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 July 6, 2023 32.Dt HIER 7 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm hier 36.Nd layout of file systems 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38An overview of the file system hierarchy. 39.Sh DESCRIPTION 40.Bl -tag -width "/libexec/" 41.It Pa / 42root directory 43.It Pa /bin/ 44user utilities that are fundamental to single-user and multi-user modes 45.It Pa /boot/ 46programs and configuration files used during bootstrap of the operating system 47.Pp 48.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 49.It Pa defaults/ 50default bootstrap configuration files; see 51.Xr loader.conf 5 52.It Pa dtb/ 53compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see 54.Xr fdt 4 55and 56.Xr dtc 1 57.Pp 58.Bl -tag -width "overlays/" -compact 59.It Pa overlays/ 60compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; these can be applied using the 61.Va fdt_overlays 62setting in 63.Xr loader.conf 5 64.El 65.Pp 66.It Pa efi/ 67mount point for the EFI System Partition (ESP) on UEFI systems 68.It Pa firmware/ 69loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware, for hardware to which 70firmware must be downloaded 71.It Pa kernel/ 72pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory at boot time) 73and kernel modules 74.It Pa modules/ 75third-party loadable kernel modules, such as those associated with 76.Xr ports 7 77.It Pa zfs/ 78.Xr zfs 8 79pool cache files 80.El 81.It Pa /compat/ 82files supporting binary compatibility with other operating systems 83.Pp 84.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 85.It Pa linux/ 86default location for 87.Xr linux 4 88compatibility run-time 89.El 90.Pp 91.It Pa /dev/ 92the normal mount point for 93.Xr devfs 5 94.Pp 95.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 96.It Pa fd/ 97file descriptor files; see 98.Xr fd 4 99.El 100.It Pa /etc/ 101system configuration files and scripts 102.Pp 103.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 104.It Pa bluetooth/ 105bluetooth configuration files 106.It Pa defaults/ 107default system configuration files; see 108.Xr rc 8 109.It Pa localtime 110local timezone information; see 111.Xr ctime 3 112.It Pa mail/ 113.Xr sendmail 8 114control files 115.It Pa mtree/ 116.Xr mtree 8 117configuration files 118.It Pa pam.d/ 119configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) library; see 120.Xr pam 3 121.It Pa periodic/ 122scripts that are run daily, weekly, or monthly by 123.Xr cron 8 ; 124see 125.Xr periodic 8 126.It Pa ppp/ 127PPP configuration files; see 128.Xr ppp 8 129.It Pa rc.d/ 130system and daemon startup/control scripts; see 131.Xr rc 8 132.It Pa security/ 133OpenBSM audit configuration files; see 134.Xr audit 8 135.It Pa ssh/ 136OpenSSH configuration files; see 137.Xr ssh 1 138.It Pa ssl/ 139OpenSSL configuration files 140.El 141.It Pa /home/ 142users' home directories; whilst the layout is not standardized, the typical home for an interactive user 143.Dv beastie 144would be 145.Pa /home/beastie/ 146.It Pa /lib/ 147system libraries that are critical to binaries in 148.Pa /bin 149and 150.Pa /sbin 151.Pp 152.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 153.It Pa casper/ 154service-specific 155.Xr libcasper 3 156Capsicum support libraries 157.It Pa geom/ 158class-specific libraries for the 159.Xr geom 8 160utility 161.It Pa nvmecontrol/ 162vendor-specific libraries to extend the 163.Xr nvmecontrol 8 164utility 165.El 166.It Pa /libexec/ 167system utilities that are critical to binaries in 168.Pa /bin 169and 170.Pa /sbin 171.It Pa /media/ 172empty directory commonly containing mount points for removable media such as 173USB drives, CDs, and DVDs 174.It Pa /mnt/ 175empty directory commonly used by system administrators as a temporary mount 176point 177.It Pa /net/ 178automounted NFS shares; see 179.Xr auto_master 5 180.It Pa /nonexistent/ 181a non-existent directory; conventionally, a home directory for special user 182accounts that do not require a home directory. See also 183.Pa /var/empty/ 184.It Pa /proc/ 185process file system; see 186.Xr procfs 5 187.It Pa /rescue/ 188statically-linked programs for emergency recovery; see 189.Xr rescue 8 190.It Pa /root/ 191home directory of the root user 192.It Pa /sbin/ 193system programs and administration utilities that are fundamental to 194single-user and multi-user modes 195.It Pa /tmp/ 196temporary files that may be removed by 197.Xr rc 8 ; 198see the 199.Va clear_tmp_enable 200variable of 201.Xr rc.conf 5 202.It Pa /usr/ 203contains the majority of user utilities and applications 204.Pp 205.