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 21, 2010 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 bluetooth/" -compact 94.It Pa defaults/ 95default system configuration files; 96see 97.Xr rc 8 98.It Pa bluetooth/ 99bluetooth configuration files 100.It Pa gnats/ 101gnats configuration files; 102see 103.Xr send-pr 1 104.It Pa localtime 105local timezone information; 106see 107.Xr ctime 3 108.It Pa mail/ 109Sendmail control files 110.It Pa mtree/ 111mtree configuration files; 112see 113.Xr mtree 8 114.It Pa namedb/ 115named configuration files; 116see 117.Xr named 8 118.It Pa pam.d/ 119configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 120library 121.It Pa periodic/ 122scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 123.Xr cron 8 ; 124see 125.Xr periodic 8 126.It Pa rc.d/ 127System and daemon startup/control scripts; 128see 129.Xr rc 8 130.It Pa security/ 131OpenBSM audit configuration files; 132see 133.Xr audit 8 134.It Pa ppp/ 135ppp configuration files; 136see 137.Xr ppp 8 138.It Pa ssh/ 139OpenSSH configuration files; 140see 141.Xr ssh 1 142.It Pa ssl/ 143OpenSSL configuration files 144.El 145.It Pa /lib/ 146critical system libraries needed for binaries in 147.Pa /bin 148and 149.Pa /sbin 150.Pp 151.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 152.It Pa geom/ 153class-specific libraries for the 154.Xr geom 8 155utility 156.El 157.It Pa /libexec/ 158critical system utilities needed for binaries in 159.Pa /bin 160and 161.Pa /sbin 162.It Pa /media/ 163contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 164for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 165floppy disks 166.It Pa /mnt/ 167empty directory commonly used by 168system administrators as a temporary mount point 169.It Pa /proc/ 170process file system; 171see 172.Xr procfs 5 173.It Pa /rescue/ 174statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 175see 176.Xr rescue 8 177.It Pa /root/ 178root's HOME directory 179.It Pa /sbin/ 180system programs and administration utilities 181fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 182.It Pa /tmp/ 183temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 184.It Pa /usr/ 185contains the majority of user utilities and applications 186.Pp 187.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 188.It Pa bin/ 189common utilities, programming tools, and applications 190.It Pa compat/ 191files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 192such as Linux 193(created by 194.Xr sysinstall 8 ) 195.It Pa games/ 196useful and semi-frivolous programs 197.It Pa include/ 198standard C include files 199.Pp 200.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 201.It Pa altq/ 202C include files for alternate queueing 203.It Pa arpa/ 204C include files for Internet service protocols 205.It Pa bsnmp/ 206C include files for the SNMP daemon 207.It Pa c++/ 208C++ include files 209.It Pa cam/ 210C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 211.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 212.It Pa scsi/ 213The SCSI device on top of CAM 214.El 215.It Pa dev/ 216C include files for programming various 217.Fx 218devices 219.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 220.It Pa ic/ 221Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 222hardware circuits 223.It Pa ofw/ 224Open Firmware support 225.It Pa pbio/ 2268255 PPI cards; 227see 228.Xr pbio 4 229.It Pa ppbus/ 230The parallel port bus; 231see 232.Xr ppbus 4 233.It Pa usb/ 234The USB subsystem 235.It Pa utopia/ 236Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 237see 238.Xr utopia 4 239.It Pa wi/ 240The 241.Xr wi 4 242WaveLAN driver 243.El 244.It Pa fs/ 245.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 246.It Pa fdescfs/ 247per-process file descriptors file system 248.It Pa fifofs/ 249.St -p1003.1 250FIFOs file system 251.It Pa msdosfs/ 252MS-DOS file system 253.It Pa nfs/ 254C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 255.It Pa nullfs/ 256loopback file system 257.It Pa procfs/ 258process file system 259.It Pa smbfs/ 260SMB/CIFS file system 261.It Pa udf/ 262UDF file system 263.It Pa unionfs 264union file system 265.El 266.It Pa geom/ 267GEOM framework 268.