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 March 2, 2017 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 firmware/ 549Firmware images loaded by userland programs 550.It Pa games/ 551ASCII text files used by various games 552.It Pa groff_font/ 553device description file for device name 554.It Pa info/ 555GNU Info hypertext system 556.It Pa keys/ 557known trusted and revoked keys. 558.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 559.It Pa keys/pkg/ 560fingerprints for 561.Xr pkg 7 562and 563.Xr pkg 8 564.El 565.Pp 566.It Pa locale/ 567localization files; 568see 569.Xr setlocale 3 570.It Pa man/ 571manual pages 572.It Pa mdocml/ 573data files used by mdocml 574.It Pa me/ 575macros for use with the me macro package; 576see 577.Xr me 7 578.It Pa misc/ 579miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 580.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 581.It Pa fonts/ 582??? 583.It Pa termcap 584terminal characteristics database; 585see 586.Xr termcap 5 587.El 588.It Pa mk/ 589templates for make; 590see 591.Xr make 1 592.It Pa nls/ 593national language support files; 594see 595.Xr mklocale 1 596.It Pa security/ 597data files for security policies such as 598.Xr mac_lomac 4 599.It Pa sendmail/ 600.Xr sendmail 8 601configuration files 602.It Pa skel/ 603example 604.Pa .\& 605(dot) files for new accounts 606.It Pa snmp/ 607MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 608.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 609.It Pa defs/ 610Tree definition files for use with 611.Xr gensnmptree 1 612.It Pa mibs/ 613MIB files 614.El 615.It Pa syscons/ 616files used by syscons; 617see 618.Xr syscons 4 619.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 620.It Pa fonts/ 621console fonts; 622see 623.Xr vidcontrol 1 624and 625.Xr vidfont 1 626.It Pa keymaps/ 627console keyboard maps; 628see 629.Xr kbdcontrol 1 630and 631.Xr kbdmap 1 632.It Pa scrnmaps/ 633console screen maps 634.El 635.It Pa tabset/ 636tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 637the termcap file; 638see 639.Xr termcap 5 640.It Pa tmac/ 641text processing macros; 642see 643.Xr nroff 1 644and 645.Xr troff 1 646.It Pa vi/ 647localization support and utilities for 648.Xr vi 1 649.It Pa zoneinfo/ 650timezone configuration information; 651see 652.Xr tzfile 5 653.El 654.It Pa vt/ 655files used by vt; 656see 657.Xr vt 4 658.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 659.It Pa fonts/ 660console fonts; 661see 662.Xr vidcontrol 1 663and 664.Xr vidfont 1 665.It Pa keymaps/ 666console keyboard maps; 667see 668.Xr kbdcontrol 1 669and 670.Xr kbdmap 1 671.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/ 672.\" console screen maps 673.El 674.It Pa src/ 675.Bx , 676third-party, and/or local source files 677.Pp 678.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 679.It Pa bin/ 680source code for files in /bin 681.It Pa cddl/ 682Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 683.It Pa contrib/ 684source code for contributed software 685.It Pa crypto/ 686source code for contributed cryptography software 687.It Pa etc/ 688source code for files in 689.Pa /etc 690.It Pa gnu/ 691Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 692.It Pa include/ 693source code for files in 694.Pa /usr/include 695.It Pa kerberos5/ 696build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 697.It Pa lib/ 698source code for files in 699.Pa /usr/lib 700.It Pa libexec/ 701source code for files in 702.Pa /usr/libexec 703.It Pa release/ 704files required to produce a 705.Fx 706release 707.It Pa rescue/ 708source code for files in 709.Pa /rescue 710.It Pa sbin/ 711source code for files in 712.Pa /sbin 713.It Pa secure/ 714build directory for files in 715.Pa /usr/src/crypto 716.It Pa share/ 717source for files in 718.Pa /usr/share 719.It Pa sys/ 720kernel source code 721.It Pa targets/ 722support for experimental DIRDEPS_BUILD 723.It Pa tests/ 724source code for files in 725.Pa /usr/tests 726.It Pa tools/ 727tools used for maintenance and testing of 728.Fx 729.It Pa usr.bin/ 730source code for files in 731.Pa /usr/bin 732.It Pa usr.sbin/ 733source code for files in 734.Pa /usr/sbin 735.El 736.Pp 737.It Pa tests/ 738The 739.Fx 740test suite. 