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 25, 2014 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 ".Pa /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 ".Pa defaults/" -compact 48.It Pa defaults/ 49default bootstrapping configuration files; see 50.Xr loader.conf 5 51.It Pa kernel/ 52pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory 53at boot time). 54.It Pa modules/ 55third-party loadable kernel modules; 56see 57.Xr kldstat 8 58.El 59.It Pa /cdrom/ 60default mount point for CD-ROM drives 61.It Pa /compat/ 62normally a link to 63.Pa /usr/compat . 64If not, then the 65.Pa /usr/compat 66comments apply 67.It Pa /dev/ 68device special files managed by 69.Xr devfs 5 70.Pp 71.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 72.It Pa fd/ 73file descriptor files; 74see 75.Xr \&fd 4 76.It Pa net/ 77network devices 78.El 79.It Pa /etc/ 80system configuration files and scripts 81.Pp 82.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 83.It Pa defaults/ 84default system configuration files; 85see 86.Xr rc 8 87.It Pa bluetooth/ 88bluetooth configuration files 89.It Pa localtime 90local timezone information; 91see 92.Xr ctime 3 93.It Pa mail/ 94Sendmail control files 95.It Pa mtree/ 96mtree configuration files; 97see 98.Xr mtree 8 99.It Pa pam.d/ 100configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 101library 102.It Pa periodic/ 103scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 104.Xr cron 8 ; 105see 106.Xr periodic 8 107.It Pa rc.d/ 108System and daemon startup/control scripts; 109see 110.Xr rc 8 111.It Pa security/ 112OpenBSM audit configuration files; 113see 114.Xr audit 8 115.It Pa ppp/ 116ppp configuration files; 117see 118.Xr ppp 8 119.It Pa ssh/ 120OpenSSH configuration files; 121see 122.Xr ssh 1 123.It Pa ssl/ 124OpenSSL configuration files 125.El 126.It Pa /lib/ 127critical system libraries needed for binaries in 128.Pa /bin 129and 130.Pa /sbin 131.Pp 132.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 133.It Pa geom/ 134class-specific libraries for the 135.Xr geom 8 136utility 137.El 138.It Pa /libexec/ 139critical system utilities needed for binaries in 140.Pa /bin 141and 142.Pa /sbin 143.It Pa /media/ 144contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 145for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 146floppy disks 147.It Pa /mnt/ 148empty directory commonly used by 149system administrators as a temporary mount point 150.It Pa /proc/ 151process file system; 152see 153.Xr procfs 5 154.It Pa /rescue/ 155statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 156see 157.Xr rescue 8 158.It Pa /root/ 159root's HOME directory 160.It Pa /sbin/ 161system programs and administration utilities 162fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 163.It Pa /tmp/ 164temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 165.It Pa /usr/ 166contains the majority of user utilities and applications 167.Pp 168.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 169.It Pa bin/ 170common utilities, programming tools, and applications 171.It Pa compat/ 172files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 173such as Linux 174.It Pa games/ 175useful and semi-frivolous programs 176.It Pa include/ 177standard C include files 178.Pp 179.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 180.It Pa altq/ 181C include files for alternate queueing 182.It Pa arpa/ 183C include files for Internet service protocols 184.It Pa bsnmp/ 185C include files for the SNMP daemon 186.It Pa c++/ 187C++ include files 188.It Pa cam/ 189C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 190.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 191.It Pa scsi/ 192The SCSI device on top of CAM 193.El 194.It Pa dev/ 195C include files for programming various 196.Fx 197devices 198.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 199.It Pa ic/ 200Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 201hardware circuits 202.It Pa ofw/ 203Open Firmware support 204.It Pa pbio/ 2058255 PPI cards; 206see 207.Xr pbio 4 208.It Pa ppbus/ 209The parallel port bus; 210see 211.Xr ppbus 4 212.It Pa usb/ 213The USB subsystem 214.It Pa utopia/ 215Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 216see 217.Xr utopia 4 218.It Pa wi/ 219The 220.Xr wi 4 221WaveLAN driver 222.El 223.It Pa fs/ 224.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 225.It Pa cd9660/ 226iso9660 file system 227.It Pa fdescfs/ 228per-process file descriptors file system 229.It Pa fifofs/ 230.St -p1003.1 231FIFOs file system 232.It Pa msdosfs/ 233MS-DOS file system 234.It Pa nfs/ 235C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 236.It Pa nullfs/ 237loopback file system 238.It Pa procfs/ 239process file system 240.It Pa smbfs/ 241SMB/CIFS file system 242.It Pa udf/ 243UDF file system 244.It Pa unionfs 245union file system 246.El 247.It Pa geom/ 248GEOM framework 249.