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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)hier.7 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd January 15, 2005 36.Dt HIER 7 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm hier 40.Nd layout of file systems 41.Sh DESCRIPTION 42A sketch of the file system hierarchy. 43.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /libexec/" 44.It Pa / 45root directory of the file system 46.It Pa /bin/ 47user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 48.It Pa /boot/ 49programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap 50.Pp 51.Bl -tag -width ".Pa defaults/" -compact 52.It Pa defaults/ 53default bootstrapping configuration files; see 54.Xr loader.conf 5 55.It Pa kernel/ 56pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory 57at boot time). 58.It Pa modules/ 59third-party loadable kernel modules; 60see 61.Xr kldstat 8 62.El 63.It Pa /cdrom/ 64default mount point for CD-ROM drives 65(created by 66.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 67.It Pa /compat/ 68normally a link to 69.Pa /usr/compat . 70If not, then the 71.Pa /usr/compat 72comments apply 73(created by 74.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 75.It Pa /dev/ 76device special files managed by 77.Xr devfs 5 78.Pp 79.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 80.It Pa fd/ 81file descriptor files; 82see 83.Xr \&fd 4 84.It Pa net/ 85network devices 86.El 87.It Pa /dist/ 88mount point used by 89.Xr sysinstall 8 90.It Pa /etc/ 91system configuration files and scripts 92.Pp 93.Bl -tag -width ".Pa defaults/" -compact 94.It Pa defaults/ 95default system configuration files; 96see 97.Xr rc 8 98.It Pa gnats/ 99gnats configuration files; 100see 101.Xr send-pr 1 102.It Pa isdn/ 103isdn4bsd configuration files; 104see 105.Xr isdnd 8 106.It Pa localtime 107local timezone information; 108see 109.Xr ctime 3 110.It Pa mail/ 111Sendmail control files 112.It Pa mtree/ 113mtree configuration files; 114see 115.Xr mtree 8 116.It Pa namedb/ 117named configuration files; 118see 119.Xr named 8 120.It Pa pam.d/ 121configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 122library; 123see 124.Xr pam 8 125.It Pa periodic/ 126scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 127.Xr cron 8 ; 128see 129.Xr periodic 8 130.It Pa ppp/ 131ppp configuration files; 132see 133.Xr ppp 8 134.It Pa ssl/ 135OpenSSL configuration files 136.El 137.It Pa /lib/ 138critical system libraries needed for binaries in 139.Pa /bin 140and 141.Pa /sbin 142.Pp 143.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 144.It Pa geom/ 145class-specific libraries for the 146.Xr geom 8 147utility 148.El 149.It Pa /libexec/ 150critical system utilities needed for binaries in 151.Pa /bin 152and 153.Pa /sbin 154.It Pa /mnt/ 155empty directory commonly used by 156system administrators as a temporary mount point 157.It Pa /proc/ 158process file system; 159see 160.Xr procfs 5 , 161.Xr mount_procfs 8 162.It Pa /rescue/ 163statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 164see 165.Xr rescue 8 166.It Pa /root/ 167root's HOME directory 168.It Pa /sbin/ 169system programs and administration utilities 170fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 171.It Pa /stand/ 172programs used in a standalone environment 173.It Pa /tmp/ 174temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 175.It Pa /usr/ 176contains the majority of user utilities and applications 177.Pp 178.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 179.It Pa bin/ 180common utilities, programming tools, and applications 181.It Pa compat/ 182files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 183such as Linux 184(created by 185.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 186.It Pa games/ 187useful and semi-frivolous programs 188.It Pa include/ 189standard C include files 190.Pp 191.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 192.It Pa altq/ 193C include files for alternate queueing 194.It Pa arpa/ 195C include files for Internet service protocols 196.It Pa bsnmp/ 197C include files for the SNMP daemon 198.It Pa c++/ 199C++ include files 200.It Pa cam/ 201C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 202.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 203.It Pa scsi/ 204The SCSI device on top of CAM 205.El 206.It Pa dev/ 207C include files for programming various 208.Fx 209devices 210.