xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/hier.7 (revision 99429157e8615dc3b7f11afbe3ed92de7476a5db)
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28.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd April 25, 2017
32.Dt HIER 7
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm hier
36.Nd layout of file systems
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38A sketch of the file system hierarchy.
39.Bl -tag -width "/libexec/"
40.It Pa /
41root directory of the file system
42.It Pa /bin/
43user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
44.It Pa /boot/
45programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap
46.Pp
47.Bl -tag -width "defaults/" -compact
48.It Pa defaults/
49default bootstrapping configuration files; see
50.Xr loader.conf 5
51.It Pa dtb/
52Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see
53.Xr fdt 4
54and
55.Xr dtc 1
56.It Pa firmware/
57loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware for hardware that needs
58firmware downloaded to it to function
59.It Pa kernel/
60pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
61at boot time) and kernel modules
62.It Pa modules/
63third-party loadable kernel modules;
64see
65.Xr kldstat 8
66.It Pa zfs/
67.Xr zfs 8
68zpool cache files
69.El
70.It Pa /cdrom/
71default mount point for CD-ROM drives
72.It Pa /compat/
73normally a link to
74.Pa /usr/compat .
75If not, then the
76.Pa /usr/compat
77comments apply
78.It Pa /dev/
79device special files managed by
80.Xr devfs 5
81.Pp
82.Bl -tag -width "net/" -compact
83.It Pa fd/
84file descriptor files;
85see
86.Xr \&fd 4
87.El
88.It Pa /etc/
89system configuration files and scripts
90.Pp
91.Bl -tag -width "bluetooth/" -compact
92.It Pa defaults/
93default system configuration files;
94see
95.Xr rc 8
96.It Pa bluetooth/
97bluetooth configuration files
98.It Pa localtime
99local timezone information;
100see
101.Xr ctime 3
102.It Pa mail/
103Sendmail control files
104.It Pa mtree/
105mtree configuration files;
106see
107.Xr mtree 8
108.It Pa pam.d/
109configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
110library
111.It Pa periodic/
112scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via
113.Xr cron 8 ;
114see
115.Xr periodic 8
116.It Pa rc.d/
117system and daemon startup/control scripts;
118see
119.Xr rc 8
120.It Pa security/
121OpenBSM audit configuration files;
122see
123.Xr audit 8
124.It Pa ppp/
125ppp configuration files;
126see
127.Xr ppp 8
128.It Pa ssh/
129OpenSSH configuration files;
130see
131.Xr ssh 1
132.It Pa ssl/
133OpenSSL configuration files
134.El
135.It Pa /lib/
136critical system libraries needed for binaries in
137.Pa /bin
138and
139.Pa /sbin
140.Pp
141.Bl -tag -width "geom/" -compact
142.It Pa geom/
143class-specific libraries for the
144.Xr geom 8
145utility
146.El
147.It Pa /libexec/
148critical system utilities needed for binaries in
149.Pa /bin
150and
151.Pa /sbin
152.It Pa /media/
153contains subdirectories to be used as mount points
154for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and
155floppy disks
156.It Pa /mnt/
157empty directory commonly used by
158system administrators as a temporary mount point
159.It Pa /net/
160automounted NFS shares;
161see
162.Xr auto_master 5
163.It Pa /proc/
164process file system;
165see
166.Xr procfs 5
167.It Pa /rescue/
168statically linked programs for emergency recovery;
169see
170.Xr rescue 8
171.It Pa /root/
172root's HOME directory
173.It Pa /sbin/
174system programs and administration utilities
175fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
176.It Pa /tmp/
177temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
178.It Pa /usr/
179contains the majority of user utilities and applications
180.Pp
181.Bl -tag -width "libdata/" -compact
182.It Pa bin/
183common utilities, programming tools, and applications
184.It Pa compat/
185files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems,
186such as Linux
187.It Pa include/
188standard C include files
189.Pp
190.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
191.It Pa arpa/
192C include files for Internet service protocols
193.It Pa bsnmp/
194C include files for the SNMP daemon
195.It Pa c++/
196C++ include files
197.It Pa cam/
198C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer
199.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
200.It Pa scsi/
201SCSI device on top of CAM
202.El
203.It Pa dev/
