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 May 25, 2008 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(created by 66.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 67.It Pa /compat/ 68normally a link to 69.Pa /usr/compat . 70If not, then the 71.Pa /usr/compat 72comments apply 73(created by 74.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 75.It Pa /dev/ 76device special files managed by 77.Xr devfs 5 78.Pp 79.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 80.It Pa fd/ 81file descriptor files; 82see 83.Xr \&fd 4 84.It Pa net/ 85network devices 86.El 87.It Pa /dist/ 88mount point used by 89.Xr sysinstall 8 90.It Pa /etc/ 91system configuration files and scripts 92.Pp 93.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 94.It Pa defaults/ 95default system configuration files; 96see 97.Xr rc 8 98.It Pa bluetooth/ 99bluetooth configuration files 100.It Pa gnats/ 101gnats configuration files; 102see 103.Xr send-pr 1 104.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 namedb/ 115named configuration files; 116see 117.Xr named 8 118.It Pa pam.d/ 119configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 120library 121.It Pa periodic/ 122scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 123.Xr cron 8 ; 124see 125.Xr periodic 8 126.It Pa rc.d/ 127System and daemon startup/control scripts; 128see 129.Xr rc 8 130.It Pa security/ 131OpenBSM audit configuration files; 132see 133.Xr audit 8 134.It Pa ppp/ 135ppp configuration files; 136see 137.Xr ppp 8 138.It Pa ssh/ 139OpenSSH configuration files; 140see 141.Xr ssh 1 142.It Pa ssl/ 143OpenSSL configuration files 144.El 145.It Pa /lib/ 146critical system libraries needed for binaries in 147.Pa /bin 148and 149.Pa /sbin 150.Pp 151.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 152.It Pa geom/ 153class-specific libraries for the 154.Xr geom 8 155utility 156.El 157.It Pa /libexec/ 158critical system utilities needed for binaries in 159.Pa /bin 160and 161.Pa /sbin 162.It Pa /media/ 163contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 164for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 165floppy disks 166.It Pa /mnt/ 167empty directory commonly used by 168system administrators as a temporary mount point 169.It Pa /proc/ 170process file system; 171see 172.Xr procfs 5 173.It Pa /rescue/ 174statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 175see 176.Xr rescue 8 177.It Pa /root/ 178root's HOME directory 179.It Pa /sbin/ 180system programs and administration utilities 181fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 182.It Pa /tmp/ 183temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 184.It Pa /usr/ 185contains the majority of user utilities and applications 186.Pp 187.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 188.It Pa bin/ 189common utilities, programming tools, and applications 190.It Pa compat/ 191files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 192such as Linux 193(created by 194.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 195.It Pa games/ 196useful and semi-frivolous programs 197.It Pa include/ 198standard C include files 199.Pp 200.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 201.It Pa altq/ 202C include files for alternate queueing 203.It Pa arpa/ 204C include files for Internet service protocols 205.It Pa bsnmp/ 206C include files for the SNMP daemon 207.It Pa c++/ 208C++ include files 209.It Pa cam/ 210C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 211.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 212.It Pa scsi/ 213The SCSI device on top of CAM 214.El 215.It Pa dev/ 216C include files for programming various 217.Fx 218devices 219.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 220.It Pa ic/ 221Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 222hardware circuits 223.It Pa ofw/ 224Open Firmware support 225.It Pa pbio/ 2268255 PPI cards; 227see 228.Xr pbio 4 229.It Pa ppbus/ 230The parallel port bus; 231see 232.Xr ppbus 4 233.It Pa usb/ 234The USB subsystem 235.It Pa utopia/ 236Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 237see 238.Xr utopia 4 239.It Pa wi/ 240The 241.Xr wi 4 242WaveLAN driver 243.El 244.It Pa fs/ 245.