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 June 10, 2023 32.Dt HIER 7 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm hier 36.Nd layout of file systems 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38An overview of the file system hierarchy. 39.Sh DESCRIPTION 40.Bl -tag -width "/libexec/" 41.It Pa / 42root directory 43.It Pa /bin/ 44user utilities that are fundamental to single-user and multi-user modes 45.It Pa /boot/ 46programs and configuration files used during bootstrap of the operating system 47.Pp 48.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 49.It Pa defaults/ 50default bootstrap configuration files; see 51.Xr loader.conf 5 52.It Pa dtb/ 53compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see 54.Xr fdt 4 55and 56.Xr dtc 1 57.It Pa efi/ 58mount point for the EFI System Partition (ESP) on UEFI systems 59.It Pa firmware/ 60loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware, for hardware to which 61firmware must be downloaded 62.It Pa kernel/ 63pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory at boot time) 64and kernel modules 65.It Pa modules/ 66third-party loadable kernel modules, such as those associated with 67.Xr ports 7 68.It Pa overlays/ 69compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; see 70.Xr fdt 4 71and 72.Xr dtc 1 73.It Pa zfs/ 74.Xr zfs 8 75pool cache files 76.El 77.It Pa /compat/ 78normally a link to 79.Pa /usr/compat . 80If not, then the 81.Pa /usr/compat 82comments apply 83.It Pa /dev/ 84the normal mount point for 85.Xr devfs 5 86.Pp 87.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 88.It Pa fd/ 89file descriptor files; see 90.Xr fd 4 91.El 92.It Pa /etc/ 93system configuration files and scripts 94.Pp 95.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 96.It Pa bluetooth/ 97bluetooth configuration files 98.It Pa defaults/ 99default system configuration files; see 100.Xr rc 8 101.It Pa localtime 102local timezone information; see 103.Xr ctime 3 104.It Pa mail/ 105.Xr sendmail 8 106control files 107.It Pa mtree/ 108.Xr mtree 8 109configuration files 110.It Pa pam.d/ 111configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) library; see 112.Xr pam 3 113.It Pa periodic/ 114scripts that are run daily, weekly, or monthly by 115.Xr cron 8 ; 116see 117.Xr periodic 8 118.It Pa ppp/ 119PPP configuration files; see 120.Xr ppp 8 121.It Pa rc.d/ 122system and daemon startup/control scripts; see 123.Xr rc 8 124.It Pa security/ 125OpenBSM audit configuration files; see 126.Xr audit 8 127.It Pa ssh/ 128OpenSSH configuration files; see 129.Xr ssh 1 130.It Pa ssl/ 131OpenSSL configuration files 132.El 133.It Pa /home/ 134users' home directories; whilst the layout is not standardized, the typical home for an interactive user 135.Dv beastie 136would be 137.Pa /home/beastie/ 138.It Pa /lib/ 139system libraries that are critical to binaries in 140.Pa /bin 141and 142.Pa /sbin 143.Pp 144.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact 145.It Pa casper/ 146service-specific 147.Xr libcasper 3 148Capsicum support libraries 149.It Pa geom/ 150class-specific libraries for the 151.Xr geom 8 152utility 153.It Pa nvmecontrol/ 154vendor-specific libraries to extend the 155.Xr nvmecontrol 8 156utility 157.El 158.It Pa /libexec/ 159system utilities that are critical to binaries in 160.Pa /bin 161and 162.Pa /sbin 163.It Pa /media/ 164contains subdirectories that are mount points for removable media such as 165USB drives, CDs and DVDs 166.It Pa /mnt/ 167empty directory commonly used by system administrators as a temporary mount 168point 169.It Pa /net/ 170automounted NFS shares; see 171.Xr auto_master 5 172.It Pa /nonexistent/ 173a non-existent directory; conventionally, a home directory for special user 174accounts that do not require a home directory. See also 175.Pa /var/empty/ 176.It Pa /proc/ 177process file system; see 178.Xr procfs 5 179.It Pa /rescue/ 180statically-linked programs for emergency recovery; see 181.Xr rescue 8 182.It Pa /root/ 183home directory of the root user 184.It Pa /sbin/ 185system programs and administration utilities that are fundamental to 186single-user and multi-user modes 187.It Pa /tmp/ 188temporary files that may be removed by 189.Xr rc 8 ; 190see the 191.It Va clear_tmp_enable 192variable of 193.Xr rc.conf 5 194.It Pa /usr/ 195contains the majority of user utilities and applications 196.Pp 197.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-dist/" -compact 198.It Pa bin/ 199common utilities, programming tools, and applications 200.It Pa compat/ 201files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems; see 202.Xr linux 4 203.It Pa freebsd-dist/ 204distribution files 205.Pq like base.txz ; see 206.Xr release 7 207and 208.Xr bsdinstall 8 209.It Pa include/ 210standard C include files 211.It Pa lib/ 212shared and archive 213.