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 269.It Pa concat/ 270CONCAT GEOM class 271.It Pa gate/ 272GATE GEOM class 273.It Pa mirror/ 274MIRROR GEOM class 275.It Pa nop/ 276NOP GEOM class 277.It Pa raid3/ 278RAID3 GEOM class 279.It Pa stripe/ 280STRIPE GEOM class 281.El 282.Pp 283.It Pa isc/ 284ISC utility library libisc include files 285.It Pa isofs/ 286.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 287.It Pa cd9660/ 288iso9660 file system 289.El 290.It Pa libmilter/ 291C include files for libmilter, 292the 293.Xr sendmail 8 294mail filter API 295.It Pa machine/ 296machine-specific C include files 297.It Pa net/ 298miscellaneous network C include files 299.It Pa netatalk/ 300Appletalk protocol 301.It Pa netinet/ 302C include files for Internet standard protocols; 303see 304.Xr inet 4 305.It Pa netinet6/ 306C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 307see 308.Xr inet6 4 309.It Pa netipsec/ 310kernel key-management service; 311see 312.Xr ipsec 4 313.It Pa netipx/ 314IPX/SPX protocol stacks 315.It Pa netnatm/ 316NATM include files; 317see 318.Xr natm 4 319.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 320.It Pa api/ 321include files for the signalling API 322.It Pa msg/ 323include files that describe signalling messages and 324declare associated functions 325.It Pa saal/ 326include files for the signalling AAL layer 327.It Pa sig/ 328include files for the UNI signalling protocol 329.El 330.It Pa netsmb/ 331SMB/CIFS requester 332.It Pa nfs/ 333C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 334.It Pa objc/ 335Objective C include files 336.It Pa openssl/ 337OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 338.It Pa pccard/ 339PC-CARD controllers 340.It Pa protocols/ 341C include files for Berkeley service protocols 342.It Pa readline/ 343get a line from a user, with editing; 344see 345.Xr readline 3 346.It Pa rpc/ 347remote procedure calls; 348see 349.Xr rpc 3 350.It Pa rpcsvc/ 351definition of RPC service structures; see 352.Xr rpc 3 353.It Pa security/ 354PAM; see 355.Xr pam 8 356.It Pa sys/ 357system C include files (kernel data structures) 358.\" .It Pa tcl/ 359.\" Tcl language; 360.\" see 361.\" .Xr Tcl n 362.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 363.\" .It Pa generic/ 364.\" ??? 365.\" .It Pa unix/ 366.\" ??? 367.\" .El 368.It Pa ufs/ 369C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 370.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 371.It Pa ffs/ 372Fast file system 373.It Pa ufs/ 374UFS file system 375.El 376.It Pa vm/ 377virtual memory; 378see 379.Xr vmstat 8 380.El 381.Pp 382.It Pa lib/ 383shared and archive 384.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 385libraries 386.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 387.It Pa aout/ 388a.out archive libraries 389.It Pa compat/ 390shared libraries for compatibility 391.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 392.It Pa aout/ 393a.out backward compatibility libraries 394.El 395.It Pa dtrace/ 396DTrace library scripts 397.It Pa engines/ 398OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 399.El 400.Pp 401.It Pa libdata/ 402miscellaneous utility data files 403.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 404.It Pa gcc/ 405.Xr gcc 1 406configuration data 407.It Pa ldscripts/ 408linker scripts; 409see 410.Xr ld 1 411.It Pa lint/ 412various prebuilt lint libraries; 413see 414.Xr lint 1 415.El 416.Pp 417.It Pa libexec/ 418system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 419.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 420.It Pa aout/ 421utilities to manipulate a.out executables 422.It Pa elf/ 423utilities to manipulate ELF executables 424.It Pa lpr/ 425utilities and filters for LP print system; 426see 427.Xr lpr 1 428.It Pa sendmail/ 429the 430.Xr sendmail 8 431binary; 432see 433.Xr mailwrapper 8 434.It Pa sm.bin/ 435restricted shell for 436.Xr sendmail 8 ; 437see 438.Xr smrsh 8 439.El 440.Pp 441.It Pa local/ 442local executables, libraries, etc. 443Also used as the default destination for the 444.Fx 445ports framework. 446Within local/, the general layout sketched out by 447.Nm 448for /usr 449should be used. 450Exceptions are the man directory (directly under local/ 451rather than under local/share/), ports documentation (in share/doc/<port>/), 452and /usr/local/etc (mimics /etc). 453.It Pa obj/ 454architecture-specific target tree produced by building the /usr/src tree 455.It Pa ports/ 456The 457.Fx 458ports collection (optional). 