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.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd June 28, 2007 36.Dt HIER 7 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm hier 40.Nd layout of file systems 41.Sh DESCRIPTION 42A sketch of the file system hierarchy. 43.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /libexec/" 44.It Pa / 45root directory of the file system 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/ 59third-party loadable kernel modules; 60see 61.Xr kldstat 8 62.El 63.It Pa /cdrom/ 64default mount point for CD-ROM drives 65(created by 66.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 67.It Pa /compat/ 68normally a link to 69.Pa /usr/compat . 70If not, then the 71.Pa /usr/compat 72comments apply 73(created by 74.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 75.It Pa /dev/ 76device special files managed by 77.Xr devfs 5 78.Pp 79.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 80.It Pa fd/ 81file descriptor files; 82see 83.Xr \&fd 4 84.It Pa net/ 85network devices 86.El 87.It Pa /dist/ 88mount point used by 89.Xr sysinstall 8 90.It Pa /etc/ 91system configuration files and scripts 92.Pp 93.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 94.It Pa defaults/ 95default system configuration files; 96see 97.Xr rc 8 98.It Pa bluetooth/ 99bluetooth configuration files 100.It Pa gnats/ 101gnats configuration files; 102see 103.Xr send-pr 1 104.It Pa isdn/ 105isdn4bsd configuration files; 106see 107.Xr isdnd 8 108.It Pa localtime 109local timezone information; 110see 111.Xr ctime 3 112.It Pa mail/ 113Sendmail control files 114.It Pa mtree/ 115mtree configuration files; 116see 117.Xr mtree 8 118.It Pa namedb/ 119named configuration files; 120see 121.Xr named 8 122.It Pa pam.d/ 123configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 124library 125.It Pa periodic/ 126scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 127.Xr cron 8 ; 128see 129.Xr periodic 8 130.It Pa rc.d/ 131System and daemon startup/control scripts; 132see 133.Xr rc 8 134.It Pa security/ 135OpenBSM audit configuration files; 136see 137.Xr audit 8 138.It Pa ppp/ 139ppp configuration files; 140see 141.Xr ppp 8 142.It Pa ssh/ 143OpenSSH configuration files; 144see 145.Xr ssh 1 146.It Pa ssl/ 147OpenSSL configuration files 148.El 149.It Pa /lib/ 150critical system libraries needed for binaries in 151.Pa /bin 152and 153.Pa /sbin 154.Pp 155.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 156.It Pa geom/ 157class-specific libraries for the 158.Xr geom 8 159utility 160.El 161.It Pa /libexec/ 162critical system utilities needed for binaries in 163.Pa /bin 164and 165.Pa /sbin 166.It Pa /media/ 167contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 168for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 169floppy disks 170.It Pa /mnt/ 171empty directory commonly used by 172system administrators as a temporary mount point 173.It Pa /proc/ 174process file system; 175see 176.Xr procfs 5 177.It Pa /rescue/ 178statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 179see 180.Xr rescue 8 181.It Pa /root/ 182root's HOME directory 183.It Pa /sbin/ 184system programs and administration utilities 185fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 186.It Pa /tmp/ 187temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 188.It Pa /usr/ 189contains the majority of user utilities and applications 190.Pp 191.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 192.It Pa bin/ 193common utilities, programming tools, and applications 194.It Pa compat/ 195files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 196such as Linux 197(created by 198.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 199.It Pa games/ 200useful and semi-frivolous programs 201.It Pa include/ 202standard C include files 203.Pp 204.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 205.It Pa altq/ 206C include files for alternate queueing 207.It Pa arpa/ 208C include files for Internet service protocols 209.It Pa bsnmp/ 210C include files for the SNMP daemon 211.It Pa c++/ 212C++ include files 213.It Pa cam/ 214C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 215.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 216.It Pa scsi/ 217The SCSI device on top of CAM 218.El 219.It Pa dev/ 220C include files for programming various 221.Fx 222devices 223.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 224.It Pa ic/ 225Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 226hardware circuits 227.It Pa ofw/ 228Open Firmware support 229.It Pa pbio/ 2308255 PPI cards; 231see 232.Xr pbio 4 233.It Pa ppbus/ 234The parallel port bus; 235see 236.Xr ppbus 4 237.It Pa usb/ 238The USB subsystem 239.It Pa utopia/ 240Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 241see 242.Xr utopia 4 243.It Pa wi/ 244The 245.Xr wi 4 246WaveLAN driver 247.El 248.It Pa fs/ 249.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 250.It Pa fdescfs/ 251per-process file descriptors file system 252.It Pa fifofs/ 253.St -p1003.1 254FIFOs file system 255.It Pa msdosfs/ 256MS-DOS file system 257.It Pa ntfs/ 258NTFS file system 259.It Pa nullfs/ 260loopback file system 261.It Pa nwfs/ 262NetWare file system 263.It Pa portalfs/ 264portal file system 265.It Pa procfs/ 266process file system 267.It Pa smbfs/ 268SMB/CIFS file system 269.It Pa udf/ 270UDF file system 271.It Pa unionfs 272union file system 273.El 274.It Pa geom/ 275GEOM framework 276.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 277.It Pa concat/ 278CONCAT GEOM class 279.It Pa gate/ 280GATE GEOM class 281.It Pa mirror/ 282MIRROR GEOM class 283.It Pa nop/ 284NOP GEOM class 285.It Pa raid3/ 286RAID3 GEOM class 287.It Pa stripe/ 288STRIPE GEOM class 289.El 290.Pp 291.It Pa isc/ 292ISC utility library libisc include files 293.It Pa isofs/ 294.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 295.It Pa cd9660/ 296iso9660 file system 297.El 298.It Pa libmilter/ 299C include files for libmilter, 300the 301.Xr sendmail 8 302mail filter API 303.It Pa machine/ 304machine-specific C include files 305.It Pa net/ 306miscellaneous network C include files 307.It Pa netatalk/ 308Appletalk protocol 309.It Pa netatm/ 310ATM include files; 311see 312.Xr atm 8 313.It Pa netinet/ 314C include files for Internet standard protocols; 315see 316.Xr inet 4 317.It Pa netinet6/ 318C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 319see 320.Xr inet6 4 321.It Pa netipsec/ 322kernel key-management service; 323see 324.Xr ipsec 4 325.It Pa netipx/ 326IPX/SPX protocol stacks 327.It Pa netnatm/ 328NATM include files; 329see 330.Xr natm 4 331.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 332.It Pa api/ 333include files for the signalling API 334.It Pa msg/ 335include files that describe signalling messages and 336declare associated functions 337.It Pa saal/ 338include files for the signalling AAL layer 339.It Pa sig/ 340include files for the UNI signalling protocol 341.El 342.It Pa netsmb/ 343SMB/CIFS requester 344.It Pa nfs/ 345C include files for NFS (Network File System) 346.It Pa objc/ 347Objective C include files 348.It Pa openssl/ 349OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 350.It Pa pccard/ 351PC-CARD controllers 352.It Pa protocols/ 353C include files for Berkeley service protocols 354.It Pa readline/ 355get a line from a user, with editing; 356see 357.Xr readline 3 358.It Pa rpc/ 359remote procedure calls; 360see 361.Xr rpc 3 362.It Pa rpcsvc/ 363definition of RPC service structures; see 364.Xr rpc 3 365.It Pa security/ 366PAM; see 367.Xr pam 8 368.It Pa sys/ 369system C include files (kernel data structures) 370.\" .It Pa tcl/ 371.\" Tcl language; 372.\" see 373.\" .Xr Tcl n 374.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 375.\" .It Pa generic/ 376.\" ??? 377.\" .It Pa unix/ 378.\" ??? 379.\" .El 380.It Pa ufs/ 381C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 382.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 383.It Pa ffs/ 384Fast file system 385.It Pa ufs/ 386UFS file system 387.El 388.It Pa vm/ 389virtual memory; 390see 391.Xr vmstat 8 392.El 393.Pp 394.It Pa lib/ 395shared and archive 396.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 397libraries 398.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 399.It Pa aout/ 400a.out archive libraries 401.It Pa compat/ 402shared libraries for compatibility 403.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 404.It Pa aout/ 405a.out backward compatibility libraries 406.El 407.It Pa dtrace/ 408DTrace library scripts 409.It Pa engines/ 410OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 411.El 412.Pp 413.It Pa libdata/ 414miscellaneous utility data files 415.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 416.It Pa gcc/ 417.Xr gcc 1 418configuration data 419.It Pa ldscripts/ 420linker scripts; 421see 422.Xr ld 1 423.It Pa lint/ 424various prebuilt lint libraries; 425see 426.Xr lint 1 427.El 428.Pp 429.It Pa libexec/ 430system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 431.