xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/hier.7 (revision f0574f5cf69e168cc4ea71ebbe5fdec9ec9a3dfe)
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 13, 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 keys/
555known trusted and revoked keys.
556.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact
557.It Pa keys/pkg/
558fingerprints for
559.Xr pkg 7
560and
561.Xr pkg 8
562.El
563.Pp
564.It Pa locale/
565localization files;
566see
567.Xr setlocale 3
568.It Pa man/
569manual pages
570.It Pa mdocml/
571data files used by mdocml
572.It Pa me/
573macros for use with the me macro package;
574see
575.Xr me 7
576.It Pa misc/
577miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
578.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
579.It Pa fonts/
580???
581.It Pa termcap
582terminal characteristics database;
583see
584.Xr termcap 5
585.El
586.It Pa mk/
587templates for make;
588see
589.Xr make 1
590.It Pa nls/
591national language support files;
592see
593.Xr mklocale 1
594.It Pa security/
595data files for security policies such as
596.Xr mac_lomac 4
597.It Pa sendmail/
598.Xr sendmail 8
599configuration files
600.It Pa skel/
601example
602.Pa .\&
603(dot) files for new accounts
604.It Pa snmp/
605MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon.
606.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
607.It Pa defs/
608Tree definition files for use with
609.Xr gensnmptree 1
610.It Pa mibs/
611MIB files
612.El
613.It Pa syscons/
614files used by syscons;
615see
616.Xr syscons 4
617.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact
618.It Pa fonts/
619console fonts;
620see
621.Xr vidcontrol 1
622and
623.Xr vidfont 1
624.It Pa keymaps/
625console keyboard maps;
626see
627.Xr kbdcontrol 1
628and
629.Xr kbdmap 1
630.It Pa scrnmaps/
631console screen maps
632.El
633.It Pa tabset/
634tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
635the termcap file;
636see
637.Xr termcap 5
638.It Pa tmac/
639text processing macros;
640see
641.Xr nroff 1
642and
643.Xr troff 1
644.It Pa vi/
645localization support and utilities for
646.Xr vi 1
647.It Pa vt/
648files used by vt;
649see
650.Xr vt 4
651.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact
652.It Pa fonts/
653console fonts;
654see
655.Xr vidcontrol 1
656and
657.Xr vidfont 1
658.It Pa keymaps/
659console keyboard maps;
660see
661.Xr kbdcontrol 1
662and
663.Xr kbdmap 1
664.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/
665.\" console screen maps
666.El
667.It Pa zoneinfo/
668timezone configuration information;
669see
670.Xr tzfile 5
671.El
672.It Pa src/
673.Bx ,
674third-party, and/or local source files
675.Pp
676.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact
677.It Pa bin/
678source code for files in /bin
679.It Pa cddl/
680Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License
681.It Pa contrib/
682source code for contributed software
683.It Pa crypto/
684source code for contributed cryptography software
685.It Pa etc/
686source code for files in
687.Pa /etc
688.It Pa gnu/
689Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
690.It Pa include/
691source code for files in
692.Pa /usr/include
693.It Pa kerberos5/
694build infrastructure for kerberos version 5
695.It Pa lib/
696source code for files in
697.Pa /usr/lib
698.It Pa libexec/
699source code for files in
700.Pa /usr/libexec
701.It Pa release/
702files required to produce a
703.Fx
704release
705.It Pa rescue/
706source code for files in
707.Pa /rescue
708.It Pa sbin/
709source code for files in
710.Pa /sbin
711.It Pa secure/
712build directory for files in
713.Pa /usr/src/crypto
714.It Pa share/
715source for files in
716.Pa /usr/share
717.It Pa sys/
718kernel source code
719.It Pa targets/
720support for experimental DIRDEPS_BUILD
721.It Pa tests/
722source code for files in
723.Pa /usr/tests
724.It Pa tools/
725tools used for maintenance and testing of
726.Fx
727.It Pa usr.bin/
728source code for files in
729.Pa /usr/bin
730.It Pa usr.sbin/
731source code for files in
732.Pa /usr/sbin
733.El
734.Pp
735.It Pa tests/
736The
737.Fx
738test suite.
739See
740.Xr tests 7
741for more details.
742.El
743.It Pa /var/
744multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
745.Pp
746.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
747.It Pa account/
748system accounting files
749.Pp
750.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
751.It Pa acct
752execution accounting file;
753see
754.Xr acct 5
755.El
756.Pp
757.It Pa at/
758timed command scheduling files;
759see
760.Xr \&at 1
761.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
762.It Pa jobs/
763directory containing job files
764.It Pa spool/
765directory containing output spool files
766.El
767.Pp
768.It Pa backups/
769miscellaneous backup files
770.It Pa cache/
771miscellaneous cached files
772.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact
773.It Pa pkg/
774cached packages for
775.Xr pkg 8
776.El
777.Pp
778.It Pa crash/
779default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
780.Xr crash 8
781and
782.Xr savecore 8
783.It Pa cron/
784files used by cron;
785see
786.Xr cron 8
787.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
788.It Pa tabs/
789crontab files;
790see
791.Xr crontab 5
792.El
793.Pp
794.It Pa db/
795miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
796.It Pa empty/
797empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
798Used for instance by
799.Xr sshd 8
800for privilege separation.
801.It Pa games/
802miscellaneous game status and score files
803.It Pa heimdal/
804kerberos server databases; see
805.Xr kdc 8
806.It Pa log/
807miscellaneous system log files
808.Pp
809.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
810.It Pa utx.lastlogin
811last login log;
812see
813.Xr getutxent 3
814.It Pa utx.log
815login/logout log;
816see
817.Xr getutxent 3
818.El
819.Pp
820.It Pa mail/
821user mailbox files
822.It Pa msgs/
823system messages database;
824see
825.Xr msgs 1
826.It Pa preserve/
827temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
828of an editor;
829see
830.Xr \&ex 1
831.It Pa quotas/
832file system quota information files
833.It Pa run/
834system information files describing various info about
835system since it was booted
836.Pp
837.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
838.It Pa ppp/
839writable by the
840.Dq network
841group for command connection sockets; see
842.Xr ppp 8
843.It Pