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 October 29, 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 namedb/ 108named configuration files; 109see 110.Xr named 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 /proc/ 163process file system; 164see 165.Xr procfs 5 166.It Pa /rescue/ 167statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 168see 169.Xr rescue 8 170.It Pa /root/ 171root's HOME directory 172.It Pa /sbin/ 173system programs and administration utilities 174fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 175.It Pa /tmp/ 176temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 177.It Pa /usr/ 178contains the majority of user utilities and applications 179.Pp 180.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 181.It Pa bin/ 182common utilities, programming tools, and applications 183.It Pa compat/ 184files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 185such as Linux 186.It Pa games/ 187useful and semi-frivolous programs 188.It Pa include/ 189standard C include files 190.Pp 191.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 192.It Pa altq/ 193C include files for alternate queueing 194.It Pa arpa/ 195C include files for Internet service protocols 196.It Pa bsnmp/ 197C include files for the SNMP daemon 198.It Pa c++/ 199C++ include files 200.It Pa cam/ 201C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 202.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 203.It Pa scsi/ 204The SCSI device on top of CAM 205.El 206.It Pa dev/ 207C include files for programming various 208.Fx 209devices 210.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 211.It Pa ic/ 212Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 213hardware circuits 214.It Pa ofw/ 215Open Firmware support 216.It Pa pbio/ 2178255 PPI cards; 218see 219.Xr pbio 4 220.It Pa ppbus/ 221The parallel port bus; 222see 223.Xr ppbus 4 224.It Pa usb/ 225The USB subsystem 226.It Pa utopia/ 227Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 228see 229.Xr utopia 4 230.It Pa wi/ 231The 232.Xr wi 4 233WaveLAN driver 234.El 235.It Pa fs/ 236.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 237.It Pa fdescfs/ 238per-process file descriptors file system 239.It Pa fifofs/ 240.St -p1003.1 241FIFOs file system 242.It Pa msdosfs/ 243MS-DOS file system 244.It Pa nfs/ 245C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 246.It Pa nullfs/ 247loopback file system 248.It Pa procfs/ 249process file system 250.It Pa smbfs/ 251SMB/CIFS file system 252.It Pa udf/ 253UDF file system 254.It Pa unionfs 255union file system 256.El 257.It Pa geom/ 258GEOM framework 259.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 260.It Pa concat/ 261CONCAT GEOM class 262.It Pa gate/ 263GATE GEOM class 264.It Pa mirror/ 265MIRROR GEOM class 266.It Pa nop/ 267NOP GEOM class 268.It Pa raid3/ 269RAID3 GEOM class 270.It Pa stripe/ 271STRIPE GEOM class 272.El 273.Pp 274.It Pa isc/ 275ISC utility library libisc include files 276.It Pa isofs/ 277.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 278.It Pa cd9660/ 279iso9660 file system 280.El 281.It Pa libmilter/ 282C include files for libmilter, 283the 284.Xr sendmail 8 285mail filter API 286.It Pa machine/ 287machine-specific C include files 288.It Pa net/ 289miscellaneous network C include files 290.It Pa netatalk/ 291Appletalk protocol 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 netipx/ 305IPX/SPX protocol stacks 306.It Pa netnatm/ 307NATM include files; 308see 309.Xr natm 4 310.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 311.It Pa api/ 312include files for the signalling API 313.It Pa msg/ 314include files that describe signalling messages and 315declare associated functions 316.It Pa saal/ 317include files for the signalling AAL layer 318.It Pa sig/ 319include files for the UNI signalling protocol 320.El 321.It Pa netsmb/ 322SMB/CIFS requester 323.It Pa nfs/ 324C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 325.It Pa objc/ 326Objective C include files 327.It Pa openssl/ 328OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 329.It Pa pccard/ 330PC-CARD controllers 331.It Pa protocols/ 332C include files for Berkeley service protocols 333.It Pa readline/ 334get a line from a user, with editing; 335see 336.Xr readline 3 337.It Pa rpc/ 338remote procedure calls; 339see 340.Xr rpc 3 341.It Pa rpcsvc/ 342definition of RPC service structures; see 343.Xr rpc 3 344.It Pa security/ 345PAM; see 346.Xr pam 8 347.It Pa sys/ 348system C include files (kernel data structures) 349.