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 nfs/ 254C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 255.It Pa ntfs/ 256NTFS file system 257.It Pa nullfs/ 258loopback file system 259.It Pa nwfs/ 260NetWare file system 261.It Pa portalfs/ 262portal file system 263.It Pa procfs/ 264process file system 265.It Pa smbfs/ 266SMB/CIFS file system 267.It Pa udf/ 268UDF file system 269.It Pa unionfs 270union file system 271.El 272.It Pa geom/ 273GEOM framework 274.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 275.It Pa concat/ 276CONCAT GEOM class 277.It Pa gate/ 278GATE GEOM class 279.It Pa mirror/ 280MIRROR GEOM class 281.It Pa nop/ 282NOP GEOM class 283.It Pa raid3/ 284RAID3 GEOM class 285.It Pa stripe/ 286STRIPE GEOM class 287.El 288.Pp 289.It Pa isc/ 290ISC utility library libisc include files 291.It Pa isofs/ 292.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 293.It Pa cd9660/ 294iso9660 file system 295.El 296.It Pa libmilter/ 297C include files for libmilter, 298the 299.Xr sendmail 8 300mail filter API 301.It Pa machine/ 302machine-specific C include files 303.It Pa net/ 304miscellaneous network C include files 305.It Pa netatalk/ 306Appletalk protocol 307.It Pa netinet/ 308C include files for Internet standard protocols; 309see 310.Xr inet 4 311.It Pa netinet6/ 312C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 313see 314.Xr inet6 4 315.It Pa netipsec/ 316kernel key-management service; 317see 318.Xr ipsec 4 319.It Pa netipx/ 320IPX/SPX protocol stacks 321.It Pa netnatm/ 322NATM include files; 323see 324.Xr natm 4 325.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 326.It Pa api/ 327include files for the signalling API 328.It Pa msg/ 329include files that describe signalling messages and 330declare associated functions 331.It Pa saal/ 332include files for the signalling AAL layer 333.It Pa sig/ 334include files for the UNI signalling protocol 335.El 336.It Pa netsmb/ 337SMB/CIFS requester 338.It Pa nfs/ 339C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 340.It Pa objc/ 341Objective C include files 342.It Pa openssl/ 343OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 344.It Pa pccard/ 345PC-CARD controllers 346.It Pa protocols/ 347C include files for Berkeley service protocols 348.It Pa readline/ 349get a line from a user, with editing; 350see 351.Xr readline 3 352.It Pa rpc/ 353remote procedure calls; 354see 355.Xr rpc 3 356.It Pa rpcsvc/ 357definition of RPC service structures; see 358.Xr rpc 3 359.It Pa security/ 360PAM; see 361.Xr pam 8 362.It Pa sys/ 363system C include files (kernel data structures) 364.\" .It Pa tcl/ 365.\" Tcl language; 366.\" see 367.\" .Xr Tcl n 368.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 369.\" .It Pa generic/ 370.\" ??? 371.\" .It Pa unix/ 372.\" ??? 373.\" .El 374.It Pa ufs/ 375C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 376.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 377.It Pa ffs/ 378Fast file system 379.It Pa ufs/ 380UFS file system 381.El 382.It Pa vm/ 383virtual memory; 384see 385.Xr vmstat 8 386.El 387.Pp 388.It Pa lib/ 389shared and archive 390.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 391libraries 392.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 393.It Pa aout/ 394a.out archive libraries 395.It Pa compat/ 396shared libraries for compatibility 397.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 398.It Pa aout/ 399a.out backward compatibility libraries 400.El 401.It Pa dtrace/ 402DTrace library scripts 403.It Pa engines/ 404OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 405.El 406.Pp 407.It Pa libdata/ 408miscellaneous utility data files 409.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 410.It Pa gcc/ 411.Xr gcc 1 412configuration data 413.It Pa ldscripts/ 414linker scripts; 415see 416.Xr ld 1 417.It Pa lint/ 418various prebuilt lint libraries; 419see 420.Xr lint 1 421.El 422.Pp 423.It Pa libexec/ 424system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 425.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 426.It Pa aout/ 427utilities to manipulate a.out executables 428.It Pa elf/ 429utilities to manipulate ELF executables 430.It Pa lpr/ 431utilities and filters for LP print system; 432see 433.Xr lpr 1 434.It Pa sendmail/ 435the 436.Xr sendmail 8 437binary; 438see 439.Xr mailwrapper 8 440.It Pa sm.bin/ 441restricted shell for 442.Xr sendmail 8 ; 443see 444.Xr smrsh 8 445.El 446.Pp 447.It Pa local/ 448local executables, libraries, etc. 449Also used as the default destination for the 450.Fx 451ports framework. 