741See 742.Xr tests 7 743for more details. 744.El 745.It Pa /var/ 746multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 747.Pp 748.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 749.It Pa account/ 750system accounting files 751.Pp 752.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 753.It Pa acct 754execution accounting file; 755see 756.Xr acct 5 757.El 758.Pp 759.It Pa at/ 760timed command scheduling files; 761see 762.Xr \&at 1 763.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 764.It Pa jobs/ 765directory containing job files 766.It Pa spool/ 767directory containing output spool files 768.El 769.Pp 770.It Pa backups/ 771miscellaneous backup files 772.It Pa cache/ 773miscellaneous cached files 774.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 775.It Pa pkg/ 776cached packages for 777.Xr pkg 8 778.El 779.Pp 780.It Pa crash/ 781default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 782.Xr crash 8 783and 784.Xr savecore 8 785.It Pa cron/ 786files used by cron; 787see 788.Xr cron 8 789.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 790.It Pa tabs/ 791crontab files; 792see 793.Xr crontab 5 794.El 795.Pp 796.It Pa db/ 797miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 798.It Pa empty/ 799empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 800Used for instance by 801.Xr sshd 8 802for privilege separation. 803.It Pa games/ 804miscellaneous game status and score files 805.It Pa heimdal/ 806kerberos server databases; see 807.Xr kdc 8 808.It Pa log/ 809miscellaneous system log files 810.Pp 811.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 812.It Pa utx.lastlogin 813last login log; 814see 815.Xr getutxent 3 816.It Pa utx.log 817login/logout log; 818see 819.Xr getutxent 3 820.El 821.Pp 822.It Pa mail/ 823user mailbox files 824.It Pa msgs/ 825system messages database; 826see 827.Xr msgs 1 828.It Pa preserve/ 829temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 830of an editor; 831see 832.Xr \&ex 1 833.It Pa quotas/ 834file system quota information files 835.It Pa run/ 836system information files describing various info about 837system since it was booted 838.Pp 839.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 840.It Pa ppp/ 841writable by the 842.Dq network 843group for command connection sockets; see 844.Xr ppp 8 845.It Pa utx.active 846database of current users; 847see 848.Xr getutxent 3 849.El 850.Pp 851.It Pa rwho/ 852rwho data files; 853see 854.Xr rwhod 8 , 855.Xr rwho 1 , 856and 857.Xr ruptime 1 858.It Pa spool/ 859miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 860.Pp 861.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 862.It Pa clientmqueue/ 863undelivered submission mail queue; 864see 865.Xr sendmail 8 866.It Pa ftp/ 867commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 868.It Pa mqueue/ 869undelivered mail queue; 870see 871.Xr sendmail 8 872.It Pa output/ 873line printer spooling directories 874.El 875.Pp 876.It Pa tmp/ 877temporary files that are kept between system reboots 878.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 879.It Pa vi.recover/ 880the directory where recovery files are stored 881.El 882.It Pa yp/ 883the NIS maps 884.El 885.El 886.Sh NOTES 887This manual page documents the default 888.Fx 889file system layout, but 890the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 891administrator's discretion. 892A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 893this document. 894.Sh SEE ALSO 895.Xr apropos 1 , 896.Xr find 1 , 897.Xr finger 1 , 898.Xr grep 1 , 899.Xr ls 1 , 900.Xr whatis 1 , 901.Xr whereis 1 , 902.Xr which 1 , 903.Xr fd 4 , 904.Xr devfs 5 , 905.Xr fsck 8 906.Sh HISTORY 907A 908.Nm 909manual page appeared in 910.At v7 . 911