xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/hier.7 (revision b2d48be1bc7df45ddd13b143a160d0acb5a383c5)
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28.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd October 2, 2015
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 dtb/
52Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see
53.Xr fdt 4
54and
55.Xr dtc 1
56.It Pa firmware/
57Loadable 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)
62.It Pa modules/
63third-party loadable kernel modules;
64see
65.Xr kldstat 8
66.It Pa zfs/
67Contains
68.Xr zfs 8
69zpool cache files.
70.El
71.It Pa /cdrom/
72default mount point for CD-ROM drives
73.It Pa /compat/
74normally a link to
75.Pa /usr/compat .
76If not, then the
77.Pa /usr/compat
78comments apply
79.It Pa /dev/
80device special files managed by
81.Xr devfs 5
82.Pp
83.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact
84.It Pa fd/
85file descriptor files;
86see
87.Xr \&fd 4
88.It Pa net/
89network devices
90.El
91.It Pa /etc/
92system configuration files and scripts
93.Pp
94.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact
95.It Pa defaults/
96default system configuration files;
97see
98.Xr rc 8
99.It Pa bluetooth/
100bluetooth configuration files
101.It Pa localtime
102local timezone information;
103see
104.Xr ctime 3
105.It Pa mail/
106Sendmail control files
107.It Pa mtree/
108mtree configuration files;
109see
110.Xr mtree 8
111.It Pa pam.d/
112configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
113library
114.It Pa periodic/
115scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via
116.Xr cron 8 ;
117see
118.Xr periodic 8
119.It Pa rc.d/
120System and daemon startup/control scripts;
121see
122.Xr rc 8
123.It Pa security/
124OpenBSM audit configuration files;
125see
126.Xr audit 8
127.It Pa ppp/
128ppp configuration files;
129see
130.Xr ppp 8
131.It Pa ssh/
132OpenSSH configuration files;
133see
134.Xr ssh 1
135.It Pa ssl/
136OpenSSL configuration files
137.El
138.It Pa /lib/
139critical system libraries needed for binaries in
140.Pa /bin
141and
142.Pa /sbin
143.Pp
144.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact
145.It Pa geom/
146class-specific libraries for the
147.Xr geom 8
148utility
149.El
150.It Pa /libexec/
151critical system utilities needed for binaries in
152.Pa /bin
153and
154.Pa /sbin
155.It Pa /media/
156contains subdirectories to be used as mount points
157for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and
158floppy disks
159.It Pa /mnt/
160empty directory commonly used by
161system administrators as a temporary mount point
162.It Pa /net/
163automounted NFS shares;
164see
165.Xr auto_master 5
166.It Pa /proc/
167process file system;
168see
169.Xr procfs 5
170.It Pa /rescue/
171statically linked programs for emergency recovery;
172see
173.Xr rescue 8
174.It Pa /root/
175root's HOME directory
176.It Pa /sbin/
177system programs and administration utilities
178fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
179.It Pa /tmp/
180temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
181.It Pa /usr/
182contains the majority of user utilities and applications
183.Pp
184.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact
185.It Pa bin/
186common utilities, programming tools, and applications
187.It Pa compat/
188files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems,
189such as Linux
190.It Pa include/
191standard C include files
192.Pp
193.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
194.It Pa altq/
195C include files for alternate queueing
196.It Pa arpa/
197C include files for Internet service protocols
198.It Pa bsnmp/
199C include files for the SNMP daemon
200.It Pa c++/
201C++ include files
202.It Pa cam/
203C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer
204.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
205.It Pa scsi/
206The SCSI device on top of CAM
207.El
208.It Pa dev/
209C include files for programming various
210.Fx
211devices
212.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
213.It Pa ic/
214Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent
215hardware circuits
216.It Pa ofw/
217Open Firmware support
218.It Pa pbio/
2198255 PPI cards;
220see
221.Xr pbio 4
222.It Pa ppbus/
223The parallel port bus;
224see
225.Xr ppbus 4
226.It Pa usb/
227The USB subsystem
228.It Pa utopia/
229Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces;
230see
231.Xr utopia 4
232.It Pa wi/
233The
234.Xr wi 4
235WaveLAN driver
236.El
237.It Pa fs/
238.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
239.It Pa cd9660/
240iso9660 file system
241.It Pa fdescfs/
242per-process file descriptors file system
243.It Pa fifofs/
244.St -p1003.1
245FIFOs file system
246.It Pa msdosfs/
247MS-DOS file system
248.It Pa nfs/
249C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4
250.It Pa nullfs/
251loopback file system
252.It Pa procfs/
253process file system
254.It Pa smbfs/
255SMB/CIFS file system
256.It Pa udf/
257UDF file system
258.It Pa unionfs
259union file system
260.El
261.It Pa geom/
262GEOM framework
263.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
264.It Pa concat/
265CONCAT GEOM class
266.It Pa gate/
267GATE GEOM class
268.It Pa mirror/
269MIRROR GEOM class
270.It Pa nop/
271NOP GEOM class
272.It Pa raid3/
273RAID3 GEOM class
274.It Pa stripe/
275STRIPE GEOM class
276.El
277.Pp
278.It Pa isc/
279ISC utility library libisc include files
280.It Pa libmilter/
281C include files for libmilter,
282the
283.Xr sendmail 8
284mail filter API
285.It Pa machine/
286machine-specific C include files
287.It Pa net/
288miscellaneous network C include files
289.It Pa net80211/
290C include files for 802.11 wireless networking;
291see
292.Xr net80211 4
293.It Pa netinet/
294C include files for Internet standard protocols;
295see
296.Xr inet 4
297.It Pa netinet6/
298C include files for Internet protocol version 6;
299see
300.Xr inet6 4
301.It Pa netipsec/
302kernel key-management service;
303see
304.Xr ipsec 4
305.It Pa netnatm/
306NATM include files;
307see
308.Xr natm 4
309.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
310.It Pa api/
311include files for the signalling API
312.It Pa msg/
313include files that describe signalling messages and
314declare associated functions
315.It Pa saal/
316include files for the signalling AAL layer
317.It Pa sig/
318include files for the UNI signalling protocol
319.El
320.It Pa netsmb/
321SMB/CIFS requester
322.It Pa nfs/
323C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy)
324.It Pa objc/
325Objective C include files
326.It Pa openssl/
327OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers
328.It Pa pccard/
329PC-CARD controllers
330.It Pa protocols/
331C include files for Berkeley service protocols
332.It Pa readline/
333get a line from a user, with editing;
334see
335.Xr readline 3
336.It Pa rpc/
337remote procedure calls;
338see
339.Xr rpc 3
340.It Pa rpcsvc/
341definition of RPC service structures; see
342.Xr rpc 3
343.It Pa security/
344PAM; see
345.Xr pam 8
346.It Pa sys/
347system C include files (kernel data structures)
348.\" .It Pa tcl/
349.\" Tcl language;
350.\" see
351.\" .Xr Tcl n
352.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
353.\" .It Pa generic/
354.\" ???
355.\" .It Pa unix/
356.\" ???
357.\" .El
358.It Pa ufs/
359C include files for UFS (The U-word File System)
360.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
361.It Pa ffs/
362Fast file system
363.It Pa ufs/
364UFS file system
365.El
366.It Pa vm/
367virtual memory;
368see
369.Xr vmstat 8
370.El
371.Pp
372.It Pa lib/
373shared and archive
374.Xr ar 1 Ns -type
375libraries
376.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
377.It Pa aout/
378a.out archive libraries
379.It Pa compat/
380shared libraries for compatibility
381.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
382.It Pa aout/
383a.out backward compatibility libraries
384.El
385.It Pa debug/
386standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
387.It Pa dtrace/
388DTrace library scripts
389.It Pa engines/
390OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
391.It Pa private/
392Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs.
393ABI and API stability are not guaranteed.
394.El
395.Pp
396.It Pa libdata/
397miscellaneous utility data files
398.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
399.It Pa gcc/
400.Xr gcc 1
401configuration data
402.It Pa ldscripts/
403linker scripts;
404see
405.Xr ld 1
406.It Pa lint/
407various prebuilt lint libraries;
408see
409.Xr lint 1
410.El
411.Pp
412.It Pa libexec/
413system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
414.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
415.It Pa aout/
416utilities to manipulate a.out executables
417.It Pa elf/
418utilities to manipulate ELF executables
419.It Pa lpr/
420utilities and filters for LP print system;
421see
422.Xr lpr 1
423.It Pa sendmail/
424the
425.Xr sendmail 8
426binary;
427see
428.Xr mailwrapper 8
429.It Pa sm.bin/
430restricted shell for
431.Xr sendmail 8 ;
432see
433.Xr smrsh 8
434.El
435.Pp
436.It Pa local/
437local executables, libraries, etc.
438Also used as the default destination for the
439.Fx
440ports framework.
441Within
442.Pa local/ ,
443the general layout sketched out by
444.Nm
445for
446.Pa /usr
447should be used.
448Exceptions are the
449.Pa man
450directory
451.Po directly under
452.Pa local/
453rather than under
454.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc ,
455ports documentation
456.Po in
457.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc ,
458and
459.Pa /usr/local/etc
460.Po mimics
461.Pa /etc Ns Pc .