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 246.It Pa fdescfs/ 247per-process file descriptors file system 248.It Pa fifofs/ 249.St -p1003.1 250FIFOs file system 251.It Pa msdosfs/ 252MS-DOS file system 253.It Pa ntfs/ 254NTFS file system 255.It Pa nullfs/ 256loopback file system 257.It Pa nwfs/ 258NetWare file system 259.It Pa portalfs/ 260portal file system 261.It Pa procfs/ 262process file system 263.It Pa smbfs/ 264SMB/CIFS file system 265.It Pa udf/ 266UDF file system 267.It Pa unionfs 268union file system 269.El 270.It Pa geom/ 271GEOM framework 272.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 273.It Pa concat/ 274CONCAT GEOM class 275.It Pa gate/ 276GATE GEOM class 277.It Pa mirror/ 278MIRROR GEOM class 279.It Pa nop/ 280NOP GEOM class 281.It Pa raid3/ 282RAID3 GEOM class 283.It Pa stripe/ 284STRIPE GEOM class 285.El 286.Pp 287.It Pa isc/ 288ISC utility library libisc include files 289.It Pa isofs/ 290.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 291.It Pa cd9660/ 292iso9660 file system 293.El 294.It Pa libmilter/ 295C include files for libmilter, 296the 297.Xr sendmail 8 298mail filter API 299.It Pa machine/ 300machine-specific C include files 301.It Pa net/ 302miscellaneous network C include files 303.It Pa netatalk/ 304Appletalk protocol 305.It Pa netinet/ 306C include files for Internet standard protocols; 307see 308.Xr inet 4 309.It Pa netinet6/ 310C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 311see 312.Xr inet6 4 313.It Pa netipsec/ 314kernel key-management service; 315see 316.Xr ipsec 4 317.It Pa netipx/ 318IPX/SPX protocol stacks 319.It Pa netnatm/ 320NATM include files; 321see 322.Xr natm 4 323.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 324.It Pa api/ 325include files for the signalling API 326.It Pa msg/ 327include files that describe signalling messages and 328declare associated functions 329.It Pa saal/ 330include files for the signalling AAL layer 331.It Pa sig/ 332include files for the UNI signalling protocol 333.El 334.It Pa netsmb/ 335SMB/CIFS requester 336.It Pa nfs/ 337C include files for NFS (Network File System) 338.It Pa objc/ 339Objective C include files 340.It Pa openssl/ 341OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 342.It Pa pccard/ 343PC-CARD controllers 344.It Pa protocols/ 345C include files for Berkeley service protocols 346.It Pa readline/ 347get a line from a user, with editing; 348see 349.Xr readline 3 350.It Pa rpc/ 351remote procedure calls; 352see 353.Xr rpc 3 354.It Pa rpcsvc/ 355definition of RPC service structures; see 356.Xr rpc 3 357.It Pa security/ 358PAM; see 359.Xr pam 8 360.It Pa sys/ 361system C include files (kernel data structures) 362.\" .It Pa tcl/ 363.\" Tcl language; 364.\" see 365.\" .Xr Tcl n 366.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 367.\" .It Pa generic/ 368.\" ??? 369.\" .It Pa unix/ 370.\" ??? 371.\" .El 372.It Pa ufs/ 373C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 374.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 375.It Pa ffs/ 376Fast file system 377.It Pa ufs/ 378UFS file system 379.El 380.It Pa vm/ 381virtual memory; 382see 383.Xr vmstat 8 384.El 385.Pp 386.It Pa lib/ 387shared and archive 388.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 389libraries 390.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 391.It Pa aout/ 392a.out archive libraries 393.It Pa compat/ 394shared libraries for compatibility 395.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 396.It Pa aout/ 397a.out backward compatibility libraries 398.El 399.It Pa dtrace/ 400DTrace library scripts 401.It Pa engines/ 402OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 403.El 404.Pp 405.It Pa libdata/ 406miscellaneous utility data files 407.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 408.It Pa gcc/ 409.Xr gcc 1 410configuration data 411.It Pa ldscripts/ 412linker scripts; 413see 414.Xr ld 1 415.It Pa lint/ 416various prebuilt lint libraries; 417see 418.Xr lint 1 419.El 420.Pp 421.It Pa libexec/ 422system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 423.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 424.It Pa aout/ 425utilities to manipulate a.out executables 426.It Pa elf/ 427utilities to manipulate ELF executables 428.It Pa lpr/ 429utilities and filters for LP print system; 430see 431.Xr lpr 1 432.It Pa sendmail/ 433the 434.Xr sendmail 8 435binary; 436see 437.Xr mailwrapper 8 438.It Pa sm.bin/ 439restricted shell for 440.Xr sendmail 8 ; 441see 442.Xr smrsh 8 443.El 444.Pp 445.It Pa local/ 446local executables, libraries, etc. 447Also used as the default destination for the 448.Fx 449ports framework. 