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 December 25, 2013 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 fdescfs/ 226per-process file descriptors file system 227.It Pa fifofs/ 228.St -p1003.1 229FIFOs file system 230.It Pa msdosfs/ 231MS-DOS file system 232.It Pa nfs/ 233C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 234.It Pa nullfs/ 235loopback file system 236.It Pa procfs/ 237process file system 238.It Pa smbfs/ 239SMB/CIFS file system 240.It Pa udf/ 241UDF file system 242.It Pa unionfs 243union file system 244.El 245.It Pa geom/ 246GEOM framework 247.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 248.It Pa concat/ 249CONCAT GEOM class 250.It Pa gate/ 251GATE GEOM class 252.It Pa mirror/ 253MIRROR GEOM class 254.It Pa nop/ 255NOP GEOM class 256.It Pa raid3/ 257RAID3 GEOM class 258.It Pa stripe/ 259STRIPE GEOM class 260.El 261.Pp 262.It Pa isc/ 263ISC utility library libisc include files 264.It Pa isofs/ 265.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 266.It Pa cd9660/ 267iso9660 file system 268.El 269.It Pa libmilter/ 270C include files for libmilter, 271the 272.Xr sendmail 8 273mail filter API 274.It Pa machine/ 275machine-specific C include files 276.It Pa net/ 277miscellaneous network C include files 278.It Pa netinet/ 279C include files for Internet standard protocols; 280see 281.Xr inet 4 282.It Pa netinet6/ 283C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 284see 285.Xr inet6 4 286.It Pa netipsec/ 287kernel key-management service; 288see 289.Xr ipsec 4 290.It Pa netnatm/ 291NATM include files; 292see 293.Xr natm 4 294.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 295.It Pa api/ 296include files for the signalling API 297.It Pa msg/ 298include files that describe signalling messages and 299declare associated functions 300.It Pa saal/ 301include files for the signalling AAL layer 302.It Pa sig/ 303include files for the UNI signalling protocol 304.El 305.It Pa netsmb/ 306SMB/CIFS requester 307.It Pa nfs/ 308C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 309.It Pa objc/ 310Objective C include files 311.It Pa openssl/ 312OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 313.It Pa pccard/ 314PC-CARD controllers 315.It Pa protocols/ 316C include files for Berkeley service protocols 317.It Pa readline/ 318get a line from a user, with editing; 319see 320.Xr readline 3 321.It Pa rpc/ 322remote procedure calls; 323see 324.Xr rpc 3 325.It Pa rpcsvc/ 326definition of RPC service structures; see 327.Xr rpc 3 328.It Pa security/ 329PAM; see 330.Xr pam 8 331.It Pa sys/ 332system C include files (kernel data structures) 333.\" .It Pa tcl/ 334.\" Tcl language; 335.\" see 336.\" .Xr Tcl n 337.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 338.\" .It Pa generic/ 339.\" ??? 340.\" .It Pa unix/ 341.\" ??? 342.\" .El 343.It Pa ufs/ 344C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 345.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 346.It Pa ffs/ 347Fast file system 348.It Pa ufs/ 349UFS file system 350.El 351.It Pa vm/ 352virtual memory; 353see 354.Xr vmstat 8 355.El 356.Pp 357.It Pa lib/ 358shared and archive 359.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 360libraries 361.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 362.It Pa aout/ 363a.out archive libraries 364.It Pa compat/ 365shared libraries for compatibility 366.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 367.It Pa aout/ 368a.out backward compatibility libraries 369.El 370.It Pa dtrace/ 371DTrace library scripts 372.It Pa engines/ 373OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 374.It Pa private/ 375Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 376ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 377.El 378.Pp 379.It Pa libdata/ 380miscellaneous utility data files 381.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 382.It Pa gcc/ 383.Xr gcc 1 384configuration data 385.It Pa ldscripts/ 386linker scripts; 387see 388.Xr ld 1 389.It Pa lint/ 390various prebuilt lint libraries; 391see 392.Xr lint 1 393.El 394.Pp 395.It Pa libexec/ 396system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 397.