462.It Pa obj/
463architecture-specific target tree produced by building the
464.Pa /usr/src
465tree
466.It Pa ports/
467The
468.Fx
469ports collection (optional).
470.It Pa sbin/
471system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
472.It Pa share/
473architecture-independent files
474.Pp
475.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact
476.It Pa calendar/
477a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
478see
479.Xr calendar 1
480.It Pa dict/
481word lists;
482see
483.Xr look 1
484.Pp
485.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
486.It Pa freebsd
487.Fx Ns -specific
488terms, proper names, and jargon
489.It Pa words
490common words
491.It Pa web2
492words from Webster's 2nd International
493.It Pa papers/
494reference databases;
495see
496.Xr refer 1
497.El
498.Pp
499.It Pa doc/
500miscellaneous documentation;
501source for most of the printed
502.Bx
503manuals (available
504from the
505.Tn USENIX
506association)
507.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
508.It Pa FAQ/
509Frequently Asked Questions
510.It Pa IPv6/
511implementation notes for IPv6
512.It Pa bind/
513documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain)
514.It Pa es/
515Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
516.It Pa handbook/
517.Fx
518Handbook
519.It Pa ja/
520Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
521.It Pa legal/
522License files for vendor supplied firmwares
523.It Pa ncurses/
524HTML documents pertaining to ncurses;
525see
526.Xr ncurses 3
527.It Pa ntp/
528HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol
529.It Pa papers/
530UNIX Papers
531.It Pa psd/
532UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents
533.It Pa ru/
534Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
535.It Pa smm/
536UNIX System Manager's Manual
537.It Pa tutorials/
538.Fx
539tutorials
540.It Pa usd/
541UNIX User's Supplementary Documents
542.It Pa zh/
543Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
544.El
545.Pp
546.It Pa examples/
547various examples for users and programmers
548.It Pa games/
549ASCII text files used by various games
550.It Pa groff_font/
551device description file for device name
552.It Pa info/
553GNU Info hypertext system
554.It Pa keys/
555known trusted and revoked keys.
556.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact
557.It Pa keys/pkg/
558fingerprints for
559.Xr pkg 7
560and
561.Xr pkg 8
562.El
563.Pp
564.It Pa locale/
565localization files;
566see
567.Xr setlocale 3
568.It Pa man/
569manual pages
570.It Pa mdocml/
571data files used by mdocml
572.It Pa me/
573macros for use with the me macro package;
574see
575.Xr me 7
576.It Pa misc/
577miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
578.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
579.It Pa fonts/
580???
581.It Pa termcap
582terminal characteristics database;
583see
584.Xr termcap 5
585.El
586.It Pa mk/
587templates for make;
588see
589.Xr make 1
590.It Pa nls/
591national language support files;
592see
593.Xr mklocale 1
594.It Pa security/
595data files for security policies such as
596.Xr mac_lomac 4
597.It Pa sendmail/
598.Xr sendmail 8
599configuration files
600.It Pa skel/
601example
602.Pa .\&
603(dot) files for new accounts
604.It Pa snmp/
605MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon.
606.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
607.It Pa defs/
608Tree definition files for use with
609.Xr gensnmptree 1
610.It Pa mibs/
611MIB files
612.El
613.It Pa syscons/
614files used by syscons;
615see
616.Xr syscons 4
617.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact
618.It Pa fonts/
619console fonts;
620see
621.Xr vidcontrol 1
622and
623.Xr vidfont 1
624.It Pa keymaps/
625console keyboard maps;
626see
627.Xr kbdcontrol 1
628and
629.Xr kbdmap 1
630.It Pa scrnmaps/
631console screen maps
632.El
633.It Pa tabset/
634tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
635the termcap file;
636see
637.Xr termcap 5
638.It Pa tmac/
639text processing macros;
640see
641.Xr nroff 1
642and
643.Xr troff 1
644.It Pa vi/
645localization support and utilities for
646.Xr vi 1
647.It Pa zoneinfo/
648timezone configuration information;
649see
650.Xr tzfile 5
651.El
652.It Pa vt/
653files used by vt;
654see
655.Xr vt 4
656.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact
657.It Pa fonts/
658console fonts;
659see
660.Xr vidcontrol 1
661and
662.Xr vidfont 1
663.It Pa keymaps/
664console keyboard maps;
665see
666.Xr kbdcontrol 1
667and
668.Xr kbdmap 1
669.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/
670.\" console screen maps
671.El
672.It Pa src/
673.Bx ,
674third-party, and/or local source files
675.Pp
676.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
677.It Pa bin/
678source code for files in /bin
679.It Pa cddl/
680Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License
681.It Pa contrib/
682source code for contributed software
683.It Pa crypto/
684source code for contributed cryptography software
685.It Pa etc/
686source code for files in
687.Pa /etc
688.It Pa gnu/
689Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
690.It Pa include/
691source code for files in
692.Pa /usr/include
693.It Pa kerberos5/
694build infrastructure for kerberos version 5
695.It Pa lib/
696source code for files in
697.Pa /usr/lib
698.It Pa libexec/
699source code for files in
700.Pa /usr/libexec
701.It Pa release/
702files required to produce a
703.Fx
704release
705.It Pa sbin/
706source code for files in
707.Pa /sbin
708.It Pa secure/
709build directory for files in
710.Pa /usr/src/crypto
711.It Pa share/
712source for files in
713.Pa /usr/share
714.It Pa sys/
715kernel source code
716.It Pa tools/
717tools used for maintenance and testing of
718.Fx
719.It Pa usr.bin/
720source code for files in
721.Pa /usr/bin
722.It Pa usr.sbin/
723source code for files in
724.Pa /usr/sbin
725.El
726.Pp
727.It Pa tests/
728The
729.Fx
730test suite.
