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.It Pa private/ 387Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 388ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 389.El 390.Pp 391.It Pa libdata/ 392miscellaneous utility data files 393.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 394.It Pa gcc/ 395.Xr gcc 1 396configuration data 397.It Pa ldscripts/ 398linker scripts; 399see 400.Xr ld 1 401.It Pa lint/ 402various prebuilt lint libraries; 403see 404.Xr lint 1 405.El 406.Pp 407.It Pa libexec/ 408system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 409.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 410.It Pa aout/ 411utilities to manipulate a.out executables 412.It Pa elf/ 413utilities to manipulate ELF executables 414.It Pa lpr/ 415utilities and filters for LP print system; 416see 417.Xr lpr 1 418.It Pa sendmail/ 419the 420.Xr sendmail 8 421binary; 422see 423.Xr mailwrapper 8 424.It Pa sm.bin/ 425restricted shell for 426.Xr sendmail 8 ; 427see 428.Xr smrsh 8 429.El 430.Pp 431.It Pa local/ 432local executables, libraries, etc. 433Also used as the default destination for the 434.Fx 435ports framework. 436Within 437.Pa local/ , 438the general layout sketched out by 439.Nm 440for 441.Pa /usr 442should be used. 443Exceptions are the 444.Pa man 445directory 446.Po directly under 447.Pa local/ 448rather than under 449.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 450ports documentation 451.Po in 452.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 453and 454.Pa /usr/local/etc 455.Po mimics 456.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 457.It Pa obj/ 458architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 459.Pa /usr/src 460tree 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 keys/ 550known trusted and revoked keys. 551.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 552.It Pa keys/pkg/ 553fingerprints for 554.Xr pkg 7 555and 556.Xr pkg 8 557.El 558.Pp 559.It Pa locale/ 560localization files; 561see 562.Xr setlocale 3 563.It Pa man/ 564manual pages 565.It Pa mdocml/ 566data files used by mdocml 567.It Pa me/ 568macros for use with the me macro package; 569see 570.Xr me 7 571.It Pa misc/ 572miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 573.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 574.It Pa fonts/ 575??? 576.It Pa termcap 577terminal characteristics database; 578see 579.Xr termcap 5 580.El 581.It Pa mk/ 582templates for make; 583see 584.Xr make 1 585.It Pa nls/ 586national language support files; 587see 588.Xr mklocale 1 589.It Pa security/ 590data files for security policies such as 591.Xr mac_lomac 4 592.It Pa sendmail/ 593.Xr sendmail 8 594configuration files 595.It Pa skel/ 596example 597.Pa .\& 598(dot) files for new accounts 599.It Pa snmp/ 600MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 601.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 602.It Pa defs/ 603Tree definition files for use with 604.Xr gensnmptree 1 605.It Pa mibs/ 606MIB files 607.El 608.It Pa syscons/ 609files used by syscons; 610see 611.Xr syscons 4 612.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 613.It Pa fonts/ 614console fonts; 615see 616.Xr vidcontrol 1 617and 618.Xr vidfont 1 619.It Pa keymaps/ 620console keyboard maps; 621see 622.Xr kbdcontrol 1 623and 624.Xr kbdmap 1 625.It Pa scrnmaps/ 626console screen maps 627.El 628.It Pa tabset/ 629tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 630the termcap file; 631see 632.Xr termcap 5 633.It Pa tmac/ 634text processing macros; 635see 636.Xr nroff 1 637and 638.Xr troff 1 639.It Pa vi/ 640localization support and utilities for 641.Xr vi 1 642.It Pa zoneinfo/ 643timezone configuration information; 644see 645.Xr tzfile 5 646.El 647.It Pa src/ 648.Bx , 649third-party, and/or local source files 650.Pp 651.