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 December 25, 2013 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 kernel/ 52pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory 53at boot time). 54.It Pa modules/ 55third-party loadable kernel modules; 56see 57.Xr kldstat 8 58.El 59.It Pa /cdrom/ 60default mount point for CD-ROM drives 61.It Pa /compat/ 62normally a link to 63.Pa /usr/compat . 64If not, then the 65.Pa /usr/compat 66comments apply 67.It Pa /dev/ 68device special files managed by 69.Xr devfs 5 70.Pp 71.Bl -tag -width ".Pa net/" -compact 72.It Pa fd/ 73file descriptor files; 74see 75.Xr \&fd 4 76.It Pa net/ 77network devices 78.El 79.It Pa /etc/ 80system configuration files and scripts 81.Pp 82.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 83.It Pa defaults/ 84default system configuration files; 85see 86.Xr rc 8 87.It Pa bluetooth/ 88bluetooth configuration files 89.It Pa gnats/ 90gnats configuration files; 91see 92.Xr send-pr 1 93.It Pa localtime 94local timezone information; 95see 96.Xr ctime 3 97.It Pa mail/ 98Sendmail control files 99.It Pa mtree/ 100mtree configuration files; 101see 102.Xr mtree 8 103.It Pa pam.d/ 104configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 105library 106.It Pa periodic/ 107scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 108.Xr cron 8 ; 109see 110.Xr periodic 8 111.It Pa rc.d/ 112System and daemon startup/control scripts; 113see 114.Xr rc 8 115.It Pa security/ 116OpenBSM audit configuration files; 117see 118.Xr audit 8 119.It Pa ppp/ 120ppp configuration files; 121see 122.Xr ppp 8 123.It Pa ssh/ 124OpenSSH configuration files; 125see 126.Xr ssh 1 127.It Pa ssl/ 128OpenSSL configuration files 129.El 130.It Pa /lib/ 131critical system libraries needed for binaries in 132.Pa /bin 133and 134.Pa /sbin 135.Pp 136.Bl -tag -width ".Pa geom/" -compact 137.It Pa geom/ 138class-specific libraries for the 139.Xr geom 8 140utility 141.El 142.It Pa /libexec/ 143critical system utilities needed for binaries in 144.Pa /bin 145and 146.Pa /sbin 147.It Pa /media/ 148contains subdirectories to be used as mount points 149for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and 150floppy disks 151.It Pa /mnt/ 152empty directory commonly used by 153system administrators as a temporary mount point 154.It Pa /proc/ 155process file system; 156see 157.Xr procfs 5 158.It Pa /rescue/ 159statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 160see 161.Xr rescue 8 162.It Pa /root/ 163root's HOME directory 164.It Pa /sbin/ 165system programs and administration utilities 166fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 167.It Pa /tmp/ 168temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 169.It Pa /usr/ 170contains the majority of user utilities and applications 171.Pp 172.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 173.It Pa bin/ 174common utilities, programming tools, and applications 175.It Pa compat/ 176files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 177such as Linux 178.It Pa games/ 179useful and semi-frivolous programs 180.It Pa include/ 181standard C include files 182.Pp 183.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 184.It Pa altq/ 185C include files for alternate queueing 186.It Pa arpa/ 187C include files for Internet service protocols 188.It Pa bsnmp/ 189C include files for the SNMP daemon 190.It Pa c++/ 191C++ include files 192.It Pa cam/ 193C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 194.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 195.It Pa scsi/ 196The SCSI device on top of CAM 197.El 198.It Pa dev/ 199C include files for programming various 200.Fx 201devices 202.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 203.It Pa ic/ 204Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 205hardware circuits 206.It Pa ofw/ 207Open Firmware support 208.It Pa pbio/ 2098255 PPI cards; 210see 211.Xr pbio 4 212.It Pa ppbus/ 213The parallel port bus; 214see 215.Xr ppbus 4 216.It Pa usb/ 217The USB subsystem 218.It Pa utopia/ 219Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 220see 221.Xr utopia 4 222.It Pa wi/ 223The 224.Xr wi 4 225WaveLAN driver 226.El 227.It Pa fs/ 228.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 229.It Pa fdescfs/ 230per-process file descriptors file system 231.It Pa fifofs/ 232.St -p1003.1 233FIFOs file system 234.It Pa msdosfs/ 235MS-DOS file system 236.It Pa nfs/ 237C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 238.It Pa nullfs/ 239loopback file system 240.It Pa procfs/ 241process file system 242.It Pa smbfs/ 243SMB/CIFS file system 244.It Pa udf/ 245UDF file system 246.It Pa unionfs 247union file system 248.El 249.It Pa geom/ 250GEOM framework 251.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 252.It Pa concat/ 253CONCAT GEOM class 254.It Pa gate/ 255GATE GEOM class 256.It Pa mirror/ 257MIRROR GEOM class 258.It Pa nop/ 259NOP GEOM class 260.It Pa raid3/ 261RAID3 GEOM class 262.It Pa stripe/ 263STRIPE GEOM class 264.El 265.Pp 266.It Pa isc/ 267ISC utility library libisc include files 268.It Pa isofs/ 269.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 270.It Pa cd9660/ 271iso9660 file system 272.El 273.It Pa libmilter/ 274C include files for libmilter, 275the 276.Xr sendmail 8 277mail filter API 278.It Pa machine/ 279machine-specific C include files 280.It Pa net/ 281miscellaneous network C include files 282.It Pa netatalk/ 283Appletalk protocol 284.It Pa netinet/ 285C include files for Internet standard protocols; 286see 287.Xr inet 4 288.It Pa netinet6/ 289C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 290see 291.Xr inet6 4 292.It Pa netipsec/ 293kernel key-management service; 294see 295.Xr ipsec 4 296.It Pa netnatm/ 297NATM include files; 298see 299.Xr natm 4 300.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 301.It Pa api/ 302include files for the signalling API 303.It Pa msg/ 304include files that describe signalling messages and 305declare associated functions 306.It Pa saal/ 307include files for the signalling AAL layer 308.It Pa sig/ 309include files for the UNI signalling protocol 310.El 311.It Pa netsmb/ 312SMB/CIFS requester 313.It Pa nfs/ 314C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 315.It Pa objc/ 316Objective C include files 317.It Pa openssl/ 318OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 319.It Pa pccard/ 320PC-CARD controllers 321.It Pa protocols/ 322C include files for Berkeley service protocols 323.It Pa readline/ 324get a line from a user, with editing; 325see 326.Xr readline 3 327.It Pa rpc/ 328remote procedure calls; 329see 330.Xr rpc 3 331.It Pa rpcsvc/ 332definition of RPC service structures; see 333.Xr rpc 3 334.It Pa security/ 335PAM; see 336.Xr pam 8 337.It Pa sys/ 338system C include files (kernel data structures) 339.\" .It Pa tcl/ 340.\" Tcl language; 341.\" see 342.\" .Xr Tcl n 343.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 344.\" .It Pa generic/ 345.\" ??? 346.\" .It Pa unix/ 347.\" ??? 348.\" .El 349.It Pa ufs/ 350C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 351.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 352.It Pa ffs/ 353Fast file system 354.It Pa ufs/ 355UFS file system 356.El 357.It Pa vm/ 358virtual memory; 359see 360.Xr vmstat 8 361.El 362.Pp 363.It Pa lib/ 364shared and archive 365.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 366libraries 367.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 368.It Pa aout/ 369a.out archive libraries 370.It Pa compat/ 371shared libraries for compatibility 372.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 373.It Pa aout/ 374a.out backward compatibility libraries 375.El 376.It Pa dtrace/ 377DTrace library scripts 378.It Pa engines/ 379OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 380.It Pa private/ 381Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 382ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 383.El 384.Pp 385.It Pa libdata/ 386miscellaneous utility data files 387.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 388.It Pa gcc/ 389.Xr gcc 1 390configuration data 391.It Pa ldscripts/ 392linker scripts; 393see 394.Xr ld 1 395.It Pa lint/ 396various prebuilt lint libraries; 397see 398.Xr lint 1 399.El 400.Pp 401.It Pa libexec/ 402system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 403.