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 December 25, 2013 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.It Pa /compat/ 66normally a link to 67.Pa /usr/compat . 68If not, then the 69.Pa /usr/compat 70comments apply 71.It Pa /dev/ 72device special files managed by 73.Xr devfs 5 74.Pp 75.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 76.It Pa fd/ 77file descriptor files; 78see 79.Xr \&fd 4 80.It Pa net/ 81network devices 82.El 83.It Pa /etc/ 84system configuration files and scripts 85.Pp 86.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 87.It Pa defaults/ 88default system configuration files; 89see 90.Xr rc 8 91.It Pa bluetooth/ 92bluetooth configuration files 93.It Pa gnats/ 94gnats configuration files; 95see 96.Xr send-pr 1 97.It Pa localtime 98local timezone information; 99see 100.Xr ctime 3 101.It Pa mail/ 102Sendmail control files 103.It Pa mtree/ 104mtree configuration files; 105see 106.Xr mtree 8 107.It Pa pam.d/ 108configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 109library 110.It Pa periodic/ 111scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 112.Xr cron 8 ; 113see 114.Xr periodic 8 115.It Pa rc.d/ 116System and daemon startup/control scripts; 117see 118.Xr rc 8 119.It Pa security/ 120OpenBSM audit configuration files; 121see 122.Xr audit 8 123.It Pa ppp/ 124ppp configuration files; 125see 126.Xr ppp 8 127.It Pa ssh/ 128OpenSSH configuration files; 129see 130.Xr ssh 1 131.It Pa ssl/ 132OpenSSL configuration files 133.El 134.It Pa /lib/ 135critical system libraries needed for binaries in 136.Pa /bin 137and 138.Pa /sbin 139.Pp 140.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 141.It Pa geom/ 142class-specific libraries for the 143.Xr geom 8 144utility 145.El 146.It Pa /libexec/ 147critical system utilities needed for binaries in 148.Pa /bin 149and 150.Pa /sbin 151.It Pa /media/ 152contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 153for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 154floppy disks 155.It Pa /mnt/ 156empty directory commonly used by 157system administrators as a temporary mount point 158.It Pa /proc/ 159process file system; 160see 161.Xr procfs 5 162.It Pa /rescue/ 163statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 164see 165.Xr rescue 8 166.It Pa /root/ 167root's HOME directory 168.It Pa /sbin/ 169system programs and administration utilities 170fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 171.It Pa /tmp/ 172temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 173.It Pa /usr/ 174contains the majority of user utilities and applications 175.Pp 176.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 177.It Pa bin/ 178common utilities, programming tools, and applications 179.It Pa compat/ 180files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 181such as Linux 182.It Pa games/ 183useful and semi-frivolous programs 184.It Pa include/ 185standard C include files 186.Pp 187.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 188.It Pa altq/ 189C include files for alternate queueing 190.It Pa arpa/ 191C include files for Internet service protocols 192.It Pa bsnmp/ 193C include files for the SNMP daemon 194.It Pa c++/ 195C++ include files 196.It Pa cam/ 197C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 198.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 199.It Pa scsi/ 200The SCSI device on top of CAM 201.El 202.It Pa dev/ 203C include files for programming various 204.Fx 205devices 206.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 207.It Pa ic/ 208Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 209hardware circuits 210.It Pa ofw/ 211Open Firmware support 212.It Pa pbio/ 2138255 PPI cards; 214see 215.Xr pbio 4 216.It Pa ppbus/ 217The parallel port bus; 218see 219.Xr ppbus 4 220.It Pa usb/ 221The USB subsystem 222.It Pa utopia/ 223Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 224see 225.Xr utopia 4 226.It Pa wi/ 227The 228.Xr wi 4 229WaveLAN driver 230.El 231.It Pa fs/ 232.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 233.It Pa fdescfs/ 234per-process file descriptors file system 235.It Pa fifofs/ 236.St -p1003.1 237FIFOs file system 238.It Pa msdosfs/ 239MS-DOS file system 240.It Pa nfs/ 241C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 242.It Pa nullfs/ 243loopback file system 244.It Pa procfs/ 245process file system 246.It Pa smbfs/ 247SMB/CIFS file system 248.It Pa udf/ 249UDF file system 250.It Pa unionfs 251union file system 252.El 253.It Pa geom/ 254GEOM framework 255.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 256.It Pa concat/ 257CONCAT GEOM class 258.It Pa gate/ 259GATE GEOM class 260.It Pa mirror/ 261MIRROR GEOM class 262.It Pa nop/ 263NOP GEOM class 264.It Pa raid3/ 265RAID3 GEOM class 266.It Pa stripe/ 267STRIPE GEOM class 268.El 269.Pp 270.It Pa isc/ 271ISC utility library libisc include files 272.It Pa isofs/ 273.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 274.It Pa cd9660/ 275iso9660 file system 276.El 277.It Pa libmilter/ 278C include files for libmilter, 279the 280.Xr sendmail 8 281mail filter API 282.It Pa machine/ 283machine-specific C include files 284.It Pa net/ 285miscellaneous network C include files 286.It Pa netatalk/ 287Appletalk protocol 288.It Pa netinet/ 289C include files for Internet standard protocols; 290see 291.Xr inet 4 292.It Pa netinet6/ 293C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 294see 295.Xr inet6 4 296.It Pa netipsec/ 297kernel key-management service; 298see 299.Xr ipsec 4 300.It Pa netipx/ 301IPX/SPX protocol stacks 302.It Pa netnatm/ 303NATM include files; 304see 305.Xr natm 4 306.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 307.It Pa api/ 308include files for the signalling API 309.It Pa msg/ 310include files that describe signalling messages and 311declare associated functions 312.It Pa saal/ 313include files for the signalling AAL layer 314.It Pa sig/ 315include files for the UNI signalling protocol 316.El 317.It Pa netsmb/ 318SMB/CIFS requester 319.It Pa nfs/ 320C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 321.It Pa objc/ 322Objective C include files 323.It Pa openssl/ 324OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 325.It Pa pccard/ 326PC-CARD controllers 327.It Pa protocols/ 328C include files for Berkeley service protocols 329.It Pa readline/ 330get a line from a user, with editing; 331see 332.Xr readline 3 333.It Pa rpc/ 334remote procedure calls; 335see 336.Xr rpc 3 337.It Pa rpcsvc/ 338definition of RPC service structures; see 339.Xr rpc 3 340.It Pa security/ 341PAM; see 342.Xr pam 8 343.It Pa sys/ 344system C include files (kernel data structures) 345.\" .It Pa tcl/ 346.\" Tcl language; 347.\" see 348.\" .Xr Tcl n 349.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 350.\" .It Pa generic/ 351.\" ??? 352.\" .It Pa unix/ 353.\" ??? 354.\" .El 355.It Pa ufs/ 356C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 357.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 358.It Pa ffs/ 359Fast file system 360.It Pa ufs/ 361UFS file system 362.El 363.It Pa vm/ 364virtual memory; 365see 366.Xr vmstat 8 367.El 368.Pp 369.It Pa lib/ 370shared and archive 371.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 372libraries 373.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 374.It Pa aout/ 375a.out archive libraries 376.It Pa compat/ 377shared libraries for compatibility 378.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 379.It Pa aout/ 380a.out backward compatibility libraries 381.El 382.It Pa dtrace/ 383DTrace library scripts 384.It Pa engines/ 385OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 386.El 387.Pp 388.It Pa libdata/ 389miscellaneous utility data files 390.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 391.It Pa gcc/ 392.Xr gcc 1 393configuration data 394.It Pa ldscripts/ 395linker scripts; 396see 397.Xr ld 1 398.It Pa lint/ 399various prebuilt lint libraries; 400see 401.Xr lint 1 402.El 403.Pp 404.It Pa libexec/ 405system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 406.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 407.It Pa aout/ 408utilities to manipulate a.out executables 409.It Pa elf/ 410utilities to manipulate ELF executables 411.It Pa lpr/ 412utilities and filters for LP print system; 413see 414.Xr lpr 1 415.It Pa sendmail/ 416the 417.Xr sendmail 8 418binary; 419see 420.Xr mailwrapper 8 421.It Pa sm.bin/ 422restricted shell for 423.Xr sendmail 8 ; 424see 425.Xr smrsh 8 426.El 427.Pp 428.It Pa local/ 429local executables, libraries, etc. 430Also used as the default destination for the 431.Fx 432ports framework. 433Within 434.Pa local/ , 435the general layout sketched out by 436.Nm 437for 438.Pa /usr 439should be used. 440Exceptions are the 441.Pa man 442directory 443.Po directly under 444.Pa local/ 445rather than under 446.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 447ports documentation 448.Po in 449.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 450and 451.Pa /usr/local/etc 452.Po mimics 453.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 454.It Pa obj/ 455architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 456.Pa /usr/src 457tree 458.It Pa ports/ 459The 460.Fx 461ports collection (optional). 