\" .It Pa tcl/ 350.\" Tcl language; 351.\" see 352.\" .Xr Tcl n 353.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 354.\" .It Pa generic/ 355.\" ??? 356.\" .It Pa unix/ 357.\" ??? 358.\" .El 359.It Pa ufs/ 360C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 361.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 362.It Pa ffs/ 363Fast file system 364.It Pa ufs/ 365UFS file system 366.El 367.It Pa vm/ 368virtual memory; 369see 370.Xr vmstat 8 371.El 372.Pp 373.It Pa lib/ 374shared and archive 375.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 376libraries 377.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 378.It Pa aout/ 379a.out archive libraries 380.It Pa compat/ 381shared libraries for compatibility 382.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 383.It Pa aout/ 384a.out backward compatibility libraries 385.El 386.It Pa dtrace/ 387DTrace library scripts 388.It Pa engines/ 389OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 390.El 391.Pp 392.It Pa libdata/ 393miscellaneous utility data files 394.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 395.It Pa gcc/ 396.Xr gcc 1 397configuration data 398.It Pa ldscripts/ 399linker scripts; 400see 401.Xr ld 1 402.It Pa lint/ 403various prebuilt lint libraries; 404see 405.Xr lint 1 406.El 407.Pp 408.It Pa libexec/ 409system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 410.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 411.It Pa aout/ 412utilities to manipulate a.out executables 413.It Pa elf/ 414utilities to manipulate ELF executables 415.It Pa lpr/ 416utilities and filters for LP print system; 417see 418.Xr lpr 1 419.It Pa sendmail/ 420the 421.Xr sendmail 8 422binary; 423see 424.Xr mailwrapper 8 425.It Pa sm.bin/ 426restricted shell for 427.Xr sendmail 8 ; 428see 429.Xr smrsh 8 430.El 431.Pp 432.It Pa local/ 433local executables, libraries, etc. 434Also used as the default destination for the 435.Fx 436ports framework. 437Within 438.Pa local/ , 439the general layout sketched out by 440.Nm 441for 442.Pa /usr 443should be used. 444Exceptions are the 445.Pa man 446directory 447.Po directly under 448.Pa local/ 449rather than under 450.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 451ports documentation 452.Po in 453.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 454and 455.Pa /usr/local/etc 456.Po mimics 457.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 458.It Pa obj/ 459architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 460.Pa /usr/src 461tree 462.It Pa ports/ 463The 464.Fx 465ports collection (optional). 466.It Pa sbin/ 467system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 468.It Pa share/ 469architecture-independent files 470.Pp 471.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 472.It Pa calendar/ 473a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 474see 475.Xr calendar 1 476.It Pa dict/ 477word lists; 478see 479.Xr look 1 480.Pp 481.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 482.It Pa freebsd 483.Fx Ns -specific 484terms, proper names, and jargon 485.It Pa words 486common words 487.It Pa web2 488words from Webster's 2nd International 489.It Pa papers/ 490reference databases; 491see 492.Xr refer 1 493.El 494.Pp 495.It Pa doc/ 496miscellaneous documentation; 497source for most of the printed 498.Bx 499manuals (available 500from the 501.Tn USENIX 502association) 503.