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.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd December 25, 2013 32.Dt HIER 7 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm hier 36.Nd layout of file systems 37.Sh DESCRIPTION 38A sketch of the file system hierarchy. 39.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /libexec/" 40.It Pa / 41root directory of the file system 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 defaults/" -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). 54.It Pa modules/ 55third-party loadable kernel modules; 56see 57.Xr kldstat 8 58.El 59.It Pa /cdrom/ 60default mount point for CD-ROM drives 61.It Pa /compat/ 62normally a link to 63.Pa /usr/compat . 64If not, then the 65.Pa /usr/compat 66comments apply 67.It Pa /dev/ 68device special files managed by 69.Xr devfs 5 70.Pp 71.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 72.It Pa fd/ 73file descriptor files; 74see 75.Xr \&fd 4 76.It Pa net/ 77network devices 78.El 79.It Pa /etc/ 80system configuration files and scripts 81.Pp 82.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 83.It Pa defaults/ 84default system configuration files; 85see 86.Xr rc 8 87.It Pa bluetooth/ 88bluetooth configuration files 89.It Pa gnats/ 90gnats configuration files; 91see 92.Xr send-pr 1 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 rc.d/ 112System and daemon startup/control scripts; 113see 114.Xr rc 8 115.It Pa security/ 116OpenBSM audit configuration files; 117see 118.Xr audit 8 119.It Pa ppp/ 120ppp configuration files; 121see 122.Xr ppp 8 123.It Pa ssh/ 124OpenSSH configuration files; 125see 126.Xr ssh 1 127.It Pa ssl/ 128OpenSSL configuration files 129.El 130.It Pa /lib/ 131critical system libraries needed for binaries in 132.Pa /bin 133and 134.Pa /sbin 135.Pp 136.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 137.It Pa geom/ 138class-specific libraries for the 139.Xr geom 8 140utility 141.El 142.It Pa /libexec/ 143critical system utilities needed for binaries in 144.Pa /bin 145and 146.Pa /sbin 147.It Pa /media/ 148contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 149for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 150floppy disks 151.It Pa /mnt/ 152empty directory commonly used by 153system administrators as a temporary mount point 154.It Pa /proc/ 155process file system; 156see 157.Xr procfs 5 158.It Pa /rescue/ 159statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 160see 161.Xr rescue 8 162.It Pa /root/ 163root's HOME directory 164.It Pa /sbin/ 165system programs and administration utilities 166fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 167.It Pa /tmp/ 168temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 169.It Pa /usr/ 170contains the majority of user utilities and applications 171.Pp 172.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 173.It Pa bin/ 174common utilities, programming tools, and applications 175.It Pa compat/ 176files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 177such as Linux 178.It Pa games/ 179useful and semi-frivolous programs 180.It Pa include/ 181standard C include files 182.Pp 183.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 184.It Pa altq/ 185C include files for alternate queueing 186.It Pa arpa/ 187C include files for Internet service protocols 188.It Pa bsnmp/ 189C include files for the SNMP daemon 190.It Pa c++/ 191C++ include files 192.It Pa cam/ 193C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 194.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 195.It Pa scsi/ 196The SCSI device on top of CAM 197.El 198.It Pa dev/ 199C include files for programming various 200.Fx 201devices 202.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 203.It Pa ic/ 204Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 205hardware circuits 206.It Pa ofw/ 207Open Firmware support 208.It Pa pbio/ 2098255 PPI cards; 210see 211.Xr pbio 4 212.It Pa ppbus/ 213The parallel port bus; 214see 215.Xr ppbus 4 216.It Pa usb/ 217The USB subsystem 218.It Pa utopia/ 219Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 220see 221.Xr utopia 4 222.It Pa wi/ 223The 224.Xr wi 4 225WaveLAN driver 226.El 227.It Pa fs/ 228.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 229.It Pa fdescfs/ 230per-process file descriptors file system 231.It Pa fifofs/ 232.St -p1003.1 233FIFOs file system 234.It Pa msdosfs/ 235MS-DOS file system 236.It Pa nfs/ 237C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 238.It Pa nullfs/ 239loopback file system 240.It Pa procfs/ 241process file system 242.It Pa smbfs/ 243SMB/CIFS file system 244.It Pa udf/ 245UDF file system 246.It Pa unionfs 247union file system 248.El 249.It Pa geom/ 250GEOM framework 251.