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 398.It Pa aout/ 399utilities to manipulate a.out executables 400.It Pa elf/ 401utilities to manipulate ELF executables 402.It Pa lpr/ 403utilities and filters for LP print system; 404see 405.Xr lpr 1 406.It Pa sendmail/ 407the 408.Xr sendmail 8 409binary; 410see 411.Xr mailwrapper 8 412.It Pa sm.bin/ 413restricted shell for 414.Xr sendmail 8 ; 415see 416.Xr smrsh 8 417.El 418.Pp 419.It Pa local/ 420local executables, libraries, etc. 421Also used as the default destination for the 422.Fx 423ports framework. 424Within 425.Pa local/ , 426the general layout sketched out by 427.Nm 428for 429.Pa /usr 430should be used. 431Exceptions are the 432.Pa man 433directory 434.Po directly under 435.Pa local/ 436rather than under 437.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 438ports documentation 439.Po in 440.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 441and 442.Pa /usr/local/etc 443.Po mimics 444.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 445.It Pa obj/ 446architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 447.Pa /usr/src 448tree 449.It Pa ports/ 450The 451.Fx 452ports collection (optional). 453.It Pa sbin/ 454system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 455.It Pa share/ 456architecture-independent files 457.Pp 458.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 459.It Pa calendar/ 460a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 461see 462.Xr calendar 1 463.It Pa dict/ 464word lists; 465see 466.Xr look 1 467.Pp 468.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 469.It Pa freebsd 470.Fx Ns -specific 471terms, proper names, and jargon 472.It Pa words 473common words 474.It Pa web2 475words from Webster's 2nd International 476.It Pa papers/ 477reference databases; 478see 479.Xr refer 1 480.El 481.Pp 482.It Pa doc/ 483miscellaneous documentation; 484source for most of the printed 485.Bx 486manuals (available 487from the 488.Tn USENIX 489association) 490.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 491.It Pa FAQ/ 492Frequently Asked Questions 493.It Pa IPv6/ 494implementation notes for IPv6 495.It Pa bind/ 496documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 497.It Pa es/ 498Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 499.It Pa handbook/ 500.Fx 501Handbook 502.It Pa ja/ 503Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 504.It Pa legal/ 505License files for vendor supplied firmwares 506.It Pa ncurses/ 507HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 508see 509.Xr ncurses 3 510.It Pa ntp/ 511HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 512.It Pa papers/ 513UNIX Papers 514.It Pa psd/ 515UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 516.It Pa ru/ 517Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 518.It Pa smm/ 519UNIX System Manager's Manual 520.It Pa tutorials/ 521.Fx 522tutorials 523.It Pa usd/ 524UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 525.It Pa zh/ 526Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 527.El 528.Pp 529.It Pa examples/ 530various examples for users and programmers 531.It Pa games/ 532ASCII text files used by various games 533.It Pa groff_font/ 534device description file for device name 535.It Pa info/ 536GNU Info hypertext system 537.It Pa keys/ 538known trusted and revoked keys. 539.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 540.It Pa keys/pkg/ 541fingerprints for 542.Xr pkg 7 543and 544.Xr pkg 8 545.El 546.Pp 547.It Pa locale/ 548localization files; 549see 550.Xr setlocale 3 551.It Pa man/ 552manual pages 553.It Pa mdocml/ 554data files used by mdocml 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 cddl/ 643Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 644.It Pa contrib/ 645source code for contributed software 646.It Pa crypto/ 647source code for contributed cryptography software 648.It Pa etc/ 649source code for files in 650.Pa /etc 651.It Pa games/ 652source code for files in 653.Pa /usr/games 654.It Pa gnu/ 655Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 656.It Pa include/ 657source code for files in 658.Pa /usr/include 659.It Pa kerberos5/ 660build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 661.It Pa lib/ 662source code for files in 663.Pa /usr/lib 664.It Pa libexec/ 665source code for files in 666.Pa /usr/libexec 667.It Pa release/ 668files required to produce a 669.Fx 670release 671.It Pa sbin/ 672source code for files in 673.Pa /sbin 674.It Pa secure/ 675build directory for files in 676.Pa /usr/src/crypto 677.It Pa share/ 678source for files in 679.Pa /usr/share 680.It Pa sys/ 681kernel source code 682.It Pa tools/ 683tools used for maintenance and testing of 684.Fx 685.It Pa usr.bin/ 686source code for files in 687.Pa /usr/bin 688.It Pa usr.sbin/ 689source code for files in 690.Pa /usr/sbin 691.El 692.Pp 693.It Pa tests/ 694The 695.Fx 696test suite. 