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 404.It Pa aout/ 405utilities to manipulate a.out executables 406.It Pa elf/ 407utilities to manipulate ELF executables 408.It Pa lpr/ 409utilities and filters for LP print system; 410see 411.Xr lpr 1 412.It Pa sendmail/ 413the 414.Xr sendmail 8 415binary; 416see 417.Xr mailwrapper 8 418.It Pa sm.bin/ 419restricted shell for 420.Xr sendmail 8 ; 421see 422.Xr smrsh 8 423.El 424.Pp 425.It Pa local/ 426local executables, libraries, etc. 427Also used as the default destination for the 428.Fx 429ports framework. 430Within 431.Pa local/ , 432the general layout sketched out by 433.Nm 434for 435.Pa /usr 436should be used. 437Exceptions are the 438.Pa man 439directory 440.Po directly under 441.Pa local/ 442rather than under 443.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 444ports documentation 445.Po in 446.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 447and 448.Pa /usr/local/etc 449.Po mimics 450.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 451.It Pa obj/ 452architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 453.Pa /usr/src 454tree 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 keys/ 544known trusted and revoked keys. 545.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 546.It Pa keys/pkg/ 547fingerprints for 548.Xr pkg 7 549and 550.Xr pkg 8 551.El 552.Pp 553.It Pa locale/ 554localization files; 555see 556.Xr setlocale 3 557.It Pa man/ 558manual pages 559.It Pa mdocml/ 560data files used by mdocml 561.It Pa me/ 562macros for use with the me macro package; 563see 564.Xr me 7 565.It Pa misc/ 566miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 567.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 568.It Pa fonts/ 569??? 570.It Pa termcap 571terminal characteristics database; 572see 573.Xr termcap 5 574.El 575.It Pa mk/ 576templates for make; 577see 578.Xr make 1 579.It Pa nls/ 580national language support files; 581see 582.Xr mklocale 1 583.It Pa security/ 584data files for security policies such as 585.Xr mac_lomac 4 586.It Pa sendmail/ 587.Xr sendmail 8 588configuration files 589.It Pa skel/ 590example 591.Pa .\& 592(dot) files for new accounts 593.It Pa snmp/ 594MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 595.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 596.It Pa defs/ 597Tree definition files for use with 598.Xr gensnmptree 1 599.It Pa mibs/ 600MIB files 601.El 602.It Pa syscons/ 603files used by syscons; 604see 605.Xr syscons 4 606.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 607.It Pa fonts/ 608console fonts; 609see 610.Xr vidcontrol 1 611and 612.Xr vidfont 1 613.It Pa keymaps/ 614console keyboard maps; 615see 616.Xr kbdcontrol 1 617and 618.Xr kbdmap 1 619.It Pa scrnmaps/ 620console screen maps 621.El 622.It Pa tabset/ 623tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 624the termcap file; 625see 626.Xr termcap 5 627.It Pa tmac/ 628text processing macros; 629see 630.Xr nroff 1 631and 632.Xr troff 1 633.It Pa vi/ 634localization support and utilities for 635.Xr vi 1 636.It Pa zoneinfo/ 637timezone configuration information; 638see 639.Xr tzfile 5 640.El 641.It Pa src/ 642.Bx , 643third-party, and/or local source files 644.Pp 645.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 646.It Pa bin/ 647source code for files in /bin 648.It Pa cddl/ 649Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 650.It Pa contrib/ 651source code for contributed software 652.It Pa crypto/ 653source code for contributed cryptography software 654.It Pa etc/ 655source code for files in 656.Pa /etc 657.It Pa games/ 658source code for files in 659.Pa /usr/games 660.It Pa gnu/ 661Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 662.It Pa include/ 663source code for files in 664.Pa /usr/include 665.It Pa kerberos5/ 666build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 667.It Pa lib/ 668source code for files in 669.Pa /usr/lib 670.It Pa libexec/ 671source code for files in 672.Pa /usr/libexec 673.It Pa release/ 674files required to produce a 675.Fx 676release 677.It Pa sbin/ 678source code for files in 679.Pa /sbin 680.It Pa secure/ 681build directory for files in 682.Pa /usr/src/crypto 683.It Pa share/ 684source for files in 685.Pa /usr/share 686.It Pa sys/ 687kernel source code 688.It Pa tools/ 689tools used for maintenance and testing of 690.Fx 691.It Pa usr.bin/ 692source code for files in 693.Pa /usr/bin 694.It Pa usr.sbin/ 695source code for files in 696.Pa /usr/sbin 697.El 698.Pp 699.It Pa tests/ 700The 701.Fx 702test suite. 