xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/hier.7 (revision 190cef3d52236565eb22e18b33e9e865ec634aa3)
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28.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 18, 2018
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 "/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 "defaults/" -compact
48.It Pa defaults/
49default bootstrapping configuration files; see
50.Xr loader.conf 5
51.It Pa dtb/
52Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see
53.Xr fdt 4
54and
55.Xr dtc 1
56.It Pa firmware/
57loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware for hardware that needs
58firmware downloaded to it to function
59.It Pa kernel/
60pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
61at boot time) and kernel modules
62.It Pa modules/
63third-party loadable kernel modules;
64see
65.Xr kldstat 8
66.It Pa overlays/
67Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; see
68.Xr fdt 4
69and
70.Xr dtc 1
71.It Pa zfs/
72.Xr zfs 8
73zpool cache files
74.El
75.It Pa /cdrom/
76default mount point for CD-ROM drives
77.It Pa /compat/
78normally a link to
79.Pa /usr/compat .
80If not, then the
81.Pa /usr/compat
82comments apply
83.It Pa /dev/
84device special files managed by
85.Xr devfs 5
86.Pp
87.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
88.It Pa fd/
89file descriptor files;
90see
91.Xr \&fd 4
92.El
93.It Pa /etc/
94system configuration files and scripts
95.Pp
96.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
97.It Pa defaults/
98default system configuration files;
99see
100.Xr rc 8
101.It Pa bluetooth/
102bluetooth configuration files
103.It Pa localtime
104local timezone information;
105see
106.Xr ctime 3
107.It Pa mail/
108Sendmail control files
109.It Pa mtree/
110mtree configuration files;
111see
112.Xr mtree 8
113.It Pa pam.d/
114configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
115library
116.It Pa periodic/
117scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via
118.Xr cron 8 ;
119see
120.Xr periodic 8
121.It Pa rc.d/
122system and daemon startup/control scripts;
123see
124.Xr rc 8
125.It Pa security/
126OpenBSM audit configuration files;
127see
128.Xr audit 8
129.It Pa ppp/
130ppp configuration files;
131see
132.Xr ppp 8
133.It Pa ssh/
134OpenSSH configuration files;
135see
136.Xr ssh 1
137.It Pa ssl/
138OpenSSL configuration files
139.El
140.It Pa /lib/
141critical system libraries needed for binaries in
142.Pa /bin
143and
144.Pa /sbin
145.Pp
146.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
147.It Pa geom/
148class-specific libraries for the
149.Xr geom 8
150utility
151.El
152.It Pa /libexec/
153critical system utilities needed for binaries in
154.Pa /bin
155and
156.Pa /sbin
157.It Pa /media/
158contains subdirectories to be used as mount points
159for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and
160floppy disks
161.It Pa /mnt/
162empty directory commonly used by
163system administrators as a temporary mount point
164.It Pa /net/
165automounted NFS shares;
166see
167.Xr auto_master 5
168.It Pa /proc/
169process file system;
170see
171.Xr procfs 5
172.It Pa /rescue/
173statically linked programs for emergency recovery;
174see
175.Xr rescue 8
176.It Pa /root/
177root's HOME directory
178.It Pa /sbin/
179system programs and administration utilities
180fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
181.It Pa /tmp/
182temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
183.It Pa /usr/
184contains the majority of user utilities and applications
185.Pp
186.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
187.It Pa bin/
188common utilities, programming tools, and applications
189.It Pa compat/
190files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems,
191such as Linux
192.It Pa include/
193standard C include files
194.Pp
195.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
196.It Pa arpa/
197C include files for Internet service protocols
198.It Pa bsnmp/
199C include files for the SNMP daemon
200.It Pa c++/
201C++ include files
202.It Pa cam/
203C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer
204.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
205.It Pa scsi/
206SCSI device on top of CAM
207.El
208.It Pa dev/
209C include files for programming various
