xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/hier.7 (revision 6378393308bc6bd81fb871dacf6b03cf1a390d8b)
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28.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd December 11, 2021
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 efi/
57Mount point for EFI System Partition (ESP) on UEFI systems
58.It Pa firmware/
59loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware for hardware that needs
60firmware downloaded to it to function
61.It Pa kernel/
62pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
63at boot time) and kernel modules
64.It Pa modules/
65third-party loadable kernel modules, such as the ones installed from
66.Xr ports 7
67.It Pa overlays/
68Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; see
69.Xr fdt 4
70and
71.Xr dtc 1
72.It Pa zfs/
73.Xr zfs 8
74zpool cache files
75.El
76.It Pa /cdrom/
77default mount point for CD-ROM drives
78.It Pa /compat/
79normally a link to
80.Pa /usr/compat .
81If not, then the
82.Pa /usr/compat
83comments apply
84.It Pa /dev/
85device special files managed by
86.Xr devfs 5
87.Pp
88.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
89.It Pa fd/
90file descriptor files;
91see
92.Xr \&fd 4
93.El
94.It Pa /etc/
95system configuration files and scripts
96.Pp
97.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
98.It Pa defaults/
99default system configuration files;
100see
101.Xr rc 8
102.It Pa bluetooth/
103bluetooth configuration files
104.It Pa localtime
105local timezone information;
106see
107.Xr ctime 3
108.It Pa mail/
109Sendmail control files
110.It Pa mtree/
111mtree configuration files;
112see
113.Xr mtree 8
114.It Pa pam.d/
115configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
116library
117.It Pa periodic/
118scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via
119.Xr cron 8 ;
120see
121.Xr periodic 8
122.It Pa rc.d/
123system and daemon startup/control scripts;
124see
125.Xr rc 8
126.It Pa security/
127OpenBSM audit configuration files;
128see
129.Xr audit 8
130.It Pa ppp/
131ppp configuration files;
132see
133.Xr ppp 8
134.It Pa ssh/
135OpenSSH configuration files;
136see
137.Xr ssh 1
138.It Pa ssl/
139OpenSSL configuration files
140.El
141.It Pa /lib/
142critical system libraries needed for binaries in
143.Pa /bin
144and
145.Pa /sbin
146.Pp
147.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
148.It Pa casper/
149service-specific
150.Xr libcasper 3
151Capsicum support libraries
152.It Pa geom/
153class-specific libraries for the
154.Xr geom 8
155utility
156.It Pa nvmecontrol/
157vendor-specific libraries to extend the
158.Xr nvmecontrol 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 /net/
174automounted NFS shares;
175see
176.Xr auto_master 5
177.It Pa /proc/
178process file system;
179see
180.Xr procfs 5
181.It Pa /rescue/
182statically linked programs for emergency recovery;
183see
184.Xr rescue 8
185.It Pa /root/
186root's HOME directory
187.It Pa /sbin/
188system programs and administration utilities
189fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
190.It Pa /tmp/
191temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
192.It Pa /usr/
193contains the majority of user utilities and applications
194.Pp
195.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
196.It Pa bin/
197common utilities, programming tools, and applications
198.It Pa compat/
199files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems;
200see
201.Xr linux 4
202.It Pa include/
203standard C include files
204.Pp
205.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
206.It Pa arpa/
207C include files for Internet service protocols
208.It Pa bsnmp/
209C include files for the SNMP daemon
210.It Pa c++/
211C++ include files
212.It Pa cam/
213C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer
214.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
215.It Pa scsi/
216SCSI device on top of CAM
217.El
218.It Pa dev/
219C include files for programming various
220.Fx
221devices
222.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
223.It Pa ic/
224various header files describing driver- and bus-independent
225hardware circuits
226.It Pa ofw/
227Open Firmware support
228.It Pa pbio/
2298255 PPI cards;
230see
231.Xr pbio 4
232.It Pa ppbus/
233parallel port bus;
234see
235.Xr ppbus 4
236.It Pa usb/
237USB subsystem
238.El
239.It Pa fs/
240.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
241.It Pa fdescfs/
242per-process file descriptors file system
243.It Pa msdosfs/
244MS-DOS file system
245.It Pa nfs/
246C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4
247.It Pa nullfs/
248loopback file system
249.It Pa procfs/
250process file system
251.It Pa smbfs/
252SMB/CIFS file system
253.It Pa udf/
254UDF file system
255.It Pa unionfs
256union file system
257.El
258.It Pa geom/
259GEOM framework
260.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
261.It Pa concat/
262CONCAT GEOM class
263.It Pa gate/
264GATE GEOM class
265.It Pa mirror/
266MIRROR GEOM class
267.It Pa nop/
268NOP GEOM class
269.It Pa raid3/
270RAID3 GEOM class
271.It Pa stripe/
272STRIPE GEOM class
273.El
274.It Pa libmilter/
275C include files for libmilter,
276the
277.Xr sendmail 8
278mail filter API
279.It Pa machine/
280machine-specific C include files
281.It Pa net/
282miscellaneous network C include files
283.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
284.It Pa altq/
285C include files for alternate packet queueing; see
286.Xr altq 4
287.El
288.It Pa net80211/
289C include files for 802.11 wireless networking;
290see
291.Xr net80211 4
292.It Pa netinet/
293C include files for Internet standard protocols;
294see
295.Xr inet 4
296.It Pa netinet6/
297C include files for Internet protocol version 6;
298see
299.Xr inet6 4
300.It Pa netipsec/
301kernel key-management service;
302see
303.Xr ipsec 4
304.It Pa netsmb/
305SMB/CIFS requester
306.It Pa nfs/
307C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy)
308.It Pa openssl/
309OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers
310.It Pa protocols/
311C include files for Berkeley service protocols
312.It Pa rpc/
313remote procedure calls;
314see
315.Xr rpc 3
316.It Pa rpcsvc/
317definition of RPC service structures; see
318.Xr rpc 3
319.It Pa security/
320PAM; see
321.Xr pam 8
322.It Pa sys/
323system C include files (kernel data structures)
324.\" .It Pa tcl/
325.\" Tcl language;
326.\" see
327.\" .Xr Tcl n
328.\" .Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
329.\" .It Pa generic/
330.\" ???
331.\" .It Pa unix/
332.\" ???
333.\" .El
334.It Pa ufs/
335C include files for UFS (The U-word File System)
336.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
337.It Pa ffs/
338Fast file system
339.It Pa ufs/
340UFS file system
341.El
342.It Pa vm/
343virtual memory;
344see
345.Xr vmstat 8
346.El
347.Pp
348.It Pa lib/
349shared and archive
350.Xr ar 1 Ns -type
351libraries
352.Pp
353.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
354.It Pa aout/
355a.out archive libraries
356.It Pa compat/
357shared libraries for compatibility
358.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
359.It Pa aout/
360a.out backward compatibility libraries
361.El
362.It Pa debug/
363standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
364.It Pa dtrace/
365DTrace library scripts
366.It Pa engines/
367OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
368.El
369.Pp
370.It Pa libdata/
371miscellaneous utility data files
372.Pp
373.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
374.It Pa gcc/
375.Xr gcc 1
376configuration data
377.It Pa ldscripts/
378linker scripts;
379see
380.Xr ld 1
381.El
382.Pp
383.It Pa libexec/
384system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
385.Pp
386.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
387.It Pa aout/
388utilities to manipulate a.out executables
389.It Pa elf/
390utilities to manipulate ELF executables
391.It Pa lpr/
392utilities and filters for LP print system;
393see
394.Xr lpr 1
395.It Pa sendmail/
396the
397.Xr sendmail 8
398binary;
399see
400.Xr mailwrapper 8
401.It Pa sm.bin/
402restricted shell for
403.Xr sendmail 8 ;
404see
405.Xr smrsh 8
406.El
407.Pp
408.It Pa local/
409local executables, libraries, etc.
410Also used as the default destination for the
411.Xr ports 7
412framework.
413Within
414.Pa local/ ,
415the general layout sketched out by
416.Nm
417for
418.Pa /usr
419should be used.
420Exceptions are the
421ports documentation
422.Po in
423.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc ,
424and
425.Pa /usr/local/etc
426.Po mimics
427.Pa /etc Ns Pc .
428.It Pa obj/
429architecture-specific target tree produced by building the
430.Pa /usr/src
431tree
432.It Pa ports/
433.Fx
434ports collection; see
435.Xr ports 7
436.It Pa sbin/
437system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
438.It Pa share/
439architecture-independent files
440.Pp
441.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
442.It Pa calendar/
443a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
444see
445.Xr calendar 1
446.It Pa dict/
447word lists;
448see
449.Xr look 1
450.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
451.It Pa freebsd
452.Fx Ns -specific
453terms, proper names, and jargon
454.It Pa web2
455words from Webster's 2nd International
456.El
457.It Pa doc/
458miscellaneous documentation;
459source for most of the printed
460.Bx
461manuals (available
462from the
463.Tn USENIX
464association)
465.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
466.It Pa FAQ/
467Frequently Asked Questions
468.It Pa IPv6/
469implementation notes for IPv6
470.It Pa es/
471Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
472.It Pa handbook/
473.Fx
474Handbook
475.It Pa ja/
476Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
477.It Pa legal/
478License files for vendor supplied firmware files
479.It Pa ncurses/
480HTML documents pertaining to ncurses;
481see
482.Xr ncurses 3
483.It Pa ntp/
484HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol
485.It Pa ru/
486Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
487.It Pa tutorials/
488.Fx
489tutorials
490.It Pa zh/
491Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
492.El
493.It Pa examples/
494various examples for users and programmers
495.It Pa firmware/
496firmware images loaded by userland programs
497.It Pa games/
498ASCII text files used by various games
499.It Pa keys/
500known trusted and revoked keys
501.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
502.It Pa pkg/
503fingerprints for
504.Xr pkg 7
505and
506.Xr pkg 8
507.El
508.It Pa locale/
509localization files;
510see
511.Xr setlocale 3
512.It Pa man/
513manual pages
514.It Pa misc/
515miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
516.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
517.It Pa fonts/
518???