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 432.It Pa aout/ 433utilities to manipulate a.out executables 434.It Pa elf/ 435utilities to manipulate ELF executables 436.It Pa lpr/ 437utilities and filters for LP print system; 438see 439.Xr lpr 1 440.It Pa sendmail/ 441the 442.Xr sendmail 8 443binary; 444see 445.Xr mailwrapper 8 446.It Pa sm.bin/ 447restricted shell for 448.Xr sendmail 8 ; 449see 450.Xr smrsh 8 451.El 452.Pp 453.It Pa local/ 454local executables, libraries, etc. 455Also used as the default destination for the 456.Fx 457ports framework. 458Within local/, the general layout sketched out by 459.Nm 460for /usr 461should be used. 462Exceptions are the man directory (directly under local/ 463rather than under local/share/), ports documentation (in share/doc/<port>/), 464and /usr/local/etc (mimics /etc). 465.It Pa obj/ 466architecture-specific target tree produced by building the /usr/src tree 467.It Pa ports/ 468The 469.Fx 470ports collection (optional). 471.It Pa sbin/ 472system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 473.It Pa share/ 474architecture-independent files 475.Pp 476.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 477.It Pa calendar/ 478a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 479see 480.Xr calendar 1 481.It Pa dict/ 482word lists; 483see 484.Xr look 1 485.Pp 486.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 487.It Pa freebsd 488.Fx Ns -specific 489terms, proper names, and jargon 490.It Pa words 491common words 492.It Pa web2 493words from Webster's 2nd International 494.It Pa papers/ 495reference databases; 496see 497.Xr refer 1 498.El 499.Pp 500.It Pa doc/ 501miscellaneous documentation; 502source for most of the printed 503.Bx 504manuals (available 505from the 506.Tn USENIX 507association) 508.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 509.It Pa FAQ/ 510Frequently Asked Questions 511.It Pa IPv6/ 512implementation notes for IPv6 513.It Pa bind/ 514documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 515.It Pa es/ 516Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 517.It Pa handbook/ 518.Fx 519Handbook 520.It Pa ja/ 521Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 522.It Pa legal/ 523License files for vendor supplied firmwares 524.It Pa ncurses/ 525HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 526see 527.Xr ncurses 3 528.It Pa ntp/ 529HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 530.It Pa papers/ 531UNIX Papers 532.It Pa psd/ 533UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 534.It Pa ru/ 535Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 536.It Pa smm/ 537UNIX System Manager's Manual 538.It Pa tutorials/ 539.Fx 540tutorials 541.It Pa usd/ 542UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 543.It Pa zh/ 544Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 545.El 546.Pp 547.It Pa examples/ 548various examples for users and programmers 549.It Pa games/ 550ASCII text files used by various games 551.It Pa groff_font/ 552device description file for device name 553.It Pa info/ 554GNU Info hypertext system 555.It Pa isdn/ 556ISDN 557.It Pa locale/ 558localization files; 559see 560.Xr setlocale 3 561.It Pa man/ 562manual pages 563.It Pa me/ 564macros for use with the me macro package; 565see 566.Xr me 7 567.It Pa misc/ 568miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 569.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 570.It Pa fonts/ 571??? 572.It Pa termcap 573terminal characteristics database; 574see 575.Xr termcap 5 576.El 577.It Pa mk/ 578templates for make; 579see 580.Xr make 1 581.It Pa nls/ 582national language support files; 583see 584.Xr mklocale 1 585.It Pa security/ 586data files for security policies such as 587.Xr mac_lomac 4 588.It Pa sendmail/ 589.Xr sendmail 8 590configuration files 591.It Pa skel/ 592example 593.Pa .\& 594(dot) files for new accounts 595.It Pa snmp/ 596MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 597.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 598.It Pa defs/ 599Tree definition files for use with 600.Xr gensnmptree 1 601.It Pa mibs/ 602MIB files 603.El 604.It Pa syscons/ 605files used by syscons; 606see 607.Xr syscons 4 608.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 609.It Pa fonts/ 610console fonts; 611see 612.Xr vidcontrol 1 613and 614.Xr vidfont 1 615.It Pa keymaps/ 616console keyboard maps; 617see 618.Xr kbdcontrol 1 619and 620.Xr kbdmap 1 621.It Pa scrnmaps/ 622console screen maps 623.El 624.It Pa tabset/ 625tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 626the termcap file; 627see 628.Xr termcap 5 629.It Pa tmac/ 630text processing macros; 631see 632.Xr nroff 1 633and 634.Xr troff 1 635.It Pa vi/ 636localization support and utilities for 637.Xr vi 1 638.It Pa zoneinfo/ 639timezone configuration information; 640see 641.Xr tzfile 5 642.El 643.It Pa src/ 644.Bx , 645third-party, and/or local source files 646.Pp 647.