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 652.It Pa bin/ 653source code for files in /bin 654.It Pa cddl/ 655Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 656.It Pa contrib/ 657source code for contributed software 658.It Pa crypto/ 659source code for contributed cryptography software 660.It Pa etc/ 661source code for files in 662.Pa /etc 663.It Pa games/ 664source code for files in 665.Pa /usr/games 666.It Pa gnu/ 667Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 668.It Pa include/ 669source code for files in 670.Pa /usr/include 671.It Pa kerberos5/ 672build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 673.It Pa lib/ 674source code for files in 675.Pa /usr/lib 676.It Pa libexec/ 677source code for files in 678.Pa /usr/libexec 679.It Pa release/ 680files required to produce a 681.Fx 682release 683.It Pa sbin/ 684source code for files in 685.Pa /sbin 686.It Pa secure/ 687build directory for files in 688.Pa /usr/src/crypto 689.It Pa share/ 690source for files in 691.Pa /usr/share 692.It Pa sys/ 693kernel source code 694.It Pa tools/ 695tools used for maintenance and testing of 696.Fx 697.It Pa usr.bin/ 698source code for files in 699.Pa /usr/bin 700.It Pa usr.sbin/ 701source code for files in 702.Pa /usr/sbin 703.El 704.Pp 705.It Pa tests/ 706The 707.Fx 708test suite. 709See 710.Xr tests 7 711for more details. 712.El 713.It Pa /var/ 714multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 715.Pp 716.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 717.It Pa account/ 718system accounting files 719.Pp 720.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 721.It Pa acct 722execution accounting file; 723see 724.Xr acct 5 725.El 726.Pp 727.It Pa at/ 728timed command scheduling files; 729see 730.Xr \&at 1 731.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 732.It Pa jobs/ 733directory containing job files 734.It Pa spool/ 735directory containing output spool files 736.El 737.Pp 738.It Pa backups/ 739miscellaneous backup files 740.It Pa cache/ 741miscellaneous cached files 742.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 743.It Pa pkg/ 744cached packages for 745.Xr pkg 8 746.El 747.Pp 748.It Pa crash/ 749default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 750.Xr crash 8 751and 752.Xr savecore 8 753.It Pa cron/ 754files used by cron; 755see 756.Xr cron 8 757.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 758.It Pa tabs/ 759crontab files; 760see 761.Xr crontab 5 762.El 763.Pp 764.It Pa db/ 765miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 766.It Pa empty/ 767empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 768Used for instance by 769.Xr sshd 8 770for privilege separation. 771.It Pa games/ 772miscellaneous game status and score files 773.It Pa heimdal/ 774kerberos server databases; see 775.Xr kdc 8 776.It Pa log/ 777miscellaneous system log files 778.Pp 779.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 780.It Pa utx.lastlogin 781last login log; 782see 783.Xr getutxent 3 784.It Pa utx.log 785login/logout log; 786see 787.Xr getutxent 3 788.El 789.Pp 790.It Pa mail/ 791user mailbox files 792.It Pa msgs/ 793system messages database; 794see 795.Xr msgs 1 796.It Pa preserve/ 797temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 798of an editor; 799see 800.Xr \&ex 1 801.It Pa quotas/ 802file system quota information files 803.It Pa run/ 804system information files describing various info about 805system since it was booted 806.Pp 807.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 808.It Pa ppp/ 809writable by the 810.Dq network 811group for command connection sockets; see 812.Xr ppp 8 813.It Pa utx.active 814database of current users; 815see 816.Xr getutxent 3 817.El 818.Pp 819.It Pa rwho/ 820rwho data files; 821see 822.Xr rwhod 8 , 823.Xr rwho 1 , 824and 825.Xr ruptime 1 826.It Pa spool/ 827miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 828.Pp 829.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 830.It Pa clientmqueue/ 831undelivered submission mail queue; 832see 833.Xr sendmail 8 834.It Pa ftp/ 835commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 836.It Pa mqueue/ 837undelivered mail queue; 838see 839.Xr sendmail 8 840.It Pa output/ 841line printer spooling directories 842.El 843.Pp 844.It Pa tmp/ 845temporary files that are kept between system reboots 846.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 847.It Pa vi.recover/ 848the directory where recovery files are stored 849.El 850.It Pa yp/ 851the NIS maps 852.El 853.El 854.Sh NOTES 855This manual page documents the default 856.Fx 857file system layout, but 858the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 859administrator's discretion. 860A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 861this document. 862.Sh SEE ALSO 863.Xr apropos 1 , 864.Xr find 1 , 865.Xr finger 1 , 866.Xr grep 1 , 867.Xr ls 1 , 868.Xr whatis 1 , 869.Xr whereis 1 , 870.Xr which 1 , 871.Xr fd 4 , 872.Xr devfs 5 , 873.Xr fsck 8 874.Sh HISTORY 875A 876.Nm 877manual page appeared in 878.At v7 . 879