210.Fx
211devices
212.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
213.It Pa ic/
214various header files describing driver- and bus-independent
215hardware circuits
216.It Pa ofw/
217Open Firmware support
218.It Pa pbio/
2198255 PPI cards;
220see
221.Xr pbio 4
222.It Pa ppbus/
223parallel port bus;
224see
225.Xr ppbus 4
226.It Pa usb/
227USB subsystem
228.It Pa wi/
229.Xr wi 4
230WaveLAN driver
231.El
232.It Pa fs/
233.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
234.It Pa fdescfs/
235per-process file descriptors file system
236.It Pa msdosfs/
237MS-DOS file system
238.It Pa nfs/
239C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4
240.It Pa nullfs/
241loopback file system
242.It Pa procfs/
243process file system
244.It Pa smbfs/
245SMB/CIFS file system
246.It Pa udf/
247UDF file system
248.It Pa unionfs
249union file system
250.El
251.It Pa geom/
252GEOM framework
253.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
254.It Pa concat/
255CONCAT GEOM class
256.It Pa gate/
257GATE GEOM class
258.It Pa mirror/
259MIRROR GEOM class
260.It Pa nop/
261NOP GEOM class
262.It Pa raid3/
263RAID3 GEOM class
264.It Pa stripe/
265STRIPE GEOM class
266.El
267.It Pa libmilter/
268C include files for libmilter,
269the
270.Xr sendmail 8
271mail filter API
272.It Pa machine/
273machine-specific C include files
274.It Pa net/
275miscellaneous network C include files
276.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
277.It Pa altq/
278C include files for alternate queueing
279.El
280.It Pa net80211/
281C include files for 802.11 wireless networking;
282see
283.Xr net80211 4
284.It Pa netinet/
285C include files for Internet standard protocols;
286see
287.Xr inet 4
288.It Pa netinet6/
289C include files for Internet protocol version 6;
290see
291.Xr inet6 4
292.It Pa netipsec/
293kernel key-management service;
294see
295.Xr ipsec 4
296.It Pa netsmb/
297SMB/CIFS requester
298.It Pa nfs/
299C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy)
300.It Pa openssl/
301OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers
302.It Pa protocols/
303C include files for Berkeley service protocols
304.It Pa rpc/
305remote procedure calls;
306see
307.Xr rpc 3
308.It Pa rpcsvc/
309definition of RPC service structures; see
310.Xr rpc 3
311.It Pa security/
312PAM; see
313.Xr pam 8
314.It Pa sys/
315system C include files (kernel data structures)
316.\" .It Pa tcl/
317.\" Tcl language;
318.\" see
319.\" .Xr Tcl n
320.\" .Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
321.\" .It Pa generic/
322.\" ???
323.\" .It Pa unix/
324.\" ???
325.\" .El
326.It Pa ufs/
327C include files for UFS (The U-word File System)
328.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
329.It Pa ffs/
330Fast file system
331.It Pa ufs/
332UFS file system
333.El
334.It Pa vm/
335virtual memory;
336see
337.Xr vmstat 8
338.El
339.Pp
340.It Pa lib/
341shared and archive
342.Xr ar 1 Ns -type
343libraries
344.Pp
345.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
346.It Pa aout/
347a.out archive libraries
348.It Pa compat/
349shared libraries for compatibility
350.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
351.It Pa aout/
352a.out backward compatibility libraries
353.El
354.It Pa debug/
355standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
356.It Pa dtrace/
357DTrace library scripts
358.It Pa engines/
359OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
360.El
361.Pp
362.It Pa libdata/
363miscellaneous utility data files
364.Pp
365.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
366.It Pa gcc/
367.Xr gcc 1
368configuration data
369.It Pa ldscripts/
370linker scripts;
371see
372.Xr ld 1
373.El
374.Pp
375.It Pa libexec/
376system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
377.Pp
378.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
379.It Pa aout/
380utilities to manipulate a.out executables
381.It Pa elf/
382utilities to manipulate ELF executables
383.It Pa lpr/
384utilities and filters for LP print system;
385see
386.Xr lpr 1
387.It Pa sendmail/
388the
389.Xr sendmail 8
390binary;
391see
392.Xr mailwrapper 8
393.It Pa sm.bin/
394restricted shell for
395.Xr sendmail 8 ;
396see
397.Xr smrsh 8
398.El
399.Pp
400.It Pa local/
401local executables, libraries, etc.