204C include files for programming various
205.Fx
206devices
207.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
208.It Pa ic/
209various header files describing driver- and bus-independent
210hardware circuits
211.It Pa ofw/
212Open Firmware support
213.It Pa pbio/
2148255 PPI cards;
215see
216.Xr pbio 4
217.It Pa ppbus/
218parallel port bus;
219see
220.Xr ppbus 4
221.It Pa usb/
222USB subsystem
223.It Pa wi/
224.Xr wi 4
225WaveLAN driver
226.El
227.It Pa fs/
228.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
229.It Pa fdescfs/
230per-process file descriptors file system
231.It Pa msdosfs/
232MS-DOS file system
233.It Pa nfs/
234C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4
235.It Pa nullfs/
236loopback file system
237.It Pa procfs/
238process file system
239.It Pa smbfs/
240SMB/CIFS file system
241.It Pa udf/
242UDF file system
243.It Pa unionfs
244union file system
245.El
246.It Pa geom/
247GEOM framework
248.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
249.It Pa concat/
250CONCAT GEOM class
251.It Pa gate/
252GATE GEOM class
253.It Pa mirror/
254MIRROR GEOM class
255.It Pa nop/
256NOP GEOM class
257.It Pa raid3/
258RAID3 GEOM class
259.It Pa stripe/
260STRIPE GEOM class
261.El
262.Pp
263.It Pa libmilter/
264C include files for libmilter,
265the
266.Xr sendmail 8
267mail filter API
268.It Pa machine/
269machine-specific C include files
270.It Pa net/
271miscellaneous network C include files
272.Bl -tag -width "altq/" -compact
273.It Pa altq/
274C include files for alternate queueing
275.El
276.It Pa net80211/
277C include files for 802.11 wireless networking;
278see
279.Xr net80211 4
280.It Pa netinet/
281C include files for Internet standard protocols;
282see
283.Xr inet 4
284.It Pa netinet6/
285C include files for Internet protocol version 6;
286see
287.Xr inet6 4
288.It Pa netipsec/
289kernel key-management service;
290see
291.Xr ipsec 4
292.It Pa netsmb/
293SMB/CIFS requester
294.It Pa nfs/
295C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy)
296.It Pa openssl/
297OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers
298.It Pa protocols/
299C include files for Berkeley service protocols
300.It Pa readline/
301get a line from a user, with editing;
302see
303.Xr readline 3
304.It Pa rpc/
305remote procedure calls;
306see
307.Xr rpc 3
308.It Pa rpcsvc/
309definition of RPC service structures; see
310.Xr rpc 3
311.It Pa security/
312PAM; see
313.Xr pam 8
314.It Pa sys/
315system C include files (kernel data structures)
316.\" .It Pa tcl/
317.\" Tcl language;
318.\" see
319.\" .Xr Tcl n
320.\" .Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
321.\" .It Pa generic/
322.\" ???
323.\" .It Pa unix/
324.\" ???
325.\" .El
326.It Pa ufs/
327C include files for UFS (The U-word File System)
328.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
329.It Pa ffs/
330Fast file system
331.It Pa ufs/
332UFS file system
333.El
334.It Pa vm/
335virtual memory;
336see
337.Xr vmstat 8
338.El
339.Pp
340.It Pa lib/
341shared and archive
342.Xr ar 1 Ns -type
343libraries
344.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
345.It Pa aout/
346a.out archive libraries
347.It Pa compat/
348shared libraries for compatibility
349.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
350.It Pa aout/
351a.out backward compatibility libraries
352.El
353.It Pa debug/
354standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
355.It Pa dtrace/
356DTrace library scripts
357.It Pa engines/
358OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
359.El
360.Pp
361.It Pa libdata/
362miscellaneous utility data files
363.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
364.It Pa gcc/
365.Xr gcc 1
366configuration data
367.It Pa ldscripts/
368linker scripts;
369see
370.Xr ld 1
371.It Pa lint/
372various prebuilt lint libraries;
373see
374.Xr lint 1
375.El
376.Pp
377.It Pa libexec/
378system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
379.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
380.It Pa aout/
381utilities to manipulate a.out executables
382.It Pa elf/
383utilities to manipulate ELF executables
384.It Pa lpr/
385utilities and filters for LP print system;
386see
387.Xr lpr 1
388.It Pa sendmail/
389the
390.Xr sendmail 8
391binary;
392see
393.Xr mailwrapper 8
394.It Pa sm.bin/
395restricted shell for
396.Xr sendmail 8 ;
397see
398.Xr smrsh 8
399.El
400.Pp
401.It Pa local/
402local executables, libraries, etc.