452Within local/, the general layout sketched out by 453.Nm 454for /usr 455should be used. 456Exceptions are the man directory (directly under local/ 457rather than under local/share/), ports documentation (in share/doc/<port>/), 458and /usr/local/etc (mimics /etc). 459.It Pa obj/ 460architecture-specific target tree produced by building the /usr/src tree 461.It Pa ports/ 462The 463.Fx 464ports collection (optional). 465.It Pa sbin/ 466system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 467.It Pa share/ 468architecture-independent files 469.Pp 470.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 471.It Pa calendar/ 472a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 473see 474.Xr calendar 1 475.It Pa dict/ 476word lists; 477see 478.Xr look 1 479.Pp 480.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 481.It Pa freebsd 482.Fx Ns -specific 483terms, proper names, and jargon 484.It Pa words 485common words 486.It Pa web2 487words from Webster's 2nd International 488.It Pa papers/ 489reference databases; 490see 491.Xr refer 1 492.El 493.Pp 494.It Pa doc/ 495miscellaneous documentation; 496source for most of the printed 497.Bx 498manuals (available 499from the 500.Tn USENIX 501association) 502.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 503.It Pa FAQ/ 504Frequently Asked Questions 505.It Pa IPv6/ 506implementation notes for IPv6 507.It Pa bind/ 508documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 509.It Pa es/ 510Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 511.It Pa handbook/ 512.Fx 513Handbook 514.It Pa ja/ 515Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 516.It Pa legal/ 517License files for vendor supplied firmwares 518.It Pa ncurses/ 519HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 520see 521.Xr ncurses 3 522.It Pa ntp/ 523HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 524.It Pa papers/ 525UNIX Papers 526.It Pa psd/ 527UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 528.It Pa ru/ 529Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 530.It Pa smm/ 531UNIX System Manager's Manual 532.It Pa tutorials/ 533.Fx 534tutorials 535.It Pa usd/ 536UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 537.It Pa zh/ 538Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 539.El 540.Pp 541.It Pa examples/ 542various examples for users and programmers 543.It Pa games/ 544ASCII text files used by various games 545.It Pa groff_font/ 546device description file for device name 547.It Pa info/ 548GNU Info hypertext system 549.It Pa locale/ 550localization files; 551see 552.Xr setlocale 3 553.It Pa man/ 554manual pages 555.It Pa me/ 556macros for use with the me macro package; 557see 558.Xr me 7 559.It Pa misc/ 560miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 561.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 562.It Pa fonts/ 563??? 564.It Pa termcap 565terminal characteristics database; 566see 567.Xr termcap 5 568.El 569.It Pa mk/ 570templates for make; 571see 572.Xr make 1 573.It Pa nls/ 574national language support files; 575see 576.Xr mklocale 1 577.It Pa security/ 578data files for security policies such as 579.Xr mac_lomac 4 580.It Pa sendmail/ 581.Xr sendmail 8 582configuration files 583.It Pa skel/ 584example 585.Pa .\& 586(dot) files for new accounts 587.It Pa snmp/ 588MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 589.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 590.It Pa defs/ 591Tree definition files for use with 592.Xr gensnmptree 1 593.It Pa mibs/ 594MIB files 595.El 596.It Pa syscons/ 597files used by syscons; 598see 599.Xr syscons 4 600.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 601.It Pa fonts/ 602console fonts; 603see 604.Xr vidcontrol 1 605and 606.Xr vidfont 1 607.It Pa keymaps/ 608console keyboard maps; 609see 610.Xr kbdcontrol 1 611and 612.Xr kbdmap 1 613.It Pa scrnmaps/ 614console screen maps 615.El 616.It Pa tabset/ 617tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 618the termcap file; 619see 620.Xr termcap 5 621.It Pa tmac/ 622text processing macros; 623see 624.Xr nroff 1 625and 626.Xr troff 1 627.It Pa vi/ 628localization support and utilities for 629.Xr vi 1 630.It Pa zoneinfo/ 631timezone configuration information; 632see 633.Xr tzfile 5 634.El 635.It Pa src/ 636.Bx , 637third-party, and/or local source files 638.Pp 639.