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 January 14, 2015 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 dtb/ 52Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see 53.Xr fdt 4 54and 55.Xr dtc 1 56.It Pa firmware/ 57Loadable 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) 62.It Pa modules/ 63third-party loadable kernel modules; 64see 65.Xr kldstat 8 66.It Pa zfs/ 67Contains 68.Xr zfs 8 69zpool cache files. 70.El 71.It Pa /cdrom/ 72default mount point for CD-ROM drives 73.It Pa /compat/ 74normally a link to 75.Pa /usr/compat . 76If not, then the 77.Pa /usr/compat 78comments apply 79.It Pa /dev/ 80device special files managed by 81.Xr devfs 5 82.Pp 83.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 84.It Pa fd/ 85file descriptor files; 86see 87.Xr \&fd 4 88.It Pa net/ 89network devices 90.El 91.It Pa /etc/ 92system configuration files and scripts 93.Pp 94.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 95.It Pa defaults/ 96default system configuration files; 97see 98.Xr rc 8 99.It Pa bluetooth/ 100bluetooth configuration files 101.It Pa localtime 102local timezone information; 103see 104.Xr ctime 3 105.It Pa mail/ 106Sendmail control files 107.It Pa mtree/ 108mtree configuration files; 109see 110.Xr mtree 8 111.It Pa pam.d/ 112configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 113library 114.It Pa periodic/ 115scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 116.Xr cron 8 ; 117see 118.Xr periodic 8 119.It Pa rc.d/ 120System and daemon startup/control scripts; 121see 122.Xr rc 8 123.It Pa security/ 124OpenBSM audit configuration files; 125see 126.Xr audit 8 127.It Pa ppp/ 128ppp configuration files; 129see 130.Xr ppp 8 131.It Pa ssh/ 132OpenSSH configuration files; 133see 134.Xr ssh 1 135.It Pa ssl/ 136OpenSSL configuration files 137.El 138.It Pa /lib/ 139critical system libraries needed for binaries in 140.Pa /bin 141and 142.Pa /sbin 143.Pp 144.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 145.It Pa geom/ 146class-specific libraries for the 147.Xr geom 8 148utility 149.El 150.It Pa /libexec/ 151critical system utilities needed for binaries in 152.Pa /bin 153and 154.Pa /sbin 155.It Pa /media/ 156contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 157for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 158floppy disks 159.It Pa /mnt/ 160empty directory commonly used by 161system administrators as a temporary mount point 162.It Pa /net/ 163automounted NFS shares; 164see 165.Xr auto_master 5 166.It Pa /proc/ 167process file system; 168see 169.Xr procfs 5 170.It Pa /rescue/ 171statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 172see 173.Xr rescue 8 174.It Pa /root/ 175root's HOME directory 176.It Pa /sbin/ 177system programs and administration utilities 178fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 179.It Pa /tmp/ 180temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 181.It Pa /usr/ 182contains the majority of user utilities and applications 183.Pp 184.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 185.It Pa bin/ 186common utilities, programming tools, and applications 187.It Pa compat/ 188files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 189such as Linux 190.It Pa include/ 191standard C include files 192.Pp 193.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 194.It Pa altq/ 195C include files for alternate queueing 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 ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 205.It Pa scsi/ 206The SCSI device on top of CAM 207.El 208.It Pa dev/ 209C include files for programming various 210.Fx 211devices 212.Bl -tag -width ".Pa 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/ 223The parallel port bus; 224see 225.Xr ppbus 4 226.It Pa usb/ 227The USB subsystem 228.It Pa utopia/ 229Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 230see 231.Xr utopia 4 232.It Pa wi/ 233The 234.Xr wi 4 235WaveLAN driver 236.El 237.It Pa fs/ 238.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 239.It Pa cd9660/ 240iso9660 file system 241.It Pa fdescfs/ 242per-process file descriptors file system 243.It Pa fifofs/ 244.St -p1003.1 245FIFOs file system 246.It Pa msdosfs/ 247MS-DOS file system 248.It Pa nfs/ 249C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 250.It Pa nullfs/ 251loopback file system 252.It Pa procfs/ 253process file system 254.It Pa smbfs/ 255SMB/CIFS file system 256.It Pa udf/ 257UDF file system 258.It Pa unionfs 259union file system 260.El 261.It Pa geom/ 262GEOM framework 263.