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 214libraries 215.Pp 216.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 217.It Pa compat/ 218shared libraries for compatibility 219.It Pa debug/ 220standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries 221.It Pa dtrace/ 222DTrace library scripts 223.It Pa engines/ 224OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 225.El 226.Pp 227.It Pa libdata/ 228miscellaneous utility data files 229.Pp 230.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 231.It Pa gcc/ 232GCC configuration data 233.It Pa ldscripts/ 234linker scripts; see 235.Xr ld 1 236.It Pa pkgconfig/ 237.Xr pc 5 Pq Pa ports/devel/pkgconf 238files; collections of compiler flags, linker flags, and other information 239relevant to library use 240.El 241.Pp 242.It Pa libexec/ 243system daemons and system utilities that are executed by other programs 244.Pp 245.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 246.It Pa aout/ 247utilities to manipulate a.out executables 248.It Pa elf/ 249utilities to manipulate ELF executables 250.It Pa lpr/ 251utilities and filters for LP print system; see 252.Xr lpr 1 253.It Pa sendmail/ 254the 255.Xr sendmail 8 256binary; see 257.Xr mailwrapper 8 258.It Pa sm.bin/ 259restricted shell for 260.Xr sendmail 8 ; 261see 262.Xr smrsh 8 263.El 264.Pp 265.It Pa local/ 266local executables, libraries, etc. 267Also used as the default destination for the 268.Xr ports 7 269framework. 270Within 271.Pa local/ , 272the general layout sketched out by 273.Nm 274for 275.Pa /usr 276should be used. 277Exceptions are the ports documentation 278.Po in 279.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 280and 281.Pa /usr/local/etc 282.Po mimics 283.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 284.It Pa obj/ 285architecture-specific target tree produced by building 286.Fx 287from source; see 288.Xr build 7 289.It Pa ports/ 290.Fx 291ports collection; see 292.Xr ports 7 293.It Pa sbin/ 294system daemons and system utilities that are executed by users 295.It Pa share/ 296architecture-independent files 297.Pp 298.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 299.It Pa calendar/ 300system-wide calendar files; see 301.Xr calendar 1 302.It Pa dict/ 303word lists; see 304.Xr look 1 305.Pp 306.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 307.It Pa freebsd 308.Fx Ns -specific 309terms, proper names, and jargon 310.It Pa web2 311words from Webster's Second International 312.El 313.Pp 314.It Pa doc/ 315miscellaneous documentation 316.It Pa examples/ 317various examples for users and programmers 318.It Pa firmware/ 319firmware images loaded by userland programs 320.It Pa games/ 321used by various games 322.It Pa keys/ 323known trusted and revoked keys 324.Pp 325.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 326.It Pa pkg/ 327fingerprints for 328.Xr pkg 7 329and 330.Xr pkg 8 331.El 332.Pp 333.It Pa locale/ 334localization files; see 335.Xr setlocale 3 336.It Pa man/ 337manual pages 338.It Pa misc/ 339miscellaneous system-wide files 340.Pp 341.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 342.It Pa termcap 343terminal characteristics database; see 344.Xr termcap 5 345.El 346.Pp 347.It Pa mk/ 348templates for make; see 349.Xr make 1 350.It Pa nls/ 351national language support files 352.It Pa security/ 353data files for security policies such as 354.Xr mac_lomac 4 355.It Pa sendmail/ 356.Xr sendmail 8 357configuration files 358.It Pa skel/ 359example 360.Pa .\& 361(dot) files for new accounts 362.It Pa snmp/ 363MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon 364.Pp 365.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 366.It Pa defs/ 367tree definition files for use with 368.Xr gensnmptree 1 369.It Pa mibs/ 370MIB files 371.El 372.Pp 373.It Pa syscons/ 374.Xr syscons 4 375files 376.Pp 377.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 378.It Pa fonts/ 379console fonts; see 380.Xr vidcontrol 1 381and 382.Xr vidfont 1 383.It Pa keymaps/ 384console keyboard maps; see 385.Xr kbdcontrol 1 386and 387.Xr kbdmap 1 388.It Pa scrnmaps/ 389console screen maps 390.El 391.Pp 392.It Pa sysroot/ 393files necessary for the -sysroot compiler/linker argument to build non-native 394binaries 395.Pp 396.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 397.It Pa VERSION/ 398files for 399.Fx 400release VERSION. 401By convention, 402.Dq VERSION 403matches 404.Xr uname 1 405.Fl r . 406.Pp 407.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 408.It Pa MACHINE.MACHINE_ARCH/ 409represent the binary ABI for these files. 