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 250.It Pa concat/ 251CONCAT GEOM class 252.It Pa gate/ 253GATE GEOM class 254.It Pa mirror/ 255MIRROR GEOM class 256.It Pa nop/ 257NOP GEOM class 258.It Pa raid3/ 259RAID3 GEOM class 260.It Pa stripe/ 261STRIPE GEOM class 262.El 263.Pp 264.It Pa isc/ 265ISC utility library libisc include files 266.It Pa libmilter/ 267C include files for libmilter, 268the 269.Xr sendmail 8 270mail filter API 271.It Pa machine/ 272machine-specific C include files 273.It Pa net/ 274miscellaneous network C include files 275.It Pa net80211/ 276C include files for 802.11 wireless networking; 277see 278.Xr net80211 4 279.It Pa netinet/ 280C include files for Internet standard protocols; 281see 282.Xr inet 4 283.It Pa netinet6/ 284C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 285see 286.Xr inet6 4 287.It Pa netipsec/ 288kernel key-management service; 289see 290.Xr ipsec 4 291.It Pa netnatm/ 292NATM include files; 293see 294.Xr natm 4 295.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 296.It Pa api/ 297include files for the signalling API 298.It Pa msg/ 299include files that describe signalling messages and 300declare associated functions 301.It Pa saal/ 302include files for the signalling AAL layer 303.It Pa sig/ 304include files for the UNI signalling protocol 305.El 306.It Pa netsmb/ 307SMB/CIFS requester 308.It Pa nfs/ 309C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 310.It Pa objc/ 311Objective C include files 312.It Pa openssl/ 313OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 314.It Pa pccard/ 315PC-CARD controllers 316.It Pa protocols/ 317C include files for Berkeley service protocols 318.It Pa readline/ 319get a line from a user, with editing; 320see 321.Xr readline 3 322.It Pa rpc/ 323remote procedure calls; 324see 325.Xr rpc 3 326.It Pa rpcsvc/ 327definition of RPC service structures; see 328.Xr rpc 3 329.It Pa security/ 330PAM; see 331.Xr pam 8 332.It Pa sys/ 333system C include files (kernel data structures) 334.\" .It Pa tcl/ 335.\" Tcl language; 336.\" see 337.\" .Xr Tcl n 338.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 339.\" .It Pa generic/ 340.\" ??? 341.\" .It Pa unix/ 342.\" ??? 343.\" .El 344.It Pa ufs/ 345C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 346.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 347.It Pa ffs/ 348Fast file system 349.It Pa ufs/ 350UFS file system 351.El 352.It Pa vm/ 353virtual memory; 354see 355.Xr vmstat 8 356.El 357.Pp 358.It Pa lib/ 359shared and archive 360.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 361libraries 362.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 363.It Pa aout/ 364a.out archive libraries 365.It Pa compat/ 366shared libraries for compatibility 367.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 368.It Pa aout/ 369a.out backward compatibility libraries 370.El 371.It Pa dtrace/ 372DTrace library scripts 373.It Pa engines/ 374OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 375.It Pa private/ 376Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 377ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 378.El 379.Pp 380.It Pa libdata/ 381miscellaneous utility data files 382.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 383.It Pa gcc/ 384.Xr gcc 1 385configuration data 386.It Pa ldscripts/ 387linker scripts; 388see 389.Xr ld 1 390.It Pa lint/ 391various prebuilt lint libraries; 392see 393.Xr lint 1 394.El 395.Pp 396.It Pa libexec/ 397system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 398.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 399.It Pa aout/ 400utilities to manipulate a.out executables 401.It Pa elf/ 402utilities to manipulate ELF executables 403.It Pa lpr/ 404utilities and filters for LP print system; 405see 406.Xr lpr 1 407.It Pa sendmail/ 408the 409.Xr sendmail 8 410binary; 411see 412.Xr mailwrapper 8 413.It Pa sm.bin/ 414restricted shell for 415.Xr sendmail 8 ; 416see 417.Xr smrsh 8 418.El 419.Pp 420.It Pa local/ 421local executables, libraries, etc. 422Also used as the default destination for the 423.Fx 424ports framework. 425Within 426.Pa local/ , 427the general layout sketched out by 428.Nm 429for 430.Pa /usr 431should be used. 432Exceptions are the 433.Pa man 434directory 435.Po directly under 436.Pa local/ 437rather than under 438.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 439ports documentation 440.Po in 441.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 442and 443.Pa /usr/local/etc 444.Po mimics 445.