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 264.It Pa concat/ 265CONCAT GEOM class 266.It Pa gate/ 267GATE GEOM class 268.It Pa mirror/ 269MIRROR GEOM class 270.It Pa nop/ 271NOP GEOM class 272.It Pa raid3/ 273RAID3 GEOM class 274.It Pa stripe/ 275STRIPE GEOM class 276.El 277.Pp 278.It Pa isc/ 279ISC utility library libisc include files 280.It Pa libmilter/ 281C include files for libmilter, 282the 283.Xr sendmail 8 284mail filter API 285.It Pa machine/ 286machine-specific C include files 287.It Pa net/ 288miscellaneous network C include files 289.It Pa net80211/ 290C include files for 802.11 wireless networking; 291see 292.Xr net80211 4 293.It Pa netinet/ 294C include files for Internet standard protocols; 295see 296.Xr inet 4 297.It Pa netinet6/ 298C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 299see 300.Xr inet6 4 301.It Pa netipsec/ 302kernel key-management service; 303see 304.Xr ipsec 4 305.It Pa netnatm/ 306NATM include files; 307see 308.Xr natm 4 309.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 310.It Pa api/ 311include files for the signalling API 312.It Pa msg/ 313include files that describe signalling messages and 314declare associated functions 315.It Pa saal/ 316include files for the signalling AAL layer 317.It Pa sig/ 318include files for the UNI signalling protocol 319.El 320.It Pa netsmb/ 321SMB/CIFS requester 322.It Pa nfs/ 323C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 324.It Pa objc/ 325Objective C include files 326.It Pa openssl/ 327OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 328.It Pa pccard/ 329PC-CARD controllers 330.It Pa protocols/ 331C include files for Berkeley service protocols 332.It Pa readline/ 333get a line from a user, with editing; 334see 335.Xr readline 3 336.It Pa rpc/ 337remote procedure calls; 338see 339.Xr rpc 3 340.It Pa rpcsvc/ 341definition of RPC service structures; see 342.Xr rpc 3 343.It Pa security/ 344PAM; see 345.Xr pam 8 346.It Pa sys/ 347system C include files (kernel data structures) 348.\" .It Pa tcl/ 349.\" Tcl language; 350.\" see 351.\" .Xr Tcl n 352.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 353.\" .It Pa generic/ 354.\" ??? 355.\" .It Pa unix/ 356.\" ??? 357.\" .El 358.It Pa ufs/ 359C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 360.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 361.It Pa ffs/ 362Fast file system 363.It Pa ufs/ 364UFS file system 365.El 366.It Pa vm/ 367virtual memory; 368see 369.Xr vmstat 8 370.El 371.Pp 372.It Pa lib/ 373shared and archive 374.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 375libraries 376.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 377.It Pa aout/ 378a.out archive libraries 379.It Pa compat/ 380shared libraries for compatibility 381.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 382.It Pa aout/ 383a.out backward compatibility libraries 384.El 385.It Pa debug/ 386standalone debug data for the base system libraries and binaries 387.It Pa dtrace/ 388DTrace library scripts 389.It Pa engines/ 390OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 391.It Pa private/ 392Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 393ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 394.El 395.Pp 396.It Pa libdata/ 397miscellaneous utility data files 398.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 399.It Pa gcc/ 400.Xr gcc 1 401configuration data 402.It Pa ldscripts/ 403linker scripts; 404see 405.Xr ld 1 406.It Pa lint/ 407various prebuilt lint libraries; 408see 409.Xr lint 1 410.El 411.Pp 412.It Pa libexec/ 413system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 414.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 415.It Pa aout/ 416utilities to manipulate a.out executables 417.It Pa elf/ 418utilities to manipulate ELF executables 419.It Pa lpr/ 420utilities and filters for LP print system; 421see 422.Xr lpr 1 423.It Pa sendmail/ 424the 425.Xr sendmail 8 426binary; 427see 428.Xr mailwrapper 8 429.It Pa sm.bin/ 430restricted shell for 431.Xr sendmail 8 ; 432see 433.Xr smrsh 8 434.El 435.Pp 436.It Pa local/ 437local executables, libraries, etc. 438Also used as the default destination for the 439.Fx 440ports framework. 441Within 442.Pa local/ , 443the general layout sketched out by 444.Nm 445for 446.Pa /usr 447should be used. 448Exceptions are the 449.Pa man 450directory 451.Po directly under 452.Pa local/ 453rather than under 454.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 455ports documentation 456.Po in 457.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 458and 459.Pa /usr/local/etc 460.Po mimics 461.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 462.It Pa obj/ 463architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 464.Pa /usr/src 465tree 466.It Pa ports/ 467The 468.Fx 469ports collection (optional). 470.It Pa sbin/ 471system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 472.It Pa share/ 473architecture-independent files 474.Pp 475.