecture support
.It Pa arm/
ARM architecture support
.It Pa arm64/
ARMv8 architecture support
.It Pa cam/
.Xr cam 4
and
.Xr ctl 4
.It Pa cddl/
CDDL-licensed optional sources, including ZFS
and DTrace
.It Pa ddb/
.Xr ddb 4
.It Pa fs/
most filesystems
.It Pa dev/
device drivers
.It Pa geom/
.Xr geom 4
.It Pa i386/
i386 (32 bit) architecture support
.It Pa kern/
main part of the kernel
.It Pa net80211/
.Xr net80211 4
.It Pa netgraph/
.Xr netgraph 4
.It Pa netinet/
.Xr inet 4
.It Pa netinet6/
.Xr inet6 4
.It Pa netipsec/
.Xr ipsec 4
.It Pa netpfil/
.Xr ipfw 4
and
.Xr pf 4
.It Pa opencrypto/
.Xr crypto 7
.It Pa powerpc/
PowerPC/POWER architecture support
.It Pa riscv/
RISC-V architecture support
.It Pa security/
.Xr audit 4
and
.Xr mac 4
.It Pa sys/
kernel headers
.It Pa ufs/
Unix File System
.It Pa x86/
code shared by AMD64 and i386 architectures
.El
.It Pa targets/
support for experimental DIRDEPS_BUILD
.It Pa tests/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/tests
.It Pa tools/
tools used for maintenance and testing of
.Fx
.It Pa usr.bin/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/bin
.It Pa usr.sbin/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/sbin
.El
.Pp
.It Pa tests/
The
.Fx
test suite; see
.Xr tests 7
.El
.It Pa /var/
multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
.It Pa account/
system accounting files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa acct
execution accounting file;
see
.Xr acct 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa at/
timed command scheduling files;
see
.Xr \&at 1
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa jobs/
directory containing job files
.It Pa spool/
directory containing output spool files
.El
.Pp
.It Pa backups/
miscellaneous backup files
.It Pa cache/
miscellaneous cached files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa pkg/
cached packages for
.Xr pkg 8
.El
.Pp
.It Pa crash/
default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
.Xr crash 8
and
.Xr savecore 8
.It Pa cron/
files used by cron;
see
.Xr cron 8
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa tabs/
crontab files;
see
.Xr crontab 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa db/
miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
.It Pa empty/
empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
Used for instance by
.Xr sshd 8
for privilege separation
.It Pa games/
miscellaneous game status and score files
.It Pa heimdal/
Kerberos server databases; see
.Xr kdc 8
.It Pa log/
miscellaneous system log files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa utx.lastlogin
last login log;
see
.Xr getutxent 3
.It Pa utx.log
login/logout log;
see
.Xr getutxent 3
.El
.Pp
.It Pa mail/
user mailbox files
.It Pa msgs/
system messages database;
see
.Xr msgs 1
.It Pa preserve/
temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
of an editor;
see
.Xr \&ex 1
.It Pa quotas/
file system quota information files
.It Pa run/
system information files describing various info about
system since it was booted
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa bhyve/
bhyve vm unix domain sockets
.It Pa ppp/
writable by the
.Dq network
group for command connection sockets; see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa utx.active
database of current users;
see
.Xr getutxent 3
.El
.Pp
.It Pa rwho/
rwho data files;
see
.Xr rwhod 8 ,
.Xr rwho 1 ,
and
.Xr ruptime 1
.It Pa spool/
miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa clientmqueue/
undelivered submission mail queue;
see
.Xr sendmail 8
.It Pa ftp/
commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
.It Pa mqueue/
undelivered mail queue;
see
.Xr sendmail 8
.It Pa output/
line printer spooling directories
.El
.Pp
.It Pa tmp/
temporary files that are kept between system reboots
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa vi.recover/
the directory where recovery files are stored
.El
.Pp
.It Pa yp/
the NIS maps; see
.Xr yp 8
.El
.El
.Sh NOTES
This manual page documents the default
.Fx
file system layout, but
the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
administrator's discretion.
A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
this document.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr find 1 ,
.Xr grep 1 ,
.Xr ls 1 ,
.Xr whereis 1 ,
.Xr which 1
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
manual page appeared in
.At v7 .