402Also used as the default destination for the
403.Xr ports 7
404framework.
405Within
406.Pa local/ ,
407the general layout sketched out by
408.Nm
409for
410.Pa /usr
411should be used.
412Exceptions are the
413.Pa man
414directory
415.Po directly under
416.Pa local/
417rather than under
418.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc ,
419ports documentation
420.Po in
421.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc ,
422and
423.Pa /usr/local/etc
424.Po mimics
425.Pa /etc Ns Pc .
426.It Pa obj/
427architecture-specific target tree produced by building the
428.Pa /usr/src
429tree
430.It Pa ports/
431.Xr ports 7 ,
432the
433.Fx
434ports collection.
435.It Pa sbin/
436system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
437.It Pa share/
438architecture-independent files
439.Pp
440.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
441.It Pa calendar/
442a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
443see
444.Xr calendar 1
445.It Pa dict/
446word lists;
447see
448.Xr look 1
449.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
450.It Pa freebsd
451.Fx Ns -specific
452terms, proper names, and jargon
453.It Pa web2
454words from Webster's 2nd International
455.El
456.It Pa doc/
457miscellaneous documentation;
458source for most of the printed
459.Bx
460manuals (available
461from the
462.Tn USENIX
463association)
464.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
465.It Pa FAQ/
466Frequently Asked Questions
467.It Pa IPv6/
468implementation notes for IPv6
469.It Pa es/
470Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
471.It Pa handbook/
472.Fx
473Handbook
474.It Pa ja/
475Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
476.It Pa legal/
477License files for vendor supplied firmware files
478.It Pa ncurses/
479HTML documents pertaining to ncurses;
480see
481.Xr ncurses 3
482.It Pa ntp/
483HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol
484.It Pa ru/
485Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
486.It Pa tutorials/
487.Fx
488tutorials
489.It Pa zh/
490Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
491.El
492.It Pa examples/
493various examples for users and programmers
494.It Pa firmware/
495firmware images loaded by userland programs
496.It Pa games/
497ASCII text files used by various games
498.It Pa keys/
499known trusted and revoked keys.
500.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
501.It Pa pkg/
502fingerprints for
503.Xr pkg 7
504and
505.Xr pkg 8
506.El
507.It Pa locale/
508localization files;
509see
510.Xr setlocale 3
511.It Pa man/
512manual pages
513.It Pa misc/
514miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
515.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
516.It Pa fonts/
517???
518.It Pa termcap
519terminal characteristics database;
520see
521.Xr termcap 5
522.El
523.It Pa mk/
524templates for make;
525see
526.Xr make 1
527.It Pa nls/
528national language support files;
529see
530.Xr mklocale 1
531.It Pa security/
532data files for security policies such as
533.Xr mac_lomac 4
534.It Pa sendmail/
535.Xr sendmail 8
536configuration files
537.It Pa skel/
538example
539.Pa .\&
540(dot) files for new accounts
541.It Pa snmp/
542MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon.