462.It Pa sbin/ 463system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 464.It Pa share/ 465architecture-independent files 466.Pp 467.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 468.It Pa calendar/ 469a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 470see 471.Xr calendar 1 472.It Pa dict/ 473word lists; 474see 475.Xr look 1 476.Pp 477.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 478.It Pa freebsd 479.Fx Ns -specific 480terms, proper names, and jargon 481.It Pa words 482common words 483.It Pa web2 484words from Webster's 2nd International 485.It Pa papers/ 486reference databases; 487see 488.Xr refer 1 489.El 490.Pp 491.It Pa doc/ 492miscellaneous documentation; 493source for most of the printed 494.Bx 495manuals (available 496from the 497.Tn USENIX 498association) 499.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 500.It Pa FAQ/ 501Frequently Asked Questions 502.It Pa IPv6/ 503implementation notes for IPv6 504.It Pa bind/ 505documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 506.It Pa es/ 507Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 508.It Pa handbook/ 509.Fx 510Handbook 511.It Pa ja/ 512Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 513.It Pa legal/ 514License files for vendor supplied firmwares 515.It Pa ncurses/ 516HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 517see 518.Xr ncurses 3 519.It Pa ntp/ 520HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 521.It Pa papers/ 522UNIX Papers 523.It Pa psd/ 524UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 525.It Pa ru/ 526Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 527.It Pa smm/ 528UNIX System Manager's Manual 529.It Pa tutorials/ 530.Fx 531tutorials 532.It Pa usd/ 533UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 534.It Pa zh/ 535Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 536.El 537.Pp 538.It Pa examples/ 539various examples for users and programmers 540.It Pa games/ 541ASCII text files used by various games 542.It Pa groff_font/ 543device description file for device name 544.It Pa info/ 545GNU Info hypertext system 546.It Pa keys/ 547known trusted and revoked keys. 548.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 549.It Pa keys/pkg/ 550fingerprints for 551.Xr pkg 7 552and 553.Xr pkg 8 554.El 555.Pp 556.It Pa locale/ 557localization files; 558see 559.Xr setlocale 3 560.It Pa man/ 561manual pages 562.It Pa mdocml/ 563data files used by mdocml 564.It Pa me/ 565macros for use with the me macro package; 566see 567.Xr me 7 568.It Pa misc/ 569miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 570.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 571.It Pa fonts/ 572??? 573.It Pa termcap 574terminal characteristics database; 575see 576.Xr termcap 5 577.El 578.It Pa mk/ 579templates for make; 580see 581.Xr make 1 582.It Pa nls/ 583national language support files; 584see 585.Xr mklocale 1 586.It Pa security/ 587data files for security policies such as 588.Xr mac_lomac 4 589.It Pa sendmail/ 590.Xr sendmail 8 591configuration files 592.It Pa skel/ 593example 594.Pa .\& 595(dot) files for new accounts 596.It Pa snmp/ 597MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 598.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 599.It Pa defs/ 600Tree definition files for use with 601.Xr gensnmptree 1 602.It Pa mibs/ 603MIB files 604.El 605.It Pa syscons/ 606files used by syscons; 607see 608.Xr syscons 4 609.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 610.It Pa fonts/ 611console fonts; 612see 613.Xr vidcontrol 1 614and 615.Xr vidfont 1 616.It Pa keymaps/ 617console keyboard maps; 618see 619.Xr kbdcontrol 1 620and 621.Xr kbdmap 1 622.It Pa scrnmaps/ 623console screen maps 624.El 625.It Pa tabset/ 626tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 627the termcap file; 628see 629.Xr termcap 5 630.It Pa tmac/ 631text processing macros; 632see 633.Xr nroff 1 634and 635.Xr troff 1 636.It Pa vi/ 637localization support and utilities for 638.Xr vi 1 639.It Pa zoneinfo/ 640timezone configuration information; 641see 642.Xr tzfile 5 643.El 644.It Pa src/ 645.Bx , 646third-party, and/or local source files 647.Pp 648.