403Also used as the default destination for the
404.Xr ports 7
405framework.
406Within
407.Pa local/ ,
408the general layout sketched out by
409.Nm
410for
411.Pa /usr
412should be used.
413Exceptions are the
414.Pa man
415directory
416.Po directly under
417.Pa local/
418rather than under
419.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc ,
420ports documentation
421.Po in
422.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc ,
423and
424.Pa /usr/local/etc
425.Po mimics
426.Pa /etc Ns Pc .
427.It Pa obj/
428architecture-specific target tree produced by building the
429.Pa /usr/src
430tree
431.It Pa ports/
432.Xr ports 7 ,
433the
434.Fx
435ports collection.
436.It Pa sbin/
437system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
438.It Pa share/
439architecture-independent files
440.Pp
441.Bl -tag -width "calendar/" -compact
442.It Pa calendar/
443a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
444see
445.Xr calendar 1
446.It Pa dict/
447word lists;
448see
449.Xr look 1
450.Pp
451.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
452.It Pa freebsd
453.Fx Ns -specific
454terms, proper names, and jargon
455.It Pa web2
456words from Webster's 2nd International
457.El
458.Pp
459.It Pa doc/
460miscellaneous documentation;
461source for most of the printed
462.Bx
463manuals (available
464from the
465.Tn USENIX
466association)
467.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
468.It Pa FAQ/
469Frequently Asked Questions
470.It Pa IPv6/
471implementation notes for IPv6
472.It Pa bind/
473documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain)
474.It Pa es/
475Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
476.It Pa handbook/
477.Fx
478Handbook
479.It Pa ja/
480Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
481.It Pa legal/
482License files for vendor supplied firmwares
483.It Pa ncurses/
484HTML documents pertaining to ncurses;
485see
486.Xr ncurses 3
487.It Pa ntp/
488HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol
489.It Pa papers/
490UNIX Papers
491.It Pa psd/
492UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents
493.It Pa ru/
494Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
495.It Pa smm/
496UNIX System Manager's Manual
497.It Pa tutorials/
498.Fx
499tutorials
500.It Pa usd/
501UNIX User's Supplementary Documents
502.It Pa zh/
503Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
504.El
505.Pp
506.It Pa examples/
507various examples for users and programmers
508.It Pa firmware/
509firmware images loaded by userland programs
510.It Pa games/
511ASCII text files used by various games
512.It Pa groff_font/
513device description file for device name
514.It Pa keys/
515known trusted and revoked keys.
516.Bl -tag -width "pkg/" -compact
517.It Pa pkg/
518fingerprints for
519.Xr pkg 7
520and
521.Xr pkg 8
522.El
523.Pp
524.It Pa locale/
525localization files;
526see
527.Xr setlocale 3
528.It Pa man/
529manual pages
530.It Pa me/
531macros for use with the me macro package;
532see
533.Xr me 7
534.It Pa misc/
535miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
536.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
537.It Pa fonts/
538???
539.It Pa termcap
540terminal characteristics database;
541see
542.Xr termcap 5
543.El
544.It Pa mk/
545templates for make;
546see
547.Xr make 1
548.It Pa nls/
549national language support files;
550see
551.Xr mklocale 1
552.It Pa security/
553data files for security policies such as
554.Xr mac_lomac 4
555.It Pa sendmail/
556.Xr sendmail 8
557configuration files
558.It Pa skel/
559example
560.Pa .\&
561(dot) files for new accounts
562.It Pa snmp/
563MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon.