410.Dq MACHINE 411matches 412.Xr uname 1 413.Fl m . 414.Dq MACHINE_ARCH 415matches 416.Xr uname 1 417.Fl p . 418.El 419.El 420.Pp 421.It Pa tabset/ 422tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in the termcap file; 423see 424.Xr termcap 5 425.It Pa vi/ 426localization support and utilities for 427.Xr vi 1 428.It Pa vt/ 429.Xr vt 4 430files 431.Pp 432.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 433.It Pa fonts/ 434console fonts; see 435.Xr vidcontrol 1 436and 437.Xr vidfont 1 438.It Pa keymaps/ 439console keyboard maps; see 440.Xr kbdcontrol 1 441and 442.Xr kbdmap 1 443.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/ 444.\" console screen maps 445.El 446.Pp 447.It Pa zoneinfo/ 448timezone configuration information; see 449.Xr tzfile 5 450.El 451.Pp 452.It Pa src/ 453.Fx 454source code; see 455.Xr development 7 . 456The layout of the source tree is described by the top-level 457.Pa README.md 458file. 459.Pp 460.It Pa tests/ 461the 462.Fx 463test suite; see 464.Xr tests 7 465.El 466.It Pa /var/ 467log, temporary, transient, and spool files 468.Pp 469.Bl -tag -width "preserve/" -compact 470.It Pa account/ 471system accounting files 472.Pp 473.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 474.It Pa acct 475execution accounting file; see 476.Xr acct 5 477.El 478.Pp 479.It Pa at/ 480timed command scheduling files; see 481.Xr at 1 482.Pp 483.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 484.It Pa jobs/ 485job files 486.It Pa spool/ 487output spool files 488.El 489.Pp 490.It Pa backups/ 491miscellaneous backup files 492.It Pa cache/ 493miscellaneous cache files 494.Pp 495.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 496.It Pa pkg/ 497cached packages for 498.Xr pkg 8 499.El 500.Pp 501.It Pa crash/ 502default directory for kernel crash dumps; see 503.Xr crash 8 504and 505.Xr savecore 8 506.It Pa cron/ 507.Xr cron 8 508files 509.Pp 510.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 511.It Pa tabs/ 512.Xr crontab 5 513files 514.El 515.Pp 516.It Pa db/ 517miscellaneous automatically-generated system-specific database files 518.Pp 519.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-update/" -compact 520.It Pa freebsd-update/ 521temporary files and downloads for 522.Xr freebsd-update 8 523.El 524.Pp 525.It Pa empty/ 526for use by programs that require an empty directory. 527Uses include privilege separation by 528.Xr sshd 8 529.It Pa games/ 530miscellaneous game status and score files 531.It Pa heimdal/ 532Kerberos server databases; see 533.Xr kdc 8 534.It Pa log/ 535miscellaneous system log files 536.Pp 537.Bl -tag -width "utx.lastlogin" -compact 538.It Pa utx.lastlogin 539last login log; see 540.Xr getutxent 3 541.It Pa utx.log 542login/logout log; see 543.Xr getutxent 3 544.El 545.Pp 546.It Pa mail/ 547user mailbox files 548.It Pa msgs/ 549system messages database; see 550.Xr msgs 1 551.It Pa preserve/ 552unused, present for historical reasons 553.It Pa quotas/ 554file system quota information files 555.It Pa run/ 556files containing information about the operating system since it was booted 557.Pp 558.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 559.It Pa bhyve/ 560.Xr bhyve 8 561virtual machine 562.Xr unix 4 Ns -domain sockets 563.It Pa ppp/ 564writable by the 565.Dq network 566group for command connection sockets; see 567.Xr ppp 8 568.It Pa utx.active 569database of current users; see 570.Xr getutxent 3 571.El 572.Pp 573.It Pa rwho/ 574rwho data files; see 575.Xr rwhod 8 , 576.Xr rwho 1 , 577and 578.Xr ruptime 1 579.It Pa spool/ 580miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 581.Pp 582.Bl -tag -width "clientmqueue/" -compact 583.It Pa clientmqueue/ 584undelivered submission mail queue; see 585.Xr sendmail 8 586.It Pa ftp/ 587ftp root directory; see 588.Xr ftpd 8 589.It Pa mqueue/ 590undelivered mail queue; see 591.Xr sendmail 8 592.It Pa output/ 593line printer spooling directories 594.El 595.Pp 596.It Pa tmp/ 597temporary files that are not removed by 598.Xr rc 8 599.Pp 600.Bl -tag -width "vi.recover/" -compact 601.It Pa vi.recover/ 602.Xr vi 1 603recovery files 604.El 605.Pp 606.It Pa yp/ 607the NIS maps; see 608.Xr yp 8 609.El 610.El 611.Sh NOTES 612This manual page documents the default 613.Fx 614file system layout. 615The actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 616administrator's discretion. 617A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 618this document. 619.Sh SEE ALSO 620.Xr apropos 1 , 621.Xr find 1 , 622.Xr grep 1 , 623.Xr ls 1 , 624.Xr whereis 1 , 625.Xr which 1 626.Sh HISTORY 627A 628.Nm 629manual page appeared in 630.At v7 . 631