459.It Pa sbin/ 460system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 461.It Pa share/ 462architecture-independent files 463.Pp 464.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 465.It Pa calendar/ 466a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 467see 468.Xr calendar 1 469.It Pa dict/ 470word lists; 471see 472.Xr look 1 473.Pp 474.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 475.It Pa freebsd 476.Fx Ns -specific 477terms, proper names, and jargon 478.It Pa words 479common words 480.It Pa web2 481words from Webster's 2nd International 482.It Pa papers/ 483reference databases; 484see 485.Xr refer 1 486.El 487.Pp 488.It Pa doc/ 489miscellaneous documentation; 490source for most of the printed 491.Bx 492manuals (available 493from the 494.Tn USENIX 495association) 496.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 497.It Pa FAQ/ 498Frequently Asked Questions 499.It Pa IPv6/ 500implementation notes for IPv6 501.It Pa bind/ 502documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 503.It Pa es/ 504Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 505.It Pa handbook/ 506.Fx 507Handbook 508.It Pa ja/ 509Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 510.It Pa legal/ 511License files for vendor supplied firmwares 512.It Pa ncurses/ 513HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 514see 515.Xr ncurses 3 516.It Pa ntp/ 517HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 518.It Pa papers/ 519UNIX Papers 520.It Pa psd/ 521UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 522.It Pa ru/ 523Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 524.It Pa smm/ 525UNIX System Manager's Manual 526.It Pa tutorials/ 527.Fx 528tutorials 529.It Pa usd/ 530UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 531.It Pa zh/ 532Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 533.El 534.Pp 535.It Pa examples/ 536various examples for users and programmers 537.It Pa games/ 538ASCII text files used by various games 539.It Pa groff_font/ 540device description file for device name 541.It Pa info/ 542GNU Info hypertext system 543.It Pa locale/ 544localization files; 545see 546.Xr setlocale 3 547.It Pa man/ 548manual pages 549.It Pa mdocml/ 550data files used by mdocml 551.It Pa me/ 552macros for use with the me macro package; 553see 554.Xr me 7 555.It Pa misc/ 556miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 557.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 558.It Pa fonts/ 559??? 560.It Pa termcap 561terminal characteristics database; 562see 563.Xr termcap 5 564.El 565.It Pa mk/ 566templates for make; 567see 568.Xr make 1 569.It Pa nls/ 570national language support files; 571see 572.Xr mklocale 1 573.It Pa security/ 574data files for security policies such as 575.Xr mac_lomac 4 576.It Pa sendmail/ 577.Xr sendmail 8 578configuration files 579.It Pa skel/ 580example 581.Pa .\& 582(dot) files for new accounts 583.It Pa snmp/ 584MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 585.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 586.It Pa defs/ 587Tree definition files for use with 588.Xr gensnmptree 1 589.It Pa mibs/ 590MIB files 591.El 592.It Pa syscons/ 593files used by syscons; 594see 595.Xr syscons 4 596.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 597.It Pa fonts/ 598console fonts; 599see 600.Xr vidcontrol 1 601and 602.Xr vidfont 1 603.It Pa keymaps/ 604console keyboard maps; 605see 606.Xr kbdcontrol 1 607and 608.Xr kbdmap 1 609.It Pa scrnmaps/ 610console screen maps 611.El 612.It Pa tabset/ 613tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 614the termcap file; 615see 616.Xr termcap 5 617.It Pa tmac/ 618text processing macros; 619see 620.Xr nroff 1 621and 622.Xr troff 1 623.It Pa vi/ 624localization support and utilities for 625.Xr vi 1 626.It Pa zoneinfo/ 627timezone configuration information; 628see 629.Xr tzfile 5 630.El 631.It Pa src/ 632.Bx , 633third-party, and/or local source files 634.Pp 635.