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 648.It Pa bin/ 649source code for files in /bin 650.It Pa contrib/ 651source code for contributed software 652.It Pa crypto/ 653source code for contributed cryptography software 654.It Pa etc/ 655source code for files in /etc 656.It Pa games/ 657source code for files in /usr/games 658.It Pa gnu/ 659Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 660.It Pa include/ 661source code for files in /usr/include 662.It Pa kerberos5/ 663build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 664.It Pa lib/ 665source code for files in /usr/lib 666.It Pa libexec/ 667source code for files in /usr/libexec 668.It Pa release/ 669files required to produce a 670.Fx 671release 672.It Pa sbin/ 673source code for files in /sbin 674.It Pa secure/ 675build directory for files in /usr/src/crypto 676.It Pa share/ 677source for files in /usr/share 678.It Pa sys/ 679kernel source code 680.It Pa tools/ 681tools used for maintenance and testing of 682.Fx 683.It Pa usr.bin/ 684source code for files in /usr/bin 685.It Pa usr.sbin/ 686source code for files in /usr/sbin 687.El 688.El 689.It Pa /var/ 690multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 691.Pp 692.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 693.It Pa account/ 694system accounting files 695.Pp 696.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 697.It Pa acct 698execution accounting file; 699see 700.Xr acct 5 701.El 702.Pp 703.It Pa at/ 704timed command scheduling files; 705see 706.Xr \&at 1 707.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 708.It Pa jobs/ 709directory containing job files 710.It Pa spool/ 711directory containing output spool files 712.El 713.Pp 714.It Pa backups/ 715miscellaneous backup files 716.It Pa crash/ 717default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 718.Xr crash 8 719and 720.Xr savecore 8 721.It Pa cron/ 722files used by cron; 723see 724.Xr cron 8 725.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 726.It Pa tabs/ 727crontab files; 728see 729.Xr crontab 5 730.El 731.Pp 732.It Pa db/ 733miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 734.It Pa empty/ 735empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 736Used for instance by 737.Xr sshd 8 738for privilege separation. 739.It Pa games/ 740miscellaneous game status and score files 741.It Pa heimdal/ 742kerberos server databases; see 743.Xr kdc 8 744.It Pa log/ 745miscellaneous system log files 746.Pp 747.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 748.It Pa wtmp 749login/logout log; 750see 751.Xr wtmp 5 752.El 753.Pp 754.It Pa mail/ 755user mailbox files 756.It Pa msgs/ 757system messages database; 758see 759.Xr msgs 1 760.It Pa preserve/ 761temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 762of an editor; 763see 764.Xr \&ex 1 765.It Pa quotas/ 766file system quota information files 767.It Pa run/ 768system information files describing various info about 769system since it was booted 770.Pp 771.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 772.It Pa named/ 773writable by the 774.Dq bind 775user; see 776.Xr named 8 777.It Pa ppp/ 778writable by the 779.Dq network 780group for command connection sockets; see 781.Xr ppp 8 782.It Pa utmp 783database of current users; 784see 785.Xr utmp 5 786.El 787.Pp 788.It Pa rwho/ 789rwho data files; 790see 791.Xr rwhod 8 , 792.Xr rwho 1 , 793and 794.Xr ruptime 1 795.It Pa spool/ 796miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 797.Pp 798.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 799.It Pa clientmqueue/ 800undelivered submission mail queue; 801see 802.Xr sendmail 8 803.It Pa ftp/ 804commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 805.It Pa mqueue/ 806undelivered mail queue; 807see 808.Xr sendmail 8 809.It Pa output/ 810line printer spooling directories 811.El 812.Pp 813.It Pa tmp/ 814temporary files that are kept between system reboots 815.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 816.It Pa vi.recover/ 817the directory where recovery files are stored 818.El 819.It Pa yp/ 820the NIS maps 821.El 822.El 823.Sh NOTES 824This manual page documents the default 825.Fx 826file system layout, but 827the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 828administrator's discretion. 829A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 830this document. 831.Sh SEE ALSO 832.Xr apropos 1 , 833.Xr find 1 , 834.Xr finger 1 , 835.Xr grep 1 , 836.Xr ls 1 , 837.Xr whatis 1 , 838.Xr whereis 1 , 839.Xr which 1 , 840.Xr fd 4 , 841.Xr devfs 5 , 842.Xr fsck 8 843.Sh HISTORY 844A 845.Nm 846manual page appeared in 847.At v7 . 848