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 446.It Pa obj/ 447architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 448.Pa /usr/src 449tree 450.It Pa ports/ 451The 452.Fx 453ports collection (optional). 454.It Pa sbin/ 455system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 456.It Pa share/ 457architecture-independent files 458.Pp 459.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 460.It Pa calendar/ 461a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 462see 463.Xr calendar 1 464.It Pa dict/ 465word lists; 466see 467.Xr look 1 468.Pp 469.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 470.It Pa freebsd 471.Fx Ns -specific 472terms, proper names, and jargon 473.It Pa words 474common words 475.It Pa web2 476words from Webster's 2nd International 477.It Pa papers/ 478reference databases; 479see 480.Xr refer 1 481.El 482.Pp 483.It Pa doc/ 484miscellaneous documentation; 485source for most of the printed 486.Bx 487manuals (available 488from the 489.Tn USENIX 490association) 491.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 492.It Pa FAQ/ 493Frequently Asked Questions 494.It Pa IPv6/ 495implementation notes for IPv6 496.It Pa bind/ 497documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 498.It Pa es/ 499Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 500.It Pa handbook/ 501.Fx 502Handbook 503.It Pa ja/ 504Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 505.It Pa legal/ 506License files for vendor supplied firmwares 507.It Pa ncurses/ 508HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 509see 510.Xr ncurses 3 511.It Pa ntp/ 512HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 513.It Pa papers/ 514UNIX Papers 515.It Pa psd/ 516UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 517.It Pa ru/ 518Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 519.It Pa smm/ 520UNIX System Manager's Manual 521.It Pa tutorials/ 522.Fx 523tutorials 524.It Pa usd/ 525UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 526.It Pa zh/ 527Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 528.El 529.Pp 530.It Pa examples/ 531various examples for users and programmers 532.It Pa games/ 533ASCII text files used by various games 534.It Pa groff_font/ 535device description file for device name 536.It Pa info/ 537GNU Info hypertext system 538.It Pa keys/ 539known trusted and revoked keys. 540.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 541.It Pa keys/pkg/ 542fingerprints for 543.Xr pkg 7 544and 545.Xr pkg 8 546.El 547.Pp 548.It Pa locale/ 549localization files; 550see 551.Xr setlocale 3 552.It Pa man/ 553manual pages 554.It Pa mdocml/ 555data files used by mdocml 556.It Pa me/ 557macros for use with the me macro package; 558see 559.Xr me 7 560.It Pa misc/ 561miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 562.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 563.It Pa fonts/ 564??? 565.It Pa termcap 566terminal characteristics database; 567see 568.Xr termcap 5 569.El 570.It Pa mk/ 571templates for make; 572see 573.Xr make 1 574.It Pa nls/ 575national language support files; 576see 577.Xr mklocale 1 578.It Pa security/ 579data files for security policies such as 580.Xr mac_lomac 4 581.It Pa sendmail/ 582.Xr sendmail 8 583configuration files 584.It Pa skel/ 585example 586.Pa .\& 587(dot) files for new accounts 588.It Pa snmp/ 589MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 590.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 591.It Pa defs/ 592Tree definition files for use with 593.Xr gensnmptree 1 594.It Pa mibs/ 595MIB files 596.El 597.It Pa syscons/ 598files used by syscons; 599see 600.Xr syscons 4 601.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 602.It Pa fonts/ 603console fonts; 604see 605.Xr vidcontrol 1 606and 607.Xr vidfont 1 608.It Pa keymaps/ 609console keyboard maps; 610see 611.Xr kbdcontrol 1 612and 613.Xr kbdmap 1 614.It Pa scrnmaps/ 615console screen maps 616.El 617.It Pa tabset/ 618tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 619the termcap file; 620see 621.Xr termcap 5 622.It Pa tmac/ 623text processing macros; 624see 625.Xr nroff 1 626and 627.Xr troff 1 628.It Pa vi/ 629localization support and utilities for 630.Xr vi 1 631.It Pa zoneinfo/ 632timezone configuration information; 633see 634.Xr tzfile 5 635.El 636.It Pa src/ 637.Bx , 638third-party, and/or local source files 639.Pp 640.