450Within local/, the general layout sketched out by 451.Nm 452for /usr 453should be used. 454Exceptions are the man directory (directly under local/ 455rather than under local/share/), ports documentation (in share/doc/<port>/), 456and /usr/local/etc (mimics /etc). 457.It Pa obj/ 458architecture-specific target tree produced by building the /usr/src tree 459.It Pa ports/ 460The 461.Fx 462ports collection (optional). 463.It Pa sbin/ 464system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 465.It Pa share/ 466architecture-independent files 467.Pp 468.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 469.It Pa calendar/ 470a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 471see 472.Xr calendar 1 473.It Pa dict/ 474word lists; 475see 476.Xr look 1 477.Pp 478.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 479.It Pa freebsd 480.Fx Ns -specific 481terms, proper names, and jargon 482.It Pa words 483common words 484.It Pa web2 485words from Webster's 2nd International 486.It Pa papers/ 487reference databases; 488see 489.Xr refer 1 490.El 491.Pp 492.It Pa doc/ 493miscellaneous documentation; 494source for most of the printed 495.Bx 496manuals (available 497from the 498.Tn USENIX 499association) 500.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 501.It Pa FAQ/ 502Frequently Asked Questions 503.It Pa IPv6/ 504implementation notes for IPv6 505.It Pa bind/ 506documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 507.It Pa es/ 508Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 509.It Pa handbook/ 510.Fx 511Handbook 512.It Pa ja/ 513Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 514.It Pa legal/ 515License files for vendor supplied firmwares 516.It Pa ncurses/ 517HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 518see 519.Xr ncurses 3 520.It Pa ntp/ 521HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 522.It Pa papers/ 523UNIX Papers 524.It Pa psd/ 525UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 526.It Pa ru/ 527Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 528.It Pa smm/ 529UNIX System Manager's Manual 530.It Pa tutorials/ 531.Fx 532tutorials 533.It Pa usd/ 534UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 535.It Pa zh/ 536Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 537.El 538.Pp 539.It Pa examples/ 540various examples for users and programmers 541.It Pa games/ 542ASCII text files used by various games 543.It Pa groff_font/ 544device description file for device name 545.It Pa info/ 546GNU Info hypertext system 547.It Pa locale/ 548localization files; 549see 550.Xr setlocale 3 551.It Pa man/ 552manual pages 553.It Pa me/ 554macros for use with the me macro package; 555see 556.Xr me 7 557.It Pa misc/ 558miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 559.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 560.It Pa fonts/ 561??? 562.It Pa termcap 563terminal characteristics database; 564see 565.Xr termcap 5 566.El 567.It Pa mk/ 568templates for make; 569see 570.Xr make 1 571.It Pa nls/ 572national language support files; 573see 574.Xr mklocale 1 575.It Pa security/ 576data files for security policies such as 577.Xr mac_lomac 4 578.It Pa sendmail/ 579.Xr sendmail 8 580configuration files 581.It Pa skel/ 582example 583.Pa .\& 584(dot) files for new accounts 585.It Pa snmp/ 586MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 587.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 588.It Pa defs/ 589Tree definition files for use with 590.Xr gensnmptree 1 591.It Pa mibs/ 592MIB files 593.El 594.It Pa syscons/ 595files used by syscons; 596see 597.Xr syscons 4 598.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 599.It Pa fonts/ 600console fonts; 601see 602.Xr vidcontrol 1 603and 604.Xr vidfont 1 605.It Pa keymaps/ 606console keyboard maps; 607see 608.Xr kbdcontrol 1 609and 610.Xr kbdmap 1 611.It Pa scrnmaps/ 612console screen maps 613.El 614.It Pa tabset/ 615tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 616the termcap file; 617see 618.Xr termcap 5 619.It Pa tmac/ 620text processing macros; 621see 622.Xr nroff 1 623and 624.Xr troff 1 625.It Pa vi/ 626localization support and utilities for 627.Xr vi 1 628.It Pa zoneinfo/ 629timezone configuration information; 630see 631.Xr tzfile 5 632.El 633.It Pa src/ 634.Bx , 635third-party, and/or local source files 636.Pp 637.