543.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
544.It Pa defs/
545tree definition files for use with
546.Xr gensnmptree 1
547.It Pa mibs/
548MIB files
549.El
550.It Pa syscons/
551files used by syscons;
552see
553.Xr syscons 4
554.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
555.It Pa fonts/
556console fonts;
557see
558.Xr vidcontrol 1
559and
560.Xr vidfont 1
561.It Pa keymaps/
562console keyboard maps;
563see
564.Xr kbdcontrol 1
565and
566.Xr kbdmap 1
567.It Pa scrnmaps/
568console screen maps
569.El
570.It Pa tabset/
571tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
572the termcap file;
573see
574.Xr termcap 5
575.It Pa vi/
576localization support and utilities for
577.Xr vi 1
578.It Pa vt/
579files used by vt;
580see
581.Xr vt 4
582.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
583.It Pa fonts/
584console fonts;
585see
586.Xr vidcontrol 1
587and
588.Xr vidfont 1
589.It Pa keymaps/
590console keyboard maps;
591see
592.Xr kbdcontrol 1
593and
594.Xr kbdmap 1
595.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/
596.\" console screen maps
597.El
598.It Pa zoneinfo/
599timezone configuration information;
600see
601.Xr tzfile 5
602.El
603.Pp
604.It Pa src/
605.Bx ,
606third-party, and/or local source files
607.Pp
608.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
609.It Pa bin/
610source code for files in /bin
611.It Pa cddl/
612utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License
613.It Pa contrib/
614source code for contributed software
615.It Pa crypto/
616source code for contributed cryptography software
617.It Pa etc/
618source code for files in
619.Pa /etc
620.It Pa gnu/
621utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
622.It Pa include/
623source code for files in
624.Pa /usr/include
625.It Pa kerberos5/
626build infrastructure for Kerberos version 5
627.It Pa lib/
628source code for files in
629.Pa /lib
630and
631.Pa /usr/lib
632.It Pa libexec/
633source code for files in
634.Pa /usr/libexec
635.It Pa release/
636files required to produce a
637.Fx
638release
639.It Pa rescue/
640source code for files in
641.Pa /rescue
642.It Pa sbin/
643source code for files in
644.Pa /sbin
645.It Pa secure/
646build directory for files in
647.Pa /usr/src/crypto
648.It Pa share/
649source for files in
650.Pa /usr/share
651.It Pa stand/
652boot loader source code
653.It Pa sys/
654kernel source code
655.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
656.It Pa amd64/
657AMD64 architecture support
658.It Pa arm/
659ARM architecture support
660.It Pa arm64/
661ARMv8 architecture support
662.It Pa cam/
663.Xr cam 4
664and
665.Xr ctl 4
666.It Pa cddl/
667CDDL-licensed optional sources, including ZFS
668and DTrace
669.It Pa ddb/
670.Xr ddb 4
671.It Pa fs/
672most filesystems
673.It Pa dev/
674device drivers
675.It Pa geom/
676.Xr geom 4
677.It Pa i386/
678i386 (32 bit) architecture support
679.It Pa kern/
680main part of the kernel
681.It Pa mips/
682MIPS architecture support
683.It Pa net80211/
684.Xr net80211 4
685.It Pa netgraph/
686.Xr netgraph 4
687.It Pa netinet/
688.Xr inet 4
689.It Pa netinet6/
690.Xr inet6 4
691.It Pa netipsec/
692.Xr ipsec 4
693.It Pa netpfil/
694.Xr ipfw 4
695and
696.Xr pf 4
697.It Pa opencrypto/
698.Xr crypto 7
699.It Pa powerpc/
700PowerPC/POWER architecture support
701.It Pa riscv/
702RISC-V architecture support
703.It Pa security/
704.Xr audit 4
705and
706.Xr mac 4
707.It Pa sparc64/
708SPARC64 architecture support
709.It Pa sys/
710kernel headers
711.It Pa ufs/
712Unix File System
713.It Pa x86/
714code shared by AMD64 and i386 architectures
715.El
716.It Pa targets/
717support for experimental DIRDEPS_BUILD
718.It Pa tests/
719source code for files in
720.Pa /usr/tests
721.It Pa tools/
722tools used for maintenance and testing of
723.Fx
724.It Pa usr.bin/
725source code for files in
726.Pa /usr/bin
727.It Pa usr.sbin/
728source code for files in
729.Pa /usr/sbin
730.El
731.Pp
732.It Pa tests/
733The
734.Fx
735test suite.
736See
737.Xr tests 7
738for more details.
739.El
740.It Pa /var/
741multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
742.Pp
743.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
744.It Pa account/
745system accounting files
746.Pp
747.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
748.It Pa acct
749execution accounting file;
750see
751.Xr acct 5
752.El
753.Pp
754.It Pa at/
755timed command scheduling files;
756see
757.Xr \&at 1
758.Pp
759.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
760.It Pa jobs/
761directory containing job files
762.It Pa spool/
763directory containing output spool files
764.El
765.Pp
766.It Pa backups/
767miscellaneous backup files
768.It Pa cache/
769miscellaneous cached files
770.Pp
771.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
772.It Pa pkg/
773cached packages for
774.Xr pkg 8
775.El
776.Pp
777.It Pa crash/
778default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
779.Xr crash 8
780and
781.Xr savecore 8
782.It Pa cron/
783files used by cron;
784see
785.Xr cron 8
786.Pp
787.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
788.It Pa tabs/
789crontab files;
790see
791.Xr crontab 5
792.El
793.Pp
794.It Pa db/
795miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
796.It Pa empty/
797empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
798Used for instance by
799.Xr sshd 8
800for privilege separation.
801.It Pa games/
802miscellaneous game status and score files
803.It Pa heimdal/
804Kerberos server databases; see
805.Xr kdc 8
806.It Pa log/
807miscellaneous system log files
808.Pp
809.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
810.It Pa utx.lastlogin
811last login log;
812see
813.Xr getutxent 3
814.It Pa utx.log
815login/logout log;
816see
817.Xr getutxent 3
818.El
819.Pp
820.It Pa mail/
821user mailbox files
822.It Pa msgs/
823system messages database;
824see
825.Xr msgs 1
826.It Pa preserve/
827temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
828of an editor;
829see
830.Xr \&ex 1
831.It Pa quotas/
832file system quota information files
833.It Pa run/
834system information files describing various info about
835system since it was booted
836.Pp
837.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
838.It Pa ppp/
839writable by the
840.Dq network
841group for command connection sockets; see
842.Xr ppp 8
843.It Pa utx.active
844database of current users;
845see
846.Xr getutxent 3
847.El
848.Pp
849.It Pa rwho/
850rwho data files;
851see
852.Xr rwhod 8 ,
853.Xr rwho 1 ,
854and
855.Xr ruptime 1
856.It Pa spool/
857miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
858.Pp
859.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
860.It Pa clientmqueue/
861undelivered submission mail queue;
862see
863.Xr sendmail 8
864.It Pa ftp/
865commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
866.It Pa mqueue/
867undelivered mail queue;
868see
869.Xr sendmail 8
870.It Pa output/
871line printer spooling directories
872.El
873.Pp
874.It Pa tmp/
875temporary files that are kept between system reboots
876.Pp
877.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
878.It Pa vi.recover/
879the directory where recovery files are stored
880.El
881.Pp
882.It Pa yp/
883the NIS maps
884.El
885.El
886.Sh NOTES
887This manual page documents the default
888.Fx
889file system layout, but
890the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
891administrator's discretion.
892A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
893this document.
894.Sh SEE ALSO
895.Xr apropos 1 ,
896.Xr find 1 ,
897.Xr finger 1 ,
898.Xr grep 1 ,
899.Xr ls 1 ,
900.Xr whatis 1 ,
901.Xr whereis 1 ,
902.Xr which 1 ,
903.Xr fd 4 ,
904.Xr devfs 5 ,
905.Xr fsck 8
906.Sh HISTORY
907A
908.Nm
909manual page appeared in
910.At v7 .
911