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 641.It Pa bin/ 642source code for files in /bin 643.It Pa cddl/ 644Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 645.It Pa contrib/ 646source code for contributed software 647.It Pa crypto/ 648source code for contributed cryptography software 649.It Pa etc/ 650source code for files in 651.Pa /etc 652.It Pa games/ 653source code for files in 654.Pa /usr/games 655.It Pa gnu/ 656Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 657.It Pa include/ 658source code for files in 659.Pa /usr/include 660.It Pa kerberos5/ 661build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 662.It Pa lib/ 663source code for files in 664.Pa /usr/lib 665.It Pa libexec/ 666source code for files in 667.Pa /usr/libexec 668.It Pa release/ 669files required to produce a 670.Fx 671release 672.It Pa sbin/ 673source code for files in 674.Pa /sbin 675.It Pa secure/ 676build directory for files in 677.Pa /usr/src/crypto 678.It Pa share/ 679source for files in 680.Pa /usr/share 681.It Pa sys/ 682kernel source code 683.It Pa tools/ 684tools used for maintenance and testing of 685.Fx 686.It Pa usr.bin/ 687source code for files in 688.Pa /usr/bin 689.It Pa usr.sbin/ 690source code for files in 691.Pa /usr/sbin 692.El 693.Pp 694.It Pa tests/ 695The 696.Fx 697test suite. 698See 699.Xr tests 7 700for more details. 701.El 702.It Pa /var/ 703multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 704.Pp 705.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 706.It Pa account/ 707system accounting files 708.Pp 709.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 710.It Pa acct 711execution accounting file; 712see 713.Xr acct 5 714.El 715.Pp 716.It Pa at/ 717timed command scheduling files; 718see 719.Xr \&at 1 720.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 721.It Pa jobs/ 722directory containing job files 723.It Pa spool/ 724directory containing output spool files 725.El 726.Pp 727.It Pa backups/ 728miscellaneous backup files 729.It Pa cache/ 730miscellaneous cached files 731.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 732.It Pa pkg/ 733cached packages for 734.Xr pkg 8 735.El 736.Pp 737.It Pa crash/ 738default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 739.Xr crash 8 740and 741.Xr savecore 8 742.It Pa cron/ 743files used by cron; 744see 745.Xr cron 8 746.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 747.It Pa tabs/ 748crontab files; 749see 750.Xr crontab 5 751.El 752.Pp 753.It Pa db/ 754miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 755.It Pa empty/ 756empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 757Used for instance by 758.Xr sshd 8 759for privilege separation. 760.It Pa games/ 761miscellaneous game status and score files 762.It Pa heimdal/ 763kerberos server databases; see 764.Xr kdc 8 765.It Pa log/ 766miscellaneous system log files 767.Pp 768.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 769.It Pa utx.lastlogin 770last login log; 771see 772.Xr getutxent 3 773.It Pa utx.log 774login/logout log; 775see 776.Xr getutxent 3 777.El 778.Pp 779.It Pa mail/ 780user mailbox files 781.It Pa msgs/ 782system messages database; 783see 784.Xr msgs 1 785.It Pa preserve/ 786temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 787of an editor; 788see 789.Xr \&ex 1 790.It Pa quotas/ 791file system quota information files 792.It Pa run/ 793system information files describing various info about 794system since it was booted 795.Pp 796.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 797.It Pa ppp/ 798writable by the 799.Dq network 800group for command connection sockets; see 801.Xr ppp 8 802.It Pa utx.active 803database of current users; 804see 805.Xr getutxent 3 806.El 807.Pp 808.It Pa rwho/ 809rwho data files; 810see 811.Xr rwhod 8 , 812.Xr rwho 1 , 813and 814.Xr ruptime 1 815.It Pa spool/ 816miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 817.Pp 818.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 819.It Pa clientmqueue/ 820undelivered submission mail queue; 821see 822.Xr sendmail 8 823.It Pa ftp/ 824commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 825.It Pa mqueue/ 826undelivered mail queue; 827see 828.Xr sendmail 8 829.It Pa output/ 830line printer spooling directories 831.El 832.Pp 833.It Pa tmp/ 834temporary files that are kept between system reboots 835.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 836.It Pa vi.recover/ 837the directory where recovery files are stored 838.El 839.It Pa yp/ 840the NIS maps 841.El 842.El 843.Sh NOTES 844This manual page documents the default 845.Fx 846file system layout, but 847the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 848administrator's discretion. 849A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 850this document. 851.Sh SEE ALSO 852.Xr apropos 1 , 853.Xr find 1 , 854.Xr finger 1 , 855.Xr grep 1 , 856.Xr ls 1 , 857.Xr whatis 1 , 858.Xr whereis 1 , 859.Xr which 1 , 860.Xr fd 4 , 861.Xr devfs 5 , 862.Xr fsck 8 863.Sh HISTORY 864A 865.Nm 866manual page appeared in 867.At v7 . 868