519.It Pa termcap
520terminal characteristics database;
521see
522.Xr termcap 5
523.El
524.It Pa mk/
525templates for make;
526see
527.Xr make 1
528.It Pa nls/
529national language support files
530.It Pa security/
531data files for security policies such as
532.Xr mac_lomac 4
533.It Pa sendmail/
534.Xr sendmail 8
535configuration files
536.It Pa skel/
537example
538.Pa .\&
539(dot) files for new accounts
540.It Pa snmp/
541MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon
542.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
543.It Pa defs/
544tree definition files for use with
545.Xr gensnmptree 1
546.It Pa mibs/
547MIB files
548.El
549.It Pa syscons/
550files used by syscons;
551see
552.Xr syscons 4
553.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
554.It Pa fonts/
555console fonts;
556see
557.Xr vidcontrol 1
558and
559.Xr vidfont 1
560.It Pa keymaps/
561console keyboard maps;
562see
563.Xr kbdcontrol 1
564and
565.Xr kbdmap 1
566.It Pa scrnmaps/
567console screen maps
568.El
569.It Pa tabset/
570tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
571the termcap file;
572see
573.Xr termcap 5
574.It Pa vi/
575localization support and utilities for
576.Xr vi 1
577.It Pa vt/
578files used by vt;
579see
580.Xr vt 4
581.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
582.It Pa fonts/
583console fonts;
584see
585.Xr vidcontrol 1
586and
587.Xr vidfont 1
588.It Pa keymaps/
589console keyboard maps;
590see
591.Xr kbdcontrol 1
592and
593.Xr kbdmap 1
594.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/
595.\" console screen maps
596.El
597.It Pa zoneinfo/
598timezone configuration information;
599see
600.Xr tzfile 5
601.El
602.Pp
603.It Pa src/
604.Fx
605source code; see
606.Xr development 7
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; see
736.Xr tests 7
737.El
738.It Pa /var/
739multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
740.Pp
741.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -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.Pp
757.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
758.It Pa jobs/
759directory containing job files
760.It Pa spool/
761directory containing output spool files
762.El
763.Pp
764.It Pa backups/
765miscellaneous backup files
766.It Pa cache/
767miscellaneous cached files
768.Pp
769.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
770.It Pa pkg/
771cached packages for
772.Xr pkg 8
773.El
774.Pp
775.It Pa crash/
776default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
777.Xr crash 8
778and
779.Xr savecore 8
780.It Pa cron/
781files used by cron;
782see
783.Xr cron 8
784.Pp
785.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
786.It Pa tabs/
787crontab files;
788see
789.Xr crontab 5
790.El
791.Pp
792.It Pa db/
793miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
794.It Pa empty/
795empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
796Used for instance by
797.Xr sshd 8
798for privilege separation
799.It Pa games/
800miscellaneous game status and score files
801.It Pa heimdal/
802Kerberos server databases; see
803.Xr kdc 8
804.It Pa log/
805miscellaneous system log files
806.Pp
807.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
808.It Pa utx.lastlogin
809last login log;
810see
811.Xr getutxent 3
812.It Pa utx.log
813login/logout log;
814see
815.Xr getutxent 3
816.El
817.Pp
818.It Pa mail/
819user mailbox files
820.It Pa msgs/
821system messages database;
822see
823.Xr msgs 1
824.It Pa preserve/
825temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
826of an editor;
827see
828.Xr \&ex 1
829.It Pa quotas/
830file system quota information files
831.It Pa run/
832system information files describing various info about
833system since it was booted
834.Pp
835.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
836.It Pa bhyve/
837bhyve vm unix domain sockets
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; see
884.Xr yp 8
885.El
886.El
887.Sh NOTES
888This manual page documents the default
889.Fx
890file system layout, but
891the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
892administrator's discretion.
893A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
894this document.
895.Sh SEE ALSO
896.Xr apropos 1 ,
897.Xr find 1 ,
898.Xr grep 1 ,
899.Xr ls 1 ,
900.Xr whereis 1 ,
901.Xr which 1
902.Sh HISTORY
903A
904.Nm
905manual page appeared in
906.At v7 .
907