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 640.It Pa bin/ 641source code for files in /bin 642.It Pa contrib/ 643source code for contributed software 644.It Pa crypto/ 645source code for contributed cryptography software 646.It Pa etc/ 647source code for files in /etc 648.It Pa games/ 649source code for files in /usr/games 650.It Pa gnu/ 651Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 652.It Pa include/ 653source code for files in /usr/include 654.It Pa kerberos5/ 655build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 656.It Pa lib/ 657source code for files in /usr/lib 658.It Pa libexec/ 659source code for files in /usr/libexec 660.It Pa release/ 661files required to produce a 662.Fx 663release 664.It Pa sbin/ 665source code for files in /sbin 666.It Pa secure/ 667build directory for files in /usr/src/crypto 668.It Pa share/ 669source for files in /usr/share 670.It Pa sys/ 671kernel source code 672.It Pa tools/ 673tools used for maintenance and testing of 674.Fx 675.It Pa usr.bin/ 676source code for files in /usr/bin 677.It Pa usr.sbin/ 678source code for files in /usr/sbin 679.El 680.El 681.It Pa /var/ 682multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 683.Pp 684.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 685.It Pa account/ 686system accounting files 687.Pp 688.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 689.It Pa acct 690execution accounting file; 691see 692.Xr acct 5 693.El 694.Pp 695.It Pa at/ 696timed command scheduling files; 697see 698.Xr \&at 1 699.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 700.It Pa jobs/ 701directory containing job files 702.It Pa spool/ 703directory containing output spool files 704.El 705.Pp 706.It Pa backups/ 707miscellaneous backup files 708.It Pa crash/ 709default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 710.Xr crash 8 711and 712.Xr savecore 8 713.It Pa cron/ 714files used by cron; 715see 716.Xr cron 8 717.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 718.It Pa tabs/ 719crontab files; 720see 721.Xr crontab 5 722.El 723.Pp 724.It Pa db/ 725miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 726.It Pa empty/ 727empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 728Used for instance by 729.Xr sshd 8 730for privilege separation. 731.It Pa games/ 732miscellaneous game status and score files 733.It Pa heimdal/ 734kerberos server databases; see 735.Xr kdc 8 736.It Pa log/ 737miscellaneous system log files 738.Pp 739.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 740.It Pa utx.lastlogin 741last login log; 742see 743.Xr getutxent 3 744.It Pa utx.log 745login/logout log; 746see 747.Xr getutxent 3 748.El 749.Pp 750.It Pa mail/ 751user mailbox files 752.It Pa msgs/ 753system messages database; 754see 755.Xr msgs 1 756.It Pa preserve/ 757temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 758of an editor; 759see 760.Xr \&ex 1 761.It Pa quotas/ 762file system quota information files 763.It Pa run/ 764system information files describing various info about 765system since it was booted 766.Pp 767.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 768.It Pa named/ 769writable by the 770.Dq bind 771user; see 772.Xr named 8 773.It Pa ppp/ 774writable by the 775.Dq network 776group for command connection sockets; see 777.Xr ppp 8 778.It Pa utx.active 779database of current users; 780see 781.Xr getutxent 3 782.El 783.Pp 784.It Pa rwho/ 785rwho data files; 786see 787.Xr rwhod 8 , 788.Xr rwho 1 , 789and 790.Xr ruptime 1 791.It Pa spool/ 792miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 793.Pp 794.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 795.It Pa clientmqueue/ 796undelivered submission mail queue; 797see 798.Xr sendmail 8 799.It Pa ftp/ 800commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 801.It Pa mqueue/ 802undelivered mail queue; 803see 804.Xr sendmail 8 805.It Pa output/ 806line printer spooling directories 807.El 808.Pp 809.It Pa tmp/ 810temporary files that are kept between system reboots 811.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 812.It Pa vi.recover/ 813the directory where recovery files are stored 814.El 815.It Pa yp/ 816the NIS maps 817.El 818.El 819.Sh NOTES 820This manual page documents the default 821.Fx 822file system layout, but 823the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 824administrator's discretion. 825A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 826this document. 827.Sh SEE ALSO 828.Xr apropos 1 , 829.Xr find 1 , 830.Xr finger 1 , 831.Xr grep 1 , 832.Xr ls 1 , 833.Xr whatis 1 , 834.Xr whereis 1 , 835.Xr which 1 , 836.Xr fd 4 , 837.Xr devfs 5 , 838.Xr fsck 8 839.Sh HISTORY 840A 841.Nm 842manual page appeared in 843.At v7 . 844