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 252.It Pa concat/ 253CONCAT GEOM class 254.It Pa gate/ 255GATE GEOM class 256.It Pa mirror/ 257MIRROR GEOM class 258.It Pa nop/ 259NOP GEOM class 260.It Pa raid3/ 261RAID3 GEOM class 262.It Pa stripe/ 263STRIPE GEOM class 264.El 265.Pp 266.It Pa isc/ 267ISC utility library libisc include files 268.It Pa isofs/ 269.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 270.It Pa cd9660/ 271iso9660 file system 272.El 273.It Pa libmilter/ 274C include files for libmilter, 275the 276.Xr sendmail 8 277mail filter API 278.It Pa machine/ 279machine-specific C include files 280.It Pa net/ 281miscellaneous network C include files 282.It Pa netinet/ 283C include files for Internet standard protocols; 284see 285.Xr inet 4 286.It Pa netinet6/ 287C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 288see 289.Xr inet6 4 290.It Pa netipsec/ 291kernel key-management service; 292see 293.Xr ipsec 4 294.It Pa netnatm/ 295NATM include files; 296see 297.Xr natm 4 298.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 299.It Pa api/ 300include files for the signalling API 301.It Pa msg/ 302include files that describe signalling messages and 303declare associated functions 304.It Pa saal/ 305include files for the signalling AAL layer 306.It Pa sig/ 307include files for the UNI signalling protocol 308.El 309.It Pa netsmb/ 310SMB/CIFS requester 311.It Pa nfs/ 312C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 313.It Pa objc/ 314Objective C include files 315.It Pa openssl/ 316OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 317.It Pa pccard/ 318PC-CARD controllers 319.It Pa protocols/ 320C include files for Berkeley service protocols 321.It Pa readline/ 322get a line from a user, with editing; 323see 324.Xr readline 3 325.It Pa rpc/ 326remote procedure calls; 327see 328.Xr rpc 3 329.It Pa rpcsvc/ 330definition of RPC service structures; see 331.Xr rpc 3 332.It Pa security/ 333PAM; see 334.Xr pam 8 335.It Pa sys/ 336system C include files (kernel data structures) 337.\" .It Pa tcl/ 338.\" Tcl language; 339.\" see 340.\" .Xr Tcl n 341.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 342.\" .It Pa generic/ 343.\" ??? 344.\" .It Pa unix/ 345.\" ??? 346.\" .El 347.It Pa ufs/ 348C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 349.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 350.It Pa ffs/ 351Fast file system 352.It Pa ufs/ 353UFS file system 354.El 355.It Pa vm/ 356virtual memory; 357see 358.Xr vmstat 8 359.El 360.Pp 361.It Pa lib/ 362shared and archive 363.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 364libraries 365.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 366.It Pa aout/ 367a.out archive libraries 368.It Pa compat/ 369shared libraries for compatibility 370.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 371.It Pa aout/ 372a.out backward compatibility libraries 373.El 374.It Pa dtrace/ 375DTrace library scripts 376.It Pa engines/ 377OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 378.It Pa private/ 379Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 380ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 381.El 382.Pp 383.It Pa libdata/ 384miscellaneous utility data files 385.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 386.It Pa gcc/ 387.Xr gcc 1 388configuration data 389.It Pa ldscripts/ 390linker scripts; 391see 392.Xr ld 1 393.It Pa lint/ 394various prebuilt lint libraries; 395see 396.Xr lint 1 397.El 398.Pp 399.It Pa libexec/ 400system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 401.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 402.It Pa aout/ 403utilities to manipulate a.out executables 404.It Pa elf/ 405utilities to manipulate ELF executables 406.It Pa lpr/ 407utilities and filters for LP print system; 408see 409.Xr lpr 1 410.It Pa sendmail/ 411the 412.Xr sendmail 8 413binary; 414see 415.Xr mailwrapper 8 416.It Pa sm.bin/ 417restricted shell for 418.Xr sendmail 8 ; 419see 420.Xr smrsh 8 421.El 422.Pp 423.It Pa local/ 424local executables, libraries, etc. 425Also used as the default destination for the 426.Fx 427ports framework. 428Within 429.Pa local/ , 430the general layout sketched out by 431.Nm 432for 433.Pa /usr 434should be used. 435Exceptions are the 436.Pa man 437directory 438.Po directly under 439.Pa local/ 440rather than under 441.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 442ports documentation 443.Po in 444.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 445and 446.Pa /usr/local/etc 447.Po mimics 448.