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 476.It Pa calendar/ 477a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 478see 479.Xr calendar 1 480.It Pa dict/ 481word lists; 482see 483.Xr look 1 484.Pp 485.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 486.It Pa freebsd 487.Fx Ns -specific 488terms, proper names, and jargon 489.It Pa words 490common words 491.It Pa web2 492words from Webster's 2nd International 493.It Pa papers/ 494reference databases; 495see 496.Xr refer 1 497.El 498.Pp 499.It Pa doc/ 500miscellaneous documentation; 501source for most of the printed 502.Bx 503manuals (available 504from the 505.Tn USENIX 506association) 507.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 508.It Pa FAQ/ 509Frequently Asked Questions 510.It Pa IPv6/ 511implementation notes for IPv6 512.It Pa bind/ 513documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 514.It Pa es/ 515Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 516.It Pa handbook/ 517.Fx 518Handbook 519.It Pa ja/ 520Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 521.It Pa legal/ 522License files for vendor supplied firmwares 523.It Pa ncurses/ 524HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 525see 526.Xr ncurses 3 527.It Pa ntp/ 528HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 529.It Pa papers/ 530UNIX Papers 531.It Pa psd/ 532UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 533.It Pa ru/ 534Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 535.It Pa smm/ 536UNIX System Manager's Manual 537.It Pa tutorials/ 538.Fx 539tutorials 540.It Pa usd/ 541UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 542.It Pa zh/ 543Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 544.El 545.Pp 546.It Pa examples/ 547various examples for users and programmers 548.It Pa games/ 549ASCII text files used by various games 550.It Pa groff_font/ 551device description file for device name 552.It Pa info/ 553GNU Info hypertext system 554.It Pa keys/ 555known trusted and revoked keys. 556.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 557.It Pa keys/pkg/ 558fingerprints for 559.Xr pkg 7 560and 561.Xr pkg 8 562.El 563.Pp 564.It Pa locale/ 565localization files; 566see 567.Xr setlocale 3 568.It Pa man/ 569manual pages 570.It Pa mdocml/ 571data files used by mdocml 572.It Pa me/ 573macros for use with the me macro package; 574see 575.Xr me 7 576.It Pa misc/ 577miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 578.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 579.It Pa fonts/ 580??? 581.It Pa termcap 582terminal characteristics database; 583see 584.Xr termcap 5 585.El 586.It Pa mk/ 587templates for make; 588see 589.Xr make 1 590.It Pa nls/ 591national language support files; 592see 593.Xr mklocale 1 594.It Pa security/ 595data files for security policies such as 596.Xr mac_lomac 4 597.It Pa sendmail/ 598.Xr sendmail 8 599configuration files 600.It Pa skel/ 601example 602.Pa .\& 603(dot) files for new accounts 604.It Pa snmp/ 605MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 606.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 607.It Pa defs/ 608Tree definition files for use with 609.Xr gensnmptree 1 610.It Pa mibs/ 611MIB files 612.El 613.It Pa syscons/ 614files used by syscons; 615see 616.Xr syscons 4 617.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 618.It Pa fonts/ 619console fonts; 620see 621.Xr vidcontrol 1 622and 623.Xr vidfont 1 624.It Pa keymaps/ 625console keyboard maps; 626see 627.Xr kbdcontrol 1 628and 629.Xr kbdmap 1 630.It Pa scrnmaps/ 631console screen maps 632.El 633.It Pa tabset/ 634tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 635the termcap file; 636see 637.Xr termcap 5 638.It Pa tmac/ 639text processing macros; 640see 641.Xr nroff 1 642and 643.Xr troff 1 644.It Pa vi/ 645localization support and utilities for 646.Xr vi 1 647.It Pa zoneinfo/ 648timezone configuration information; 649see 650.Xr tzfile 5 651.El 652.It Pa vt/ 653files used by vt; 654see 655.Xr vt 4 656.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 657.It Pa fonts/ 658console fonts; 659see 660.Xr vidcontrol 1 661and 662.Xr vidfont 1 663.It Pa keymaps/ 664console keyboard maps; 665see 666.Xr kbdcontrol 1 667and 668.Xr kbdmap 1 669.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/ 670.\" console screen maps 671.El 672.It Pa src/ 673.Bx , 674third-party, and/or local source files 675.Pp 676.