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 504.It Pa FAQ/ 505Frequently Asked Questions 506.It Pa IPv6/ 507implementation notes for IPv6 508.It Pa bind/ 509documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 510.It Pa es/ 511Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 512.It Pa handbook/ 513.Fx 514Handbook 515.It Pa ja/ 516Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 517.It Pa legal/ 518License files for vendor supplied firmwares 519.It Pa ncurses/ 520HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 521see 522.Xr ncurses 3 523.It Pa ntp/ 524HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 525.It Pa papers/ 526UNIX Papers 527.It Pa psd/ 528UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 529.It Pa ru/ 530Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 531.It Pa smm/ 532UNIX System Manager's Manual 533.It Pa tutorials/ 534.Fx 535tutorials 536.It Pa usd/ 537UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 538.It Pa zh/ 539Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 540.El 541.Pp 542.It Pa examples/ 543various examples for users and programmers 544.It Pa games/ 545ASCII text files used by various games 546.It Pa groff_font/ 547device description file for device name 548.It Pa info/ 549GNU Info hypertext system 550.It Pa keys/ 551known trusted and revoked keys. 552.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 553.It Pa keys/pkg/ 554fingerprints for 555.Xr pkg 7 556and 557.Xr pkg 8 558.El 559.Pp 560.It Pa locale/ 561localization files; 562see 563.Xr setlocale 3 564.It Pa man/ 565manual pages 566.It Pa mdocml/ 567data files used by mdocml 568.It Pa me/ 569macros for use with the me macro package; 570see 571.Xr me 7 572.It Pa misc/ 573miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 574.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 575.It Pa fonts/ 576??? 577.It Pa termcap 578terminal characteristics database; 579see 580.Xr termcap 5 581.El 582.It Pa mk/ 583templates for make; 584see 585.Xr make 1 586.It Pa nls/ 587national language support files; 588see 589.Xr mklocale 1 590.It Pa security/ 591data files for security policies such as 592.Xr mac_lomac 4 593.It Pa sendmail/ 594.Xr sendmail 8 595configuration files 596.It Pa skel/ 597example 598.Pa .\& 599(dot) files for new accounts 600.It Pa snmp/ 601MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 602.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 603.It Pa defs/ 604Tree definition files for use with 605.Xr gensnmptree 1 606.It Pa mibs/ 607MIB files 608.El 609.It Pa syscons/ 610files used by syscons; 611see 612.Xr syscons 4 613.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 614.It Pa fonts/ 615console fonts; 616see 617.Xr vidcontrol 1 618and 619.Xr vidfont 1 620.It Pa keymaps/ 621console keyboard maps; 622see 623.Xr kbdcontrol 1 624and 625.Xr kbdmap 1 626.It Pa scrnmaps/ 627console screen maps 628.El 629.It Pa tabset/ 630tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 631the termcap file; 632see 633.Xr termcap 5 634.It Pa tmac/ 635text processing macros; 636see 637.Xr nroff 1 638and 639.Xr troff 1 640.It Pa vi/ 641localization support and utilities for 642.Xr vi 1 643.It Pa zoneinfo/ 644timezone configuration information; 645see 646.Xr tzfile 5 647.El 648.It Pa src/ 649.Bx , 650third-party, and/or local source files 651.Pp 652.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 653.It Pa bin/ 654source code for files in /bin 655.It Pa cddl/ 656Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 657.It Pa contrib/ 658source code for contributed software 659.It Pa crypto/ 660source code for contributed cryptography software 661.It Pa etc/ 662source code for files in 663.Pa /etc 664.It Pa games/ 665source code for files in 666.Pa /usr/games 667.It Pa gnu/ 668Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 669.It Pa include/ 670source code for files in 671.Pa /usr/include 672.It Pa kerberos5/ 673build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 674.It Pa lib/ 675source code for files in 676.Pa /usr/lib 677.It Pa libexec/ 678source code for files in 679.Pa /usr/libexec 680.It Pa release/ 681files required to produce a 682.Fx 683release 684.It Pa sbin/ 685source code for files in 686.Pa /sbin 687.It Pa secure/ 688build directory for files in 689.Pa /usr/src/crypto 690.It Pa share/ 691source for files in 692.Pa /usr/share 693.It Pa sys/ 694kernel source code 695.It Pa tools/ 696tools used for maintenance and testing of 697.Fx 698.It Pa usr.bin/ 699source code for files in 700.Pa /usr/bin 701.It Pa usr.sbin/ 702source code for files in 703.Pa /usr/sbin 704.El 705.Pp 706.It Pa tests/ 707The 708.Fx 709test suite. 