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 449.It Pa obj/ 450architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 451.Pa /usr/src 452tree 453.It Pa ports/ 454The 455.Fx 456ports collection (optional). 457.It Pa sbin/ 458system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 459.It Pa share/ 460architecture-independent files 461.Pp 462.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 463.It Pa calendar/ 464a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 465see 466.Xr calendar 1 467.It Pa dict/ 468word lists; 469see 470.Xr look 1 471.Pp 472.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 473.It Pa freebsd 474.Fx Ns -specific 475terms, proper names, and jargon 476.It Pa words 477common words 478.It Pa web2 479words from Webster's 2nd International 480.It Pa papers/ 481reference databases; 482see 483.Xr refer 1 484.El 485.Pp 486.It Pa doc/ 487miscellaneous documentation; 488source for most of the printed 489.Bx 490manuals (available 491from the 492.Tn USENIX 493association) 494.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 495.It Pa FAQ/ 496Frequently Asked Questions 497.It Pa IPv6/ 498implementation notes for IPv6 499.It Pa bind/ 500documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 501.It Pa es/ 502Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 503.It Pa handbook/ 504.Fx 505Handbook 506.It Pa ja/ 507Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 508.It Pa legal/ 509License files for vendor supplied firmwares 510.It Pa ncurses/ 511HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 512see 513.Xr ncurses 3 514.It Pa ntp/ 515HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 516.It Pa papers/ 517UNIX Papers 518.It Pa psd/ 519UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 520.It Pa ru/ 521Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 522.It Pa smm/ 523UNIX System Manager's Manual 524.It Pa tutorials/ 525.Fx 526tutorials 527.It Pa usd/ 528UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 529.It Pa zh/ 530Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 531.El 532.Pp 533.It Pa examples/ 534various examples for users and programmers 535.It Pa games/ 536ASCII text files used by various games 537.It Pa groff_font/ 538device description file for device name 539.It Pa info/ 540GNU Info hypertext system 541.It Pa keys/ 542known trusted and revoked keys. 543.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 544.It Pa keys/pkg/ 545fingerprints for 546.Xr pkg 7 547and 548.Xr pkg 8 549.El 550.Pp 551.It Pa locale/ 552localization files; 553see 554.Xr setlocale 3 555.It Pa man/ 556manual pages 557.It Pa mdocml/ 558data files used by mdocml 559.It Pa me/ 560macros for use with the me macro package; 561see 562.Xr me 7 563.It Pa misc/ 564miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 565.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 566.It Pa fonts/ 567??? 568.It Pa termcap 569terminal characteristics database; 570see 571.Xr termcap 5 572.El 573.It Pa mk/ 574templates for make; 575see 576.Xr make 1 577.It Pa nls/ 578national language support files; 579see 580.Xr mklocale 1 581.It Pa security/ 582data files for security policies such as 583.Xr mac_lomac 4 584.It Pa sendmail/ 585.Xr sendmail 8 586configuration files 587.It Pa skel/ 588example 589.Pa .\& 590(dot) files for new accounts 591.It Pa snmp/ 592MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 593.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 594.It Pa defs/ 595Tree definition files for use with 596.Xr gensnmptree 1 597.It Pa mibs/ 598MIB files 599.El 600.It Pa syscons/ 601files used by syscons; 602see 603.Xr syscons 4 604.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 605.It Pa fonts/ 606console fonts; 607see 608.Xr vidcontrol 1 609and 610.Xr vidfont 1 611.It Pa keymaps/ 612console keyboard maps; 613see 614.Xr kbdcontrol 1 615and 616.Xr kbdmap 1 617.It Pa scrnmaps/ 618console screen maps 619.El 620.It Pa tabset/ 621tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 622the termcap file; 623see 624.Xr termcap 5 625.It Pa tmac/ 626text processing macros; 627see 628.Xr nroff 1 629and 630.Xr troff 1 631.It Pa vi/ 632localization support and utilities for 633.Xr vi 1 634.It Pa zoneinfo/ 635timezone configuration information; 636see 637.Xr tzfile 5 638.El 639.It Pa src/ 640.Bx , 641third-party, and/or local source files 642.Pp 643.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 644.It Pa bin/ 645source code for files in /bin 646.It Pa cddl/ 647Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 648.It Pa contrib/ 649source code for contributed software 650.It Pa crypto/ 651source code for contributed cryptography software 652.It Pa etc/ 653source code for files in 654.Pa /etc 655.It Pa games/ 656source code for files in 657.Pa /usr/games 658.It Pa gnu/ 659Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 660.It Pa include/ 661source code for files in 662.Pa /usr/include 663.It Pa kerberos5/ 664build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 665.It Pa lib/ 666source code for files in 667.Pa /usr/lib 668.It Pa libexec/ 669source code for files in 670.Pa /usr/libexec 671.It Pa release/ 672files required to produce a 673.Fx 674release 675.It Pa sbin/ 676source code for files in 677.Pa /sbin 678.It Pa secure/ 679build directory for files in 680.Pa /usr/src/crypto 681.It Pa share/ 682source for files in 683.Pa /usr/share 684.It Pa sys/ 685kernel source code 686.It Pa tools/ 687tools used for maintenance and testing of 688.Fx 689.It Pa usr.bin/ 690source code for files in 691.Pa /usr/bin 692.It Pa usr.sbin/ 693source code for files in 694.Pa /usr/sbin 695.El 696.Pp 697.It Pa tests/ 698The 699.Fx 700test suite. 701See 702.Xr tests 7 703for more details. 704.El 705.It Pa /var/ 706multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 707.Pp 708.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 709.It Pa account/ 710system accounting files 711.Pp 712.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 713.It Pa acct 714execution accounting file; 715see 716.Xr acct 5 717.El 718.Pp 719.It Pa at/ 720timed command scheduling files; 721see 722.Xr \&at 1 723.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 724.It Pa jobs/ 725directory containing job files 726.It Pa spool/ 727directory containing output spool files 728.El 729.Pp 730.It Pa backups/ 731miscellaneous backup files 732.It Pa cache/ 733miscellaneous cached files 734.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 735.It Pa pkg/ 736cached packages for 737.Xr pkg 8 738.El 739.Pp 740.It Pa crash/ 741default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 742.Xr crash 8 743and 744.Xr savecore 8 745.It Pa cron/ 746files used by cron; 747see 748.Xr cron 8 749.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 750.It Pa tabs/ 751crontab files; 752see 753.Xr crontab 5 754.El 755.Pp 756.It Pa db/ 757miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 758.It Pa empty/ 759empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 760Used for instance by 761.Xr sshd 8 762for privilege separation. 763.It Pa games/ 764miscellaneous game status and score files 765.It Pa heimdal/ 766kerberos server databases; see 767.Xr kdc 8 768.It Pa log/ 769miscellaneous system log files 770.Pp 771.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 772.It Pa utx.lastlogin 773last login log; 774see 775.Xr getutxent 3 776.It Pa utx.log 777login/logout log; 778see 779.Xr getutxent 3 780.El 781.Pp 782.It Pa mail/ 783user mailbox files 784.It Pa msgs/ 785system messages database; 786see 787.Xr msgs 1 788.It Pa preserve/ 789temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 790of an editor; 791see 792.Xr \&ex 1 793.It Pa quotas/ 794file system quota information files 795.It Pa run/ 796system information files describing various info about 797system since it was booted 798.Pp 799.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 800.It Pa ppp/ 801writable by the 802.Dq network 803group for command connection sockets; see 804.Xr ppp 8 805.It Pa utx.active 806database of current users; 807see 808.Xr getutxent 3 809.El 810.Pp 811.It Pa rwho/ 812rwho data files; 813see 814.Xr rwhod 8 , 815.Xr rwho 1 , 816and 817.Xr ruptime 1 818.It Pa spool/ 819miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 820.Pp 821.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 822.It Pa clientmqueue/ 823undelivered submission mail queue; 824see 825.Xr sendmail 8 826.It Pa ftp/ 827commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 828.It Pa mqueue/ 829undelivered mail queue; 830see 831.Xr sendmail 8 832.It Pa output/ 833line printer spooling directories 834.El 835.Pp 836.It Pa tmp/ 837temporary files that are kept between system reboots 838.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 839.It Pa vi.recover/ 840the directory where recovery files are stored 841.El 842.It Pa yp/ 843the NIS maps 844.El 845.El 846.Sh NOTES 847This manual page documents the default 848.Fx 849file system layout, but 850the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 851administrator's discretion. 852A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 853this document. 854.Sh SEE ALSO 855.Xr apropos 1 , 856.Xr find 1 , 857.Xr finger 1 , 858.Xr grep 1 , 859.Xr ls 1 , 860.Xr whatis 1 , 861.Xr whereis 1 , 862.Xr which 1 , 863.Xr fd 4 , 864.Xr devfs 5 , 865.Xr fsck 8 866.Sh HISTORY 867A 868.Nm 869manual page appeared in 870.At v7 . 871