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 638.It Pa bin/ 639source code for files in /bin 640.It Pa contrib/ 641source code for contributed software 642.It Pa crypto/ 643source code for contributed cryptography software 644.It Pa etc/ 645source code for files in /etc 646.It Pa games/ 647source code for files in /usr/games 648.It Pa gnu/ 649Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 650.It Pa include/ 651source code for files in /usr/include 652.It Pa kerberos5/ 653build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 654.It Pa lib/ 655source code for files in /usr/lib 656.It Pa libexec/ 657source code for files in /usr/libexec 658.It Pa release/ 659files required to produce a 660.Fx 661release 662.It Pa sbin/ 663source code for files in /sbin 664.It Pa secure/ 665build directory for files in /usr/src/crypto 666.It Pa share/ 667source for files in /usr/share 668.It Pa sys/ 669kernel source code 670.It Pa tools/ 671tools used for maintenance and testing of 672.Fx 673.It Pa usr.bin/ 674source code for files in /usr/bin 675.It Pa usr.sbin/ 676source code for files in /usr/sbin 677.El 678.El 679.It Pa /var/ 680multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 681.Pp 682.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 683.It Pa account/ 684system accounting files 685.Pp 686.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 687.It Pa acct 688execution accounting file; 689see 690.Xr acct 5 691.El 692.Pp 693.It Pa at/ 694timed command scheduling files; 695see 696.Xr \&at 1 697.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 698.It Pa jobs/ 699directory containing job files 700.It Pa spool/ 701directory containing output spool files 702.El 703.Pp 704.It Pa backups/ 705miscellaneous backup files 706.It Pa crash/ 707default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 708.Xr crash 8 709and 710.Xr savecore 8 711.It Pa cron/ 712files used by cron; 713see 714.Xr cron 8 715.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 716.It Pa tabs/ 717crontab files; 718see 719.Xr crontab 5 720.El 721.Pp 722.It Pa db/ 723miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 724.It Pa empty/ 725empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 726Used for instance by 727.Xr sshd 8 728for privilege separation. 729.It Pa games/ 730miscellaneous game status and score files 731.It Pa heimdal/ 732kerberos server databases; see 733.Xr kdc 8 734.It Pa log/ 735miscellaneous system log files 736.Pp 737.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 738.It Pa wtmp 739login/logout log; 740see 741.Xr wtmp 5 742.El 743.Pp 744.It Pa mail/ 745user mailbox files 746.It Pa msgs/ 747system messages database; 748see 749.Xr msgs 1 750.It Pa preserve/ 751temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 752of an editor; 753see 754.Xr \&ex 1 755.It Pa quotas/ 756file system quota information files 757.It Pa run/ 758system information files describing various info about 759system since it was booted 760.Pp 761.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 762.It Pa named/ 763writable by the 764.Dq bind 765user; see 766.Xr named 8 767.It Pa ppp/ 768writable by the 769.Dq network 770group for command connection sockets; see 771.Xr ppp 8 772.It Pa utmp 773database of current users; 774see 775.Xr utmp 5 776.El 777.Pp 778.It Pa rwho/ 779rwho data files; 780see 781.Xr rwhod 8 , 782.Xr rwho 1 , 783and 784.Xr ruptime 1 785.It Pa spool/ 786miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 787.Pp 788.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 789.It Pa clientmqueue/ 790undelivered submission mail queue; 791see 792.Xr sendmail 8 793.It Pa ftp/ 794commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 795.It Pa mqueue/ 796undelivered mail queue; 797see 798.Xr sendmail 8 799.It Pa output/ 800line printer spooling directories 801.El 802.Pp 803.It Pa tmp/ 804temporary files that are kept between system reboots 805.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 806.It Pa vi.recover/ 807the directory where recovery files are stored 808.El 809.It Pa yp/ 810the NIS maps 811.El 812.El 813.Sh NOTES 814This manual page documents the default 815.Fx 816file system layout, but 817the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 818administrator's discretion. 819A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 820this document. 821.Sh SEE ALSO 822.Xr apropos 1 , 823.Xr find 1 , 824.Xr finger 1 , 825.Xr grep 1 , 826.Xr ls 1 , 827.Xr whatis 1 , 828.Xr whereis 1 , 829.Xr which 1 , 830.Xr fd 4 , 831.Xr devfs 5 , 832.Xr fsck 8 833.Sh HISTORY 834A 835.Nm 836manual page appeared in 837.At v7 . 838