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 649.It Pa bin/ 650source code for files in /bin 651.It Pa cddl/ 652Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 653.It Pa contrib/ 654source code for contributed software 655.It Pa crypto/ 656source code for contributed cryptography software 657.It Pa etc/ 658source code for files in 659.Pa /etc 660.It Pa games/ 661source code for files in 662.Pa /usr/games 663.It Pa gnu/ 664Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 665.It Pa include/ 666source code for files in 667.Pa /usr/include 668.It Pa kerberos5/ 669build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 670.It Pa lib/ 671source code for files in 672.Pa /usr/lib 673.It Pa libexec/ 674source code for files in 675.Pa /usr/libexec 676.It Pa release/ 677files required to produce a 678.Fx 679release 680.It Pa sbin/ 681source code for files in 682.Pa /sbin 683.It Pa secure/ 684build directory for files in 685.Pa /usr/src/crypto 686.It Pa share/ 687source for files in 688.Pa /usr/share 689.It Pa sys/ 690kernel source code 691.It Pa tools/ 692tools used for maintenance and testing of 693.Fx 694.It Pa usr.bin/ 695source code for files in 696.Pa /usr/bin 697.It Pa usr.sbin/ 698source code for files in 699.Pa /usr/sbin 700.El 701.Pp 702.It Pa tests/ 703The 704.Fx 705test suite. 706See tests(7) for more details. 707.El 708.It Pa /var/ 709multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 710.Pp 711.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 712.It Pa account/ 713system accounting files 714.Pp 715.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 716.It Pa acct 717execution accounting file; 718see 719.Xr acct 5 720.El 721.Pp 722.It Pa at/ 723timed command scheduling files; 724see 725.Xr \&at 1 726.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 727.It Pa jobs/ 728directory containing job files 729.It Pa spool/ 730directory containing output spool files 731.El 732.Pp 733.It Pa backups/ 734miscellaneous backup files 735.It Pa cache/ 736miscellaneous cached files 737.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 738.It Pa pkg/ 739cached packages for 740.Xr pkg 8 741.El 742.Pp 743.It Pa crash/ 744default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 745.Xr crash 8 746and 747.Xr savecore 8 748.It Pa cron/ 749files used by cron; 750see 751.Xr cron 8 752.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 753.It Pa tabs/ 754crontab files; 755see 756.Xr crontab 5 757.El 758.Pp 759.It Pa db/ 760miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 761.It Pa empty/ 762empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 763Used for instance by 764.Xr sshd 8 765for privilege separation. 766.It Pa games/ 767miscellaneous game status and score files 768.It Pa heimdal/ 769kerberos server databases; see 770.Xr kdc 8 771.It Pa log/ 772miscellaneous system log files 773.Pp 774.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 775.It Pa utx.lastlogin 776last login log; 777see 778.Xr getutxent 3 779.It Pa utx.log 780login/logout log; 781see 782.Xr getutxent 3 783.El 784.Pp 785.It Pa mail/ 786user mailbox files 787.It Pa msgs/ 788system messages database; 789see 790.Xr msgs 1 791.It Pa preserve/ 792temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 793of an editor; 794see 795.Xr \&ex 1 796.It Pa quotas/ 797file system quota information files 798.It Pa run/ 799system information files describing various info about 800system since it was booted 801.Pp 802.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 803.It Pa ppp/ 804writable by the 805.Dq network 806group for command connection sockets; see 807.Xr ppp 8 808.It Pa utx.active 809database of current users; 810see 811.Xr getutxent 3 812.El 813.Pp 814.It Pa rwho/ 815rwho data files; 816see 817.Xr rwhod 8 , 818.Xr rwho 1 , 819and 820.Xr ruptime 1 821.It Pa spool/ 822miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 823.Pp 824.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 825.It Pa clientmqueue/ 826undelivered submission mail queue; 827see 828.Xr sendmail 8 829.It Pa ftp/ 830commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 831.It Pa mqueue/ 832undelivered mail queue; 833see 834.Xr sendmail 8 835.It Pa output/ 836line printer spooling directories 837.El 838.Pp 839.It Pa tmp/ 840temporary files that are kept between system reboots 841.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 842.It Pa vi.recover/ 843the directory where recovery files are stored 844.El 845.It Pa yp/ 846the NIS maps 847.El 848.El 849.Sh NOTES 850This manual page documents the default 851.Fx 852file system layout, but 853the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 854administrator's discretion. 855A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 856this document. 857.Sh SEE ALSO 858.Xr apropos 1 , 859.Xr find 1 , 860.Xr finger 1 , 861.Xr grep 1 , 862.Xr ls 1 , 863.Xr whatis 1 , 864.Xr whereis 1 , 865.Xr which 1 , 866.Xr fd 4 , 867.Xr devfs 5 , 868.Xr fsck 8 869.Sh HISTORY 870A 871.Nm 872manual page appeared in 873.At v7 . 874