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 677.It Pa bin/ 678source code for files in /bin 679.It Pa cddl/ 680Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 681.It Pa contrib/ 682source code for contributed software 683.It Pa crypto/ 684source code for contributed cryptography software 685.It Pa etc/ 686source code for files in 687.Pa /etc 688.It Pa games/ 689source code for files in 690.Pa /usr/games 691.It Pa gnu/ 692Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 693.It Pa include/ 694source code for files in 695.Pa /usr/include 696.It Pa kerberos5/ 697build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 698.It Pa lib/ 699source code for files in 700.Pa /usr/lib 701.It Pa libexec/ 702source code for files in 703.Pa /usr/libexec 704.It Pa release/ 705files required to produce a 706.Fx 707release 708.It Pa sbin/ 709source code for files in 710.Pa /sbin 711.It Pa secure/ 712build directory for files in 713.Pa /usr/src/crypto 714.It Pa share/ 715source for files in 716.Pa /usr/share 717.It Pa sys/ 718kernel source code 719.It Pa tools/ 720tools used for maintenance and testing of 721.Fx 722.It Pa usr.bin/ 723source code for files in 724.Pa /usr/bin 725.It Pa usr.sbin/ 726source code for files in 727.Pa /usr/sbin 728.El 729.Pp 730.It Pa tests/ 731The 732.Fx 733test suite. 734See 735.Xr tests 7 736for more details. 737.El 738.It Pa /var/ 739multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 740.Pp 741.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 742.It Pa account/ 743system accounting files 744.Pp 745.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 746.It Pa acct 747execution accounting file; 748see 749.Xr acct 5 750.El 751.Pp 752.It Pa at/ 753timed command scheduling files; 754see 755.Xr \&at 1 756.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 757.It Pa jobs/ 758directory containing job files 759.It Pa spool/ 760directory containing output spool files 761.El 762.Pp 763.It Pa backups/ 764miscellaneous backup files 765.It Pa cache/ 766miscellaneous cached files 767.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 768.It Pa pkg/ 769cached packages for 770.Xr pkg 8 771.El 772.Pp 773.It Pa crash/ 774default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 775.Xr crash 8 776and 777.Xr savecore 8 778.It Pa cron/ 779files used by cron; 780see 781.Xr cron 8 782.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 783.It Pa tabs/ 784crontab files; 785see 786.Xr crontab 5 787.El 788.Pp 789.It Pa db/ 790miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 791.It Pa empty/ 792empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 793Used for instance by 794.Xr sshd 8 795for privilege separation. 796.It Pa games/ 797miscellaneous game status and score files 798.It Pa heimdal/ 799kerberos server databases; see 800.Xr kdc 8 801.It Pa log/ 802miscellaneous system log files 803.Pp 804.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 805.It Pa utx.lastlogin 806last login log; 807see 808.Xr getutxent 3 809.It Pa utx.log 810login/logout log; 811see 812.Xr getutxent 3 813.El 814.Pp 815.It Pa mail/ 816user mailbox files 817.It Pa msgs/ 818system messages database; 819see 820.Xr msgs 1 821.It Pa preserve/ 822temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 823of an editor; 824see 825.Xr \&ex 1 826.It Pa quotas/ 827file system quota information files 828.It Pa run/ 829system information files describing various info about 830system since it was booted 831.Pp 832.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 833.It Pa ppp/ 834writable by the 835.Dq network 836group for command connection sockets; see 837.Xr ppp 8 838.It Pa utx.active 839database of current users; 840see 841.Xr getutxent 3 842.El 843.Pp 844.It Pa rwho/ 845rwho data files; 846see 847.Xr rwhod 8 , 848.Xr rwho 1 , 849and 850.Xr ruptime 1 851.It Pa spool/ 852miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 853.Pp 854.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 855.It Pa clientmqueue/ 856undelivered submission mail queue; 857see 858.Xr sendmail 8 859.It Pa ftp/ 860commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 861.It Pa mqueue/ 862undelivered mail queue; 863see 864.Xr sendmail 8 865.It Pa output/ 866line printer spooling directories 867.El 868.Pp 869.It Pa tmp/ 870temporary files that are kept between system reboots 871.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 872.It Pa vi.recover/ 873the directory where recovery files are stored 874.El 875.It Pa yp/ 876the NIS maps 877.El 878.El 879.Sh NOTES 880This manual page documents the default 881.Fx 882file system layout, but 883the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 884administrator's discretion. 885A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 886this document. 887.Sh SEE ALSO 888.Xr apropos 1 , 889.Xr find 1 , 890.Xr finger 1 , 891.Xr grep 1 , 892.Xr ls 1 , 893.Xr whatis 1 , 894.Xr whereis 1 , 895.Xr which 1 , 896.Xr fd 4 , 897.Xr devfs 5 , 898.Xr fsck 8 899.Sh HISTORY 900A 901.Nm 902manual page appeared in 903.At v7 . 904