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 211.It Pa ic/ 212Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 213hardware circuits 214.It Pa ofw/ 215Open Firmware support 216.It Pa pbio/ 2178255 PPI cards; 218see 219.Xr pbio 4 220.It Pa ppbus/ 221The parallel port bus; 222see 223.Xr ppbus 4 224.It Pa usb/ 225The USB subsystem 226.It Pa utopia/ 227Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 228see 229.Xr utopia 4 230.It Pa wi/ 231The 232.Xr wi 4 233WaveLAN driver 234.El 235.It Pa fs/ 236.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 237.It Pa fdescfs/ 238per-process file descriptors file system 239.It Pa fifofs/ 240.St -p1003.1 241FIFOs file system 242.It Pa msdosfs/ 243MS-DOS file system 244.It Pa ntfs/ 245NTFS file system 246.It Pa nullfs/ 247loopback file system 248.It Pa nwfs/ 249NetWare file system 250.It Pa portalfs/ 251portal 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 umapfs/ 259alternate uid/gid mappings file system 260.It Pa unionfs 261union file system 262.El 263.It Pa geom/ 264GEOM framework 265.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 266.It Pa concat/ 267CONCAT GEOM class 268.It Pa gate/ 269GATE GEOM class 270.It Pa mirror/ 271MIRROR GEOM class 272.It Pa nop/ 273NOP GEOM class 274.It Pa raid3/ 275RAID3 GEOM class 276.It Pa stripe/ 277STRIPE GEOM class 278.El 279.Pp 280.It Pa isc/ 281ISC utility library libisc include files 282.It Pa isofs/ 283.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 284.It Pa cd9660/ 285iso9660 file system 286.El 287.It Pa libmilter/ 288C include files for libmilter, 289the 290.Xr sendmail 8 291mail filter API 292.It Pa machine/ 293machine-specific C include files 294.It Pa net/ 295miscellaneous network C include files 296.It Pa netatalk/ 297Appletalk protocol 298.It Pa netatm/ 299ATM include files; 300see 301.Xr atm 8 302.It Pa netinet/ 303C include files for Internet standard protocols; 304see 305.Xr inet 4 306.It Pa netinet6/ 307C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 308see 309.Xr inet6 4 310.It Pa netipx/ 311IPX/SPX protocol stacks 312.It Pa netkey/ 313kernel key-management service 314.It Pa netnatm/ 315NATM include files; 316see 317.Xr natm 4 318.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 319.It Pa api/ 320include files for the signalling API 321.It Pa msg/ 322include files that describe signalling messages and 323declare associated functions 324.It Pa saal/ 325include files for the signalling AAL layer 326.It Pa sig/ 327include files for the UNI signalling protocol 328.El 329.It Pa netsmb/ 330SMB/CIFS requester 331.It Pa nfs/ 332C include files for NFS (Network File System) 333.It Pa objc/ 334Objective C include files 335.It Pa openssl/ 336OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 337.It Pa pccard/ 338PC-CARD controllers 339.It Pa posix4/ 340POSIX real-time extensions includes; 341see 342.Xr p1003_1b 9 343.It Pa protocols/ 344C include files for Berkeley service protocols 345.It Pa readline/ 346get a line from a user, with editing; 347see 348.Xr readline 3 349.It Pa rpc/ 350remote procedure calls; 351see 352.Xr rpc 3 353.It Pa rpcsvc/ 354definition of RPC service structures; see 355.Xr rpc 3 356.It Pa security/ 357PAM; see 358.Xr pam 8 359.It Pa sys/ 360system C include files (kernel data structures) 361.\" .It Pa tcl/ 362.\" Tcl language; 363.\" see 364.\" .Xr Tcl n 365.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 366.\" .It Pa generic/ 367.\" ??? 368.\" .It Pa unix/ 369.\" ??? 370.\" .El 371.It Pa ufs/ 372C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 373.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 374.It Pa ffs/ 375Fast file system 376.It Pa ufs/ 377UFS file system 378.El 379.It Pa vm/ 380virtual memory; 381see 382.Xr vmstat 8 383.El 384.Pp 385.It Pa lib/ 386shared and archive 387.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 388libraries 389.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 390.It Pa aout/ 391a.out archive libraries 392.It Pa compat/ 393shared libraries for compatibility 394.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 395.It Pa aout/ 396a.out backward compatibility libraries 397.El 398.El 399.Pp 400.It Pa libdata/ 401miscellaneous utility data files 402.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 403.It Pa gcc/ 404.Xr gcc 1 405configuration data 406.It Pa ldscripts/ 407linker scripts; 408see 409.Xr ld 1 410.It Pa lint/ 411various prebuilt lint libraries; 412see 413.Xr lint 1 414.El 415.Pp 416.It Pa libexec/ 417system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 418.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 419.It Pa aout/ 420utilities to manipulate a.out executables 421.It Pa elf/ 422utilities to manipulate ELF executables 423.It Pa lpr/ 424utilities and filters for LP print system; 425see 426.Xr lpr 1 427.It Pa sendmail/ 428the 429.Xr sendmail 8 430binary; 431see 432.Xr mailwrapper 8 433.It Pa sm.bin/ 434restricted shell for 435.Xr sendmail 8 ; 436see 437.Xr smrsh 8 438.El 439.Pp 440.It Pa local/ 441local executables, libraries, etc. 442Also used as the default destination for the 443.Fx 444ports framework. 445Within local/, the general layout sketched out by 446.Nm 447for /usr 448should be used. 449Exceptions are the man directory (directly under local/ 450rather than under local/share/), ports documentation (in share/doc/<port>/), 451and /usr/local/etc (mimics /etc). 452.It Pa obj/ 453architecture-specific target tree produced by building the /usr/src tree 454.It Pa ports/ 455The 456.Fx 457ports collection (optional). 458.It Pa sbin/ 459system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 460.It Pa share/ 461architecture-independent files 462.Pp 463.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 464.It Pa calendar/ 465a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 466see 467.Xr calendar 1 468.It Pa dict/ 469word lists; 470see 471.Xr look 1 472.Pp 473.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 474.It Pa freebsd 475.Fx Ns -specific 476terms, proper names, and jargon 477.It Pa words 478common words 479.It Pa web2 480words from Webster's 2nd International 481.It Pa papers/ 482reference databases; 483see 484.Xr refer 1 485.El 486.Pp 487.It Pa doc/ 488miscellaneous documentation; 489source for most of the printed 490.Bx 491manuals (available 492from the 493.Tn USENIX 494association) 495.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 496.It Pa FAQ/ 497Frequently Asked Questions 498.It Pa IPv6/ 499implementation notes for IPv6 500.It Pa bind/ 501documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 502.It Pa es/ 503Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 504.It Pa handbook/ 505.Fx 506Handbook 507.It Pa ja/ 508Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 509.It Pa ncurses/ 510HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 511see 512.Xr ncurses 3 513.It Pa ntp/ 514HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 515.It Pa papers/ 516UNIX Papers 517.It Pa psd/ 518UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 519.It Pa ru/ 520Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 521.It Pa smm/ 522UNIX System Manager's Manual 523.It Pa tutorials/ 524.Fx 525tutorials 526.It Pa usd/ 527UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 528.It Pa zh/ 529Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 530.El 531.Pp 532.It Pa examples/ 533various examples for users and programmers 534.It Pa games/ 535ASCII text files used by various games 536.It Pa groff_font/ 537device description file for device name 538.It Pa info/ 539GNU Info hypertext system 540.It Pa isdn/ 541ISDN 542.It Pa locale/ 543localization files; 544see 545.Xr setlocale 3 546.It Pa man/ 547manual pages 548.It Pa me/ 549macros for use with the me macro package; 550see 551.Xr me 7 552.It Pa misc/ 553miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 554.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 555.It Pa fonts/ 556??? 557.It Pa pcvtfonts/ 558pcvt fonts; 559see 560.Xr pcvt 4 561.It Pa termcap 562terminal characteristics database; 563see 564.Xr termcap 5 565.El 566.It Pa mk/ 567templates for make; 568see 569.Xr make 1 570.It Pa nls/ 571national language support files; 572see 573.Xr mklocale 1 574.It Pa pcvt/ 575pcvt documentation and etc examples; 576see 577.Xr pcvt 4 578.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 contrib/ 644source code for contributed software 645.It Pa crypto/ 646source code for contributed cryptography software 647.It Pa etc/ 648source code for files in /etc 649.It Pa games/ 650source code for files in /usr/games 651.It Pa gnu/ 652Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 653.It Pa include/ 654source code for files in /usr/include 655.It Pa kerberos5/ 656build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 657.It Pa lib/ 658source code for files in /usr/lib 659.It Pa libexec/ 660source code for files in /usr/libexec 661.It Pa release/ 662files required to produce a 663.Fx 664release 665.It Pa sbin/ 666source code for files in /sbin 667.It Pa secure/ 668build directory for files in /usr/src/crypto 669.It Pa share/ 670source for files in /usr/share 671.It Pa sys/ 672kernel source code 673.It Pa tools/ 674tools used for maintenance and testing of 675.Fx 676.It Pa usr.bin/ 677source code for files in /usr/bin 678.It Pa usr.sbin/ 679source code for files in /usr/sbin 680.El 681.Pp 682.It Pa X11R6/ 683X11R6 distribution executables, libraries, etc (optional). 684.Bl -tag -width ".Pa include/" -compact 685.It Pa bin/ 686X11R6 binaries (servers, utilities, local packages/ports). 687.It Pa etc/ 688X11R6 configuration files and scripts. 689.It Pa include/ 690X11R6 include files. 691.It Pa lib/ 692X11R6 libraries. 693.It Pa man/ 694X11R6 manual pages. 695.It Pa share/ 696architecture-independent files. 697.El 698.El 699.It Pa /var/ 700multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 701.Pp 702.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 703.It Pa account/ 704system accounting files 705.Pp 706.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 707.It Pa acct 708execution accounting file; 709see 710.Xr acct 5 711.El 712.Pp 713.It Pa at/ 714timed command scheduling files; 715see 716.Xr \&at 1 717.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 718.It Pa jobs/ 719directory containing job files 720.It Pa spool/ 721directory containing output spool files 722.El 723.Pp 724.It Pa backups/ 725miscellaneous backup files 726.It Pa crash/ 727default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 728.Xr crash 8 729and 730.Xr savecore 8 731.It Pa cron/ 732files used by cron; 733see 734.Xr cron 8 735.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 736.It Pa tabs/ 737crontab files; 738see 739.Xr crontab 5 740.El 741.Pp 742.It Pa db/ 743miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 744.It Pa empty/ 745empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 746Used for instance by 747.Xr sshd 8 748for privilege separation. 749.It Pa games/ 750miscellaneous game status and score files 751.It Pa heimdal/ 752kerberos server databases; see 753.Xr kdc 8 754.It Pa log/ 755miscellaneous system log files 756.Pp 757.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 758.It Pa wtmp 759login/logout log; 760see 761.Xr wtmp 5 762.El 763.Pp 764.It Pa mail/ 765user mailbox files 766.It Pa msgs/ 767system messages database; 768see 769.Xr msgs 1 770.It Pa preserve/ 771temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 772of an editor; 773see 774.Xr \&ex 1 775.It Pa quotas/ 776file system quota information files 777.It Pa run/ 778system information files describing various info about 779system since it was booted 780.Pp 781.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 782.It Pa named/ 783writable by the 784.Dq bind 785user; see 786.Xr named 8 787.It Pa ppp/ 788writable by the 789.Dq network 790group for command connection sockets; see 791.Xr ppp 8 792.It Pa utmp 793database of current users; 794see 795.Xr utmp 5 796.El 797.Pp 798.It Pa rwho/ 799rwho data files; 800see 801.Xr rwhod 8 , 802.Xr rwho 1 , 803and 804.Xr ruptime 1 805.It Pa spool/ 806miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 807.Pp 808.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 809.It Pa clientmqueue/ 810undelivered submission mail queue; 811see 812.Xr sendmail 8 813.It Pa ftp/ 814commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 815.It Pa mqueue/ 816undelivered mail queue; 817see 818.Xr sendmail 8 819.It Pa output/ 820line printer spooling directories 821.El 822.Pp 823.It Pa tmp/ 824temporary files that are kept between system reboots 825.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 826.It Pa vi.recover/ 827the directory where recovery files are stored 828.El 829.It Pa yp/ 830the NIS maps 831.El 832.El 833.Sh NOTES 834This manual page documents the default 835.Fx 836file system layout, but 837the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 838administrator's discretion. 839A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 840this document. 841.Sh SEE ALSO 842.Xr apropos 1 , 843.Xr find 1 , 844.Xr finger 1 , 845.Xr grep 1 , 846.Xr ls 1 , 847.Xr whatis 1 , 848.Xr whereis 1 , 849.Xr which 1 , 850.Xr fd 4 , 851.Xr devfs 5 , 852.Xr fsck 8 853.Sh HISTORY 854A 855.Nm 856manual page appeared in 857.At v7 . 858