564.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
565.It Pa defs/
566tree definition files for use with
567.Xr gensnmptree 1
568.It Pa mibs/
569MIB files
570.El
571.It Pa syscons/
572files used by syscons;
573see
574.Xr syscons 4
575.Bl -tag -width "scrnmaps/" -compact
576.It Pa fonts/
577console fonts;
578see
579.Xr vidcontrol 1
580and
581.Xr vidfont 1
582.It Pa keymaps/
583console keyboard maps;
584see
585.Xr kbdcontrol 1
586and
587.Xr kbdmap 1
588.It Pa scrnmaps/
589console screen maps
590.El
591.It Pa tabset/
592tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
593the termcap file;
594see
595.Xr termcap 5
596.It Pa tmac/
597text processing macros;
598see
599.Xr nroff 1
600and
601.Xr troff 1
602.It Pa vi/
603localization support and utilities for
604.Xr vi 1
605.It Pa vt/
606files used by vt;
607see
608.Xr vt 4
609.Bl -tag -width "scrnmaps/" -compact
610.It Pa fonts/
611console fonts;
612see
613.Xr vidcontrol 1
614and
615.Xr vidfont 1
616.It Pa keymaps/
617console keyboard maps;
618see
619.Xr kbdcontrol 1
620and
621.Xr kbdmap 1
622.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/
623.\" console screen maps
624.El
625.It Pa zoneinfo/
626timezone configuration information;
627see
628.Xr tzfile 5
629.El
630.It Pa src/
631.Bx ,
632third-party, and/or local source files
633.Pp
634.Bl -tag -width "kerberos5/" -compact
635.It Pa bin/
636source code for files in /bin
637.It Pa cddl/
638utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License
639.It Pa contrib/
640source code for contributed software
641.It Pa crypto/
642source code for contributed cryptography software
643.It Pa etc/
644source code for files in
645.Pa /etc
646.It Pa gnu/
647utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
648.It Pa include/
649source code for files in
650.Pa /usr/include
651.It Pa kerberos5/
652build infrastructure for kerberos version 5
653.It Pa lib/
654source code for files in
655.Pa /lib
656and
657.Pa /usr/lib
658.It Pa libexec/
659source code for files in
660.Pa /usr/libexec
661.It Pa release/
662files required to produce a
663.Fx
664release
665.It Pa rescue/
666source code for files in
667.Pa /rescue
668.It Pa sbin/
669source code for files in
670.Pa /sbin
671.It Pa secure/
672build directory for files in
673.Pa /usr/src/crypto
674.It Pa share/
675source for files in
676.Pa /usr/share
677.It Pa sys/
678kernel source code
679.Bl -tag -width ".Pa opencrypto/" -compact
680.It Pa amd64/
681AMD64 architecture support
682.It Pa arm/
683ARM architecture support
684.It Pa arm64/
685ARMv8 architecture support
686.It Pa boot/
687bootloader code
688.It Pa cam/
689.Xr cam 4
690and
691.Xr ctl 4
692.It Pa cddl/
693CDDL-licensed optional sources, including ZFS
694and DTrace
695.It Pa ddb/
696.Xr ddb 4
697.It Pa fs/
698most filesystems
699.It Pa dev/
700device drivers
701.It Pa geom/
702.Xr geom 4
703.It Pa i386/
704i386 (32 bit) architecture support
705.It Pa kern/
706main part of the kernel
707.It Pa mips/
708MIPS architecture support
709.It Pa net80211/
710.Xr net80211 4
711.It Pa netgraph/
712.Xr netgraph 4
713.It Pa netinet/
714.Xr inet 4
715.It Pa netinet6/
716.Xr inet6 4
717.It Pa netipsec/
718.Xr ipsec 4
719.It Pa netpfil/
720.Xr ipfw 4
721and
722.Xr pf 4
723.It Pa opencrypto/
724.Xr crypto 7
725.It Pa powerpc/
726PowerPC/POWER architecture support
727.It Pa riscv/
728RISC-V architecture support
729.It Pa security/
730.Xr audit 4
731and
732.Xr mac 4
733.It Pa sparc64/
734SPARC64 architecture support
735.It Pa sys/
736kernel headers
737.It Pa ufs/
738Unix File System
739.It Pa x86/
740code shared by AMD64 and i386 architectures
741.El
742.It Pa targets/
743support for experimental DIRDEPS_BUILD
744.It Pa tests/
745source code for files in
746.Pa /usr/tests
747.It Pa tools/
748tools used for maintenance and testing of
749.Fx
750.It Pa usr.bin/
751source code for files in
752.Pa /usr/bin
753.It Pa usr.sbin/
754source code for files in
755.Pa /usr/sbin
756.El
757.Pp
758.It Pa tests/
759The
760.Fx
761test suite.