731See
732.Xr tests 7
733for more details.
734.El
735.It Pa /var/
736multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
737.Pp
738.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
739.It Pa account/
740system accounting files
741.Pp
742.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
743.It Pa acct
744execution accounting file;
745see
746.Xr acct 5
747.El
748.Pp
749.It Pa at/
750timed command scheduling files;
751see
752.Xr \&at 1
753.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
754.It Pa jobs/
755directory containing job files
756.It Pa spool/
757directory containing output spool files
758.El
759.Pp
760.It Pa backups/
761miscellaneous backup files
762.It Pa cache/
763miscellaneous cached files
764.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact
765.It Pa pkg/
766cached packages for
767.Xr pkg 8
768.El
769.Pp
770.It Pa crash/
771default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
772.Xr crash 8
773and
774.Xr savecore 8
775.It Pa cron/
776files used by cron;
777see
778.Xr cron 8
779.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
780.It Pa tabs/
781crontab files;
782see
783.Xr crontab 5
784.El
785.Pp
786.It Pa db/
787miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
788.It Pa empty/
789empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
790Used for instance by
791.Xr sshd 8
792for privilege separation.
793.It Pa games/
794miscellaneous game status and score files
795.It Pa heimdal/
796kerberos server databases; see
797.Xr kdc 8
798.It Pa log/
799miscellaneous system log files
800.Pp
801.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
802.It Pa utx.lastlogin
803last login log;
804see
805.Xr getutxent 3
806.It Pa utx.log
807login/logout log;
808see
809.Xr getutxent 3
810.El
811.Pp
812.It Pa mail/
813user mailbox files
814.It Pa msgs/
815system messages database;
816see
817.Xr msgs 1
818.It Pa preserve/
819temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
820of an editor;
821see
822.Xr \&ex 1
823.It Pa quotas/
824file system quota information files
825.It Pa run/
826system information files describing various info about
827system since it was booted
828.Pp
829.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
830.It Pa ppp/
831writable by the
832.Dq network
833group for command connection sockets; see
834.Xr ppp 8
835.It Pa utx.active
836database of current users;
837see
838.Xr getutxent 3
839.El
840.Pp
841.It Pa rwho/
842rwho data files;
843see
844.Xr rwhod 8 ,
845.Xr rwho 1 ,
846and
847.Xr ruptime 1
848.It Pa spool/
849miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
850.Pp
851.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
852.It Pa clientmqueue/
853undelivered submission mail queue;
854see
855.Xr sendmail 8
856.It Pa ftp/
857commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
858.It Pa mqueue/
859undelivered mail queue;
860see
861.Xr sendmail 8
862.It Pa output/
863line printer spooling directories
864.El
865.Pp
866.It Pa tmp/
867temporary files that are kept between system reboots
868.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
869.It Pa vi.recover/
870the directory where recovery files are stored
871.El
872.It Pa yp/
873the NIS maps
874.El
875.El
876.Sh NOTES
877This manual page documents the default
878.Fx
879file system layout, but
880the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
881administrator's discretion.
882A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
883this document.
884.Sh SEE ALSO
885.Xr apropos 1 ,
886.Xr find 1 ,
887.Xr finger 1 ,
888.Xr grep 1 ,
889.Xr ls 1 ,
890.Xr whatis 1 ,
891.Xr whereis 1 ,
892.Xr which 1 ,
893.Xr fd 4 ,
894.Xr devfs 5 ,
895.Xr fsck 8
896.Sh HISTORY
897A
898.Nm
899manual page appeared in
900.At v7 .
901