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-dist/" -compact 206.It Pa bin/ 207common utilities, programming tools, and applications 208.It Pa freebsd-dist/ 209distribution files 210.Pq like base.txz ; see 211.Xr release 7 212and 213.Xr bsdinstall 8 214.It Pa include/ 215standard C include files 216.It Pa lib/ 217shared and archive 218.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 219libraries 220.Pp 221.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 222.It Pa compat/ 223shared libraries for compatibility 224.It Pa debug/ 225standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries 226.It Pa dtrace/ 227DTrace library scripts 228.It Pa engines/ 229OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 230.El 231.Pp 232.It Pa libdata/ 233miscellaneous utility data files 234.Pp 235.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 236.It Pa gcc/ 237GCC configuration data 238.It Pa ldscripts/ 239linker scripts; see 240.Xr ld 1 241.It Pa pkgconfig/ 242.Xr pc 5 Pq Pa ports/devel/pkgconf 243files; collections of compiler flags, linker flags, and other information 244relevant to library use 245.El 246.Pp 247.It Pa libexec/ 248system daemons and system utilities that are executed by other programs 249.Pp 250.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 251.It Pa aout/ 252utilities to manipulate a.out executables 253.It Pa elf/ 254utilities to manipulate ELF executables 255.It Pa lpr/ 256utilities and filters for LP print system; see 257.Xr lpr 1 258.It Pa sendmail/ 259the 260.Xr sendmail 8 261binary; see 262.Xr mailwrapper 8 263.It Pa sm.bin/ 264restricted shell for 265.Xr sendmail 8 ; 266see 267.Xr smrsh 8 268.El 269.Pp 270.It Pa local/ 271local executables, libraries, etc. 272Also used as the default destination for the 273.Xr ports 7 274framework. 275Within 276.Pa local/ , 277the general layout sketched out by 278.Nm 279for 280.Pa /usr 281should be used. 282Exceptions are the ports documentation 283.Po in 284.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 285and 286.Pa /usr/local/etc 287.Po mimics 288.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 289.It Pa obj/ 290architecture-specific target tree produced by building 291.Fx 292from source; see 293.Xr build 7 294.It Pa ports/ 295.Fx 296ports collection; see 297.Xr ports 7 298.It Pa sbin/ 299system daemons and system utilities that are executed by users 300.It Pa share/ 301architecture-independent files 302.Pp 303.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 304.It Pa calendar/ 305system-wide calendar files; see 306.Xr calendar 1 307.It Pa dict/ 308word lists; see 309.Xr look 1 310.Pp 311.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 312.It Pa freebsd 313.Fx Ns -specific 314terms, proper names, and jargon 315.It Pa web2 316words from Webster's Second International 317.El 318.Pp 319.It Pa doc/ 320miscellaneous documentation 321.It Pa examples/ 322various examples for users and programmers 323.It Pa firmware/ 324firmware images loaded by userland programs 325.It Pa games/ 326used by various games 327.It Pa keys/ 328known trusted and revoked keys 329.Pp 330.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 331.It Pa pkg/ 332fingerprints for 333.Xr pkg 7 334and 335.Xr pkg 8 336.El 337.Pp 338.It Pa locale/ 339localization files; see 340.Xr setlocale 3 341.It Pa man/ 342manual pages 343.It Pa misc/ 344miscellaneous system-wide files 345.Pp 346.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 347.It Pa termcap 348terminal characteristics database; see 349.Xr termcap 5 350.El 351.Pp 352.It Pa mk/ 353templates for make; see 354.Xr make 1 355.It Pa nls/ 356national language support files 357.It Pa security/ 358data files for security policies such as 359.Xr mac_lomac 4 360.It Pa sendmail/ 361.Xr sendmail 8 362configuration files 363.It Pa skel/ 364example 365.Pa .\& 366(dot) files for new accounts 367.It Pa snmp/ 368MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon 369.Pp 370.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 371.It Pa defs/ 372tree definition files for use with 373.Xr gensnmptree 1 374.It Pa mibs/ 375MIB files 376.El 377.Pp 378.It Pa syscons/ 379.Xr syscons 4 380files 381.Pp 382.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 383.It Pa fonts/ 384console fonts; see 385.Xr vidcontrol 1 386and 387.Xr vidfont 1 388.It Pa keymaps/ 389console keyboard maps; see 390.Xr kbdcontrol 1 391and 392.Xr kbdmap 1 393.It Pa scrnmaps/ 394console screen maps 395.El 396.Pp 397.It Pa sysroot/ 398files necessary for the -sysroot compiler/linker argument to build non-native 399binaries 400.Pp 401.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 402.It Pa VERSION/ 403files for 404.Fx 405release VERSION. 406By convention, 407.Dq VERSION 408matches 409.Xr uname 1 410.Fl r . 411.Pp 412.