762See
763.Xr tests 7
764for more details.
765.El
766.It Pa /var/
767multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
768.Pp
769.Bl -tag -width "preserve/" -compact
770.It Pa account/
771system accounting files
772.Pp
773.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
774.It Pa acct
775execution accounting file;
776see
777.Xr acct 5
778.El
779.Pp
780.It Pa at/
781timed command scheduling files;
782see
783.Xr \&at 1
784.Bl -tag -width "preserve/" -compact
785.It Pa jobs/
786directory containing job files
787.It Pa spool/
788directory containing output spool files
789.El
790.Pp
791.It Pa backups/
792miscellaneous backup files
793.It Pa cache/
794miscellaneous cached files
795.Bl -tag -width "pkg/" -compact
796.It Pa pkg/
797cached packages for
798.Xr pkg 8
799.El
800.Pp
801.It Pa crash/
802default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
803.Xr crash 8
804and
805.Xr savecore 8
806.It Pa cron/
807files used by cron;
808see
809.Xr cron 8
810.Bl -tag -width "preserve/" -compact
811.It Pa tabs/
812crontab files;
813see
814.Xr crontab 5
815.El
816.Pp
817.It Pa db/
818miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
819.It Pa empty/
820empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
821Used for instance by
822.Xr sshd 8
823for privilege separation.
824.It Pa games/
825miscellaneous game status and score files
826.It Pa heimdal/
827kerberos server databases; see
828.Xr kdc 8
829.It Pa log/
830miscellaneous system log files
831.Pp
832.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
833.It Pa utx.lastlogin
834last login log;
835see
836.Xr getutxent 3
837.It Pa utx.log
838login/logout log;
839see
840.Xr getutxent 3
841.El
842.Pp
843.It Pa mail/
844user mailbox files
845.It Pa msgs/
846system messages database;
847see
848.Xr msgs 1
849.It Pa preserve/
850temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
851of an editor;
852see
853.Xr \&ex 1
854.It Pa quotas/
855file system quota information files
856.It Pa run/
857system information files describing various info about
858system since it was booted
859.Pp
860.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
861.It Pa ppp/
862writable by the
863.Dq network
864group for command connection sockets; see
865.Xr ppp 8
866.It Pa utx.active
867database of current users;
868see
869.Xr getutxent 3
870.El
871.Pp
872.It Pa rwho/
873rwho data files;
874see
875.Xr rwhod 8 ,
876.Xr rwho 1 ,
877and
878.Xr ruptime 1
879.It Pa spool/
880miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
881.Pp
882.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
883.It Pa clientmqueue/
884undelivered submission mail queue;
885see
886.Xr sendmail 8
887.It Pa ftp/
888commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
889.It Pa mqueue/
890undelivered mail queue;
891see
892.Xr sendmail 8
893.It Pa output/
894line printer spooling directories
895.El
896.Pp
897.It Pa tmp/
898temporary files that are kept between system reboots
899.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
900.It Pa vi.recover/
901the directory where recovery files are stored
902.El
903.It Pa yp/
904the NIS maps
905.El
906.El
907.Sh NOTES
908This manual page documents the default
909.Fx
910file system layout, but
911the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
912administrator's discretion.
913A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
914this document.
915.Sh SEE ALSO
916.Xr apropos 1 ,
917.Xr find 1 ,
918.Xr finger 1 ,
919.Xr grep 1 ,
920.Xr ls 1 ,
921.Xr whatis 1 ,
922.Xr whereis 1 ,
923.Xr which 1 ,
924.Xr fd 4 ,
925.Xr devfs 5 ,
926.Xr fsck 8
927.Sh HISTORY
928A
929.Nm
930manual page appeared in
931.At v7 .
932