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 636.It Pa bin/ 637source code for files in /bin 638.It Pa cddl/ 639Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 640.It Pa contrib/ 641source code for contributed software 642.It Pa crypto/ 643source code for contributed cryptography software 644.It Pa etc/ 645source code for files in /etc 646.It Pa games/ 647source code for files in /usr/games 648.It Pa gnu/ 649Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 650.It Pa include/ 651source code for files in /usr/include 652.It Pa kerberos5/ 653build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 654.It Pa lib/ 655source code for files in /usr/lib 656.It Pa libexec/ 657source code for files in /usr/libexec 658.It Pa release/ 659files required to produce a 660.Fx 661release 662.It Pa sbin/ 663source code for files in /sbin 664.It Pa secure/ 665build directory for files in /usr/src/crypto 666.It Pa share/ 667source for files in /usr/share 668.It Pa sys/ 669kernel source code 670.It Pa tools/ 671tools used for maintenance and testing of 672.Fx 673.It Pa usr.bin/ 674source code for files in /usr/bin 675.It Pa usr.sbin/ 676source code for files in /usr/sbin 677.El 678.El 679.It Pa /var/ 680multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 681.Pp 682.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 683.It Pa account/ 684system accounting files 685.Pp 686.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 687.It Pa acct 688execution accounting file; 689see 690.Xr acct 5 691.El 692.Pp 693.It Pa at/ 694timed command scheduling files; 695see 696.Xr \&at 1 697.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 698.It Pa jobs/ 699directory containing job files 700.It Pa spool/ 701directory containing output spool files 702.El 703.Pp 704.It Pa backups/ 705miscellaneous backup files 706.It Pa crash/ 707default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 708.Xr crash 8 709and 710.Xr savecore 8 711.It Pa cron/ 712files used by cron; 713see 714.Xr cron 8 715.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 716.It Pa tabs/ 717crontab files; 718see 719.Xr crontab 5 720.El 721.Pp 722.It Pa db/ 723miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 724.It Pa empty/ 725empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 726Used for instance by 727.Xr sshd 8 728for privilege separation. 729.It Pa games/ 730miscellaneous game status and score files 731.It Pa heimdal/ 732kerberos server databases; see 733.Xr kdc 8 734.It Pa log/ 735miscellaneous system log files 736.Pp 737.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 738.It Pa utx.lastlogin 739last login log; 740see 741.Xr getutxent 3 742.It Pa utx.log 743login/logout log; 744see 745.Xr getutxent 3 746.El 747.Pp 748.It Pa mail/ 749user mailbox files 750.It Pa msgs/ 751system messages database; 752see 753.Xr msgs 1 754.It Pa preserve/ 755temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 756of an editor; 757see 758.Xr \&ex 1 759.It Pa quotas/ 760file system quota information files 761.It Pa run/ 762system information files describing various info about 763system since it was booted 764.Pp 765.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 766.It Pa named/ 767writable by the 768.Dq bind 769user; see 770.Xr named 8 771.It Pa ppp/ 772writable by the 773.Dq network 774group for command connection sockets; see 775.Xr ppp 8 776.It Pa utx.active 777database of current users; 778see 779.Xr getutxent 3 780.El 781.Pp 782.It Pa rwho/ 783rwho data files; 784see 785.Xr rwhod 8 , 786.Xr rwho 1 , 787and 788.Xr ruptime 1 789.It Pa spool/ 790miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 791.Pp 792.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 793.It Pa clientmqueue/ 794undelivered submission mail queue; 795see 796.Xr sendmail 8 797.It Pa ftp/ 798commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 799.It Pa mqueue/ 800undelivered mail queue; 801see 802.Xr sendmail 8 803.It Pa output/ 804line printer spooling directories 805.El 806.Pp 807.It Pa tmp/ 808temporary files that are kept between system reboots 809.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 810.It Pa vi.recover/ 811the directory where recovery files are stored 812.El 813.It Pa yp/ 814the NIS maps 815.El 816.El 817.Sh NOTES 818This manual page documents the default 819.Fx 820file system layout, but 821the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 822administrator's discretion. 823A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 824this document. 825.Sh SEE ALSO 826.Xr apropos 1 , 827.Xr find 1 , 828.Xr finger 1 , 829.Xr grep 1 , 830.Xr ls 1 , 831.Xr whatis 1 , 832.Xr whereis 1 , 833.Xr which 1 , 834.Xr fd 4 , 835.Xr devfs 5 , 836.Xr fsck 8 837.Sh HISTORY 838A 839.Nm 840manual page appeared in 841.At v7 . 842