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 413.It Pa MACHINE.MACHINE_ARCH/ 414represent the binary ABI for these files. 415.Dq MACHINE 416matches 417.Xr uname 1 418.Fl m . 419.Dq MACHINE_ARCH 420matches 421.Xr uname 1 422.Fl p . 423.El 424.El 425.Pp 426.It Pa tabset/ 427tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in the termcap file; 428see 429.Xr termcap 5 430.It Pa vi/ 431localization support and utilities for 432.Xr vi 1 433.It Pa vt/ 434.Xr vt 4 435files 436.Pp 437.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 438.It Pa fonts/ 439console fonts; see 440.Xr vidcontrol 1 441and 442.Xr vidfont 1 443.It Pa keymaps/ 444console keyboard maps; see 445.Xr kbdcontrol 1 446and 447.Xr kbdmap 1 448.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/ 449.\" console screen maps 450.El 451.Pp 452.It Pa zoneinfo/ 453timezone configuration information; see 454.Xr tzfile 5 455.El 456.Pp 457.It Pa src/ 458.Fx 459source code; see 460.Xr development 7 . 461The layout of the source tree is described by the top-level 462.Pa README.md 463file. 464.Pp 465.It Pa tests/ 466the 467.Fx 468test suite; see 469.Xr tests 7 470.El 471.It Pa /var/ 472log, temporary, transient, and spool files 473.Pp 474.Bl -tag -width "preserve/" -compact 475.It Pa account/ 476system accounting files 477.Pp 478.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 479.It Pa acct 480execution accounting file; see 481.Xr acct 5 482.El 483.Pp 484.It Pa at/ 485timed command scheduling files; see 486.Xr at 1 487.Pp 488.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 489.It Pa jobs/ 490job files 491.It Pa spool/ 492output spool files 493.El 494.Pp 495.It Pa backups/ 496miscellaneous backup files 497.It Pa cache/ 498miscellaneous cache files 499.Pp 500.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 501.It Pa pkg/ 502cached packages for 503.Xr pkg 8 504.El 505.Pp 506.It Pa crash/ 507default directory for kernel crash dumps; see 508.Xr crash 8 509and 510.Xr savecore 8 511.It Pa cron/ 512.Xr cron 8 513files 514.Pp 515.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 516.It Pa tabs/ 517.Xr crontab 5 518files 519.El 520.Pp 521.It Pa db/ 522miscellaneous automatically-generated system-specific database files 523.Pp 524.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-update/" -compact 525.It Pa freebsd-update/ 526temporary files and downloads for 527.Xr freebsd-update 8 528.El 529.Pp 530.It Pa empty/ 531for use by programs that require an empty directory. 532Uses include privilege separation by 533.Xr sshd 8 534.It Pa games/ 535miscellaneous game status and score files 536.It Pa heimdal/ 537Kerberos server databases; see 538.Xr kdc 8 539.It Pa log/ 540miscellaneous system log files 541.Pp 542.Bl -tag -width "utx.lastlogin" -compact 543.It Pa utx.lastlogin 544last login log; see 545.Xr getutxent 3 546.It Pa utx.log 547login/logout log; see 548.Xr getutxent 3 549.El 550.Pp 551.It Pa mail/ 552user mailbox files 553.It Pa msgs/ 554system messages database; see 555.Xr msgs 1 556.It Pa preserve/ 557unused, present for historical reasons 558.It Pa quotas/ 559file system quota information files 560.It Pa run/ 561files containing information about the operating system since it was booted 562.Pp 563.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 564.It Pa bhyve/ 565.Xr bhyve 8 566virtual machine 567.Xr unix 4 Ns -domain sockets 568.It Pa ppp/ 569writable by the 570.Dq network 571group for command connection sockets; see 572.Xr ppp 8 573.It Pa utx.active 574database of current users; see 575.Xr getutxent 3 576.El 577.Pp 578.It Pa rwho/ 579rwho data files; see 580.Xr rwhod 8 , 581.Xr rwho 1 , 582and 583.Xr ruptime 1 584.It Pa spool/ 585miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 586.Pp 587.Bl -tag -width "clientmqueue/" -compact 588.It Pa clientmqueue/ 589undelivered submission mail queue; see 590.Xr sendmail 8 591.It Pa ftp/ 592ftp root directory; see 593.Xr ftpd 8 594.It Pa mqueue/ 595undelivered mail queue; see 596.Xr sendmail 8 597.It Pa output/ 598line printer spooling directories 599.El 600.Pp 601.It Pa tmp/ 602temporary files that are not removed by 603.Xr rc 8 604.Pp 605.Bl -tag -width "vi.recover/" -compact 606.It Pa vi.recover/ 607.Xr vi 1 608recovery files 609.El 610.Pp 611.It Pa yp/ 612the NIS maps; see 613.Xr yp 8 614.El 615.El 616.Sh NOTES 617This manual page documents the default 618.Fx 619file system layout. 620The actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 621administrator's discretion. 622A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 623this document. 624.Sh SEE ALSO 625.Xr apropos 1 , 626.Xr find 1 , 627.Xr grep 1 , 628.Xr ls 1 , 629.Xr whereis 1 , 630.Xr which 1 631.Sh HISTORY 632A 633.Nm 634manual page appeared in 635.At v7 . 636