710See tests(7) for more details. 711.El 712.It Pa /var/ 713multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 714.Pp 715.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 716.It Pa account/ 717system accounting files 718.Pp 719.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 720.It Pa acct 721execution accounting file; 722see 723.Xr acct 5 724.El 725.Pp 726.It Pa at/ 727timed command scheduling files; 728see 729.Xr \&at 1 730.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 731.It Pa jobs/ 732directory containing job files 733.It Pa spool/ 734directory containing output spool files 735.El 736.Pp 737.It Pa backups/ 738miscellaneous backup files 739.It Pa cache/ 740miscellaneous cached files 741.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 742.It Pa pkg/ 743cached packages for 744.Xr pkg 8 745.El 746.Pp 747.It Pa crash/ 748default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 749.Xr crash 8 750and 751.Xr savecore 8 752.It Pa cron/ 753files used by cron; 754see 755.Xr cron 8 756.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 757.It Pa tabs/ 758crontab files; 759see 760.Xr crontab 5 761.El 762.Pp 763.It Pa db/ 764miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 765.It Pa empty/ 766empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 767Used for instance by 768.Xr sshd 8 769for privilege separation. 770.It Pa games/ 771miscellaneous game status and score files 772.It Pa heimdal/ 773kerberos server databases; see 774.Xr kdc 8 775.It Pa log/ 776miscellaneous system log files 777.Pp 778.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 779.It Pa utx.lastlogin 780last login log; 781see 782.Xr getutxent 3 783.It Pa utx.log 784login/logout log; 785see 786.Xr getutxent 3 787.El 788.Pp 789.It Pa mail/ 790user mailbox files 791.It Pa msgs/ 792system messages database; 793see 794.Xr msgs 1 795.It Pa preserve/ 796temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 797of an editor; 798see 799.Xr \&ex 1 800.It Pa quotas/ 801file system quota information files 802.It Pa run/ 803system information files describing various info about 804system since it was booted 805.Pp 806.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 807.It Pa named/ 808writable by the 809.Dq bind 810user; see 811.Xr named 8 812.It Pa ppp/ 813writable by the 814.Dq network 815group for command connection sockets; see 816.Xr ppp 8 817.It Pa utx.active 818database of current users; 819see 820.Xr getutxent 3 821.El 822.Pp 823.It Pa rwho/ 824rwho data files; 825see 826.Xr rwhod 8 , 827.Xr rwho 1 , 828and 829.Xr ruptime 1 830.It Pa spool/ 831miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 832.Pp 833.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 834.It Pa clientmqueue/ 835undelivered submission mail queue; 836see 837.Xr sendmail 8 838.It Pa ftp/ 839commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 840.It Pa mqueue/ 841undelivered mail queue; 842see 843.Xr sendmail 8 844.It Pa output/ 845line printer spooling directories 846.El 847.Pp 848.It Pa tmp/ 849temporary files that are kept between system reboots 850.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 851.It Pa vi.recover/ 852the directory where recovery files are stored 853.El 854.It Pa yp/ 855the NIS maps 856.El 857.El 858.Sh NOTES 859This manual page documents the default 860.Fx 861file system layout, but 862the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 863administrator's discretion. 864A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 865this document. 866.Sh SEE ALSO 867.Xr apropos 1 , 868.Xr find 1 , 869.Xr finger 1 , 870.Xr grep 1 , 871.Xr ls 1 , 872.Xr whatis 1 , 873.Xr whereis 1 , 874.Xr which 1 , 875.Xr fd 4 , 876.Xr devfs 5 , 877.Xr fsck 8 878.Sh HISTORY 879A 880.Nm 881manual page appeared in 882.At v7 . 883