703See 704.Xr tests 7 705for more details. 706.El 707.It Pa /var/ 708multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 709.Pp 710.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 711.It Pa account/ 712system accounting files 713.Pp 714.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 715.It Pa acct 716execution accounting file; 717see 718.Xr acct 5 719.El 720.Pp 721.It Pa at/ 722timed command scheduling files; 723see 724.Xr \&at 1 725.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 726.It Pa jobs/ 727directory containing job files 728.It Pa spool/ 729directory containing output spool files 730.El 731.Pp 732.It Pa backups/ 733miscellaneous backup files 734.It Pa cache/ 735miscellaneous cached files 736.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 737.It Pa pkg/ 738cached packages for 739.Xr pkg 8 740.El 741.Pp 742.It Pa crash/ 743default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 744.Xr crash 8 745and 746.Xr savecore 8 747.It Pa cron/ 748files used by cron; 749see 750.Xr cron 8 751.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 752.It Pa tabs/ 753crontab files; 754see 755.Xr crontab 5 756.El 757.Pp 758.It Pa db/ 759miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 760.It Pa empty/ 761empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 762Used for instance by 763.Xr sshd 8 764for privilege separation. 765.It Pa games/ 766miscellaneous game status and score files 767.It Pa heimdal/ 768kerberos server databases; see 769.Xr kdc 8 770.It Pa log/ 771miscellaneous system log files 772.Pp 773.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 774.It Pa utx.lastlogin 775last login log; 776see 777.Xr getutxent 3 778.It Pa utx.log 779login/logout log; 780see 781.Xr getutxent 3 782.El 783.Pp 784.It Pa mail/ 785user mailbox files 786.It Pa msgs/ 787system messages database; 788see 789.Xr msgs 1 790.It Pa preserve/ 791temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 792of an editor; 793see 794.Xr \&ex 1 795.It Pa quotas/ 796file system quota information files 797.It Pa run/ 798system information files describing various info about 799system since it was booted 800.Pp 801.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 802.It Pa ppp/ 803writable by the 804.Dq network 805group for command connection sockets; see 806.Xr ppp 8 807.It Pa utx.active 808database of current users; 809see 810.Xr getutxent 3 811.El 812.Pp 813.It Pa rwho/ 814rwho data files; 815see 816.Xr rwhod 8 , 817.Xr rwho 1 , 818and 819.Xr ruptime 1 820.It Pa spool/ 821miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 822.Pp 823.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 824.It Pa clientmqueue/ 825undelivered submission mail queue; 826see 827.Xr sendmail 8 828.It Pa ftp/ 829commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 830.It Pa mqueue/ 831undelivered mail queue; 832see 833.Xr sendmail 8 834.It Pa output/ 835line printer spooling directories 836.El 837.Pp 838.It Pa tmp/ 839temporary files that are kept between system reboots 840.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 841.It Pa vi.recover/ 842the directory where recovery files are stored 843.El 844.It Pa yp/ 845the NIS maps 846.El 847.El 848.Sh NOTES 849This manual page documents the default 850.Fx 851file system layout, but 852the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 853administrator's discretion. 854A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 855this document. 856.Sh SEE ALSO 857.Xr apropos 1 , 858.Xr find 1 , 859.Xr finger 1 , 860.Xr grep 1 , 861.Xr ls 1 , 862.Xr whatis 1 , 863.Xr whereis 1 , 864.Xr which 1 , 865.Xr fd 4 , 866.Xr devfs 5 , 867.Xr fsck 8 868.Sh HISTORY 869A 870.Nm 871manual page appeared in 872.At v7 . 873