697See 698.Xr tests 7 699for more details. 700.El 701.It Pa /var/ 702multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 703.Pp 704.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 705.It Pa account/ 706system accounting files 707.Pp 708.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 709.It Pa acct 710execution accounting file; 711see 712.Xr acct 5 713.El 714.Pp 715.It Pa at/ 716timed command scheduling files; 717see 718.Xr \&at 1 719.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 720.It Pa jobs/ 721directory containing job files 722.It Pa spool/ 723directory containing output spool files 724.El 725.Pp 726.It Pa backups/ 727miscellaneous backup files 728.It Pa cache/ 729miscellaneous cached files 730.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 731.It Pa pkg/ 732cached packages for 733.Xr pkg 8 734.El 735.Pp 736.It Pa crash/ 737default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 738.Xr crash 8 739and 740.Xr savecore 8 741.It Pa cron/ 742files used by cron; 743see 744.Xr cron 8 745.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 746.It Pa tabs/ 747crontab files; 748see 749.Xr crontab 5 750.El 751.Pp 752.It Pa db/ 753miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 754.It Pa empty/ 755empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 756Used for instance by 757.Xr sshd 8 758for privilege separation. 759.It Pa games/ 760miscellaneous game status and score files 761.It Pa heimdal/ 762kerberos server databases; see 763.Xr kdc 8 764.It Pa log/ 765miscellaneous system log files 766.Pp 767.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 768.It Pa utx.lastlogin 769last login log; 770see 771.Xr getutxent 3 772.It Pa utx.log 773login/logout log; 774see 775.Xr getutxent 3 776.El 777.Pp 778.It Pa mail/ 779user mailbox files 780.It Pa msgs/ 781system messages database; 782see 783.Xr msgs 1 784.It Pa preserve/ 785temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 786of an editor; 787see 788.Xr \&ex 1 789.It Pa quotas/ 790file system quota information files 791.It Pa run/ 792system information files describing various info about 793system since it was booted 794.Pp 795.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 796.It Pa ppp/ 797writable by the 798.Dq network 799group for command connection sockets; see 800.Xr ppp 8 801.It Pa utx.active 802database of current users; 803see 804.Xr getutxent 3 805.El 806.Pp 807.It Pa rwho/ 808rwho data files; 809see 810.Xr rwhod 8 , 811.Xr rwho 1 , 812and 813.Xr ruptime 1 814.It Pa spool/ 815miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 816.Pp 817.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 818.It Pa clientmqueue/ 819undelivered submission mail queue; 820see 821.Xr sendmail 8 822.It Pa ftp/ 823commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 824.It Pa mqueue/ 825undelivered mail queue; 826see 827.Xr sendmail 8 828.It Pa output/ 829line printer spooling directories 830.El 831.Pp 832.It Pa tmp/ 833temporary files that are kept between system reboots 834.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 835.It Pa vi.recover/ 836the directory where recovery files are stored 837.El 838.It Pa yp/ 839the NIS maps 840.El 841.El 842.Sh NOTES 843This manual page documents the default 844.Fx 845file system layout, but 846the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 847administrator's discretion. 848A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 849this document. 850.Sh SEE ALSO 851.Xr apropos 1 , 852.Xr find 1 , 853.Xr finger 1 , 854.Xr grep 1 , 855.Xr ls 1 , 856.Xr whatis 1 , 857.Xr whereis 1 , 858.Xr which 1 , 859.Xr fd 4 , 860.Xr devfs 5 , 861.Xr fsck 8 862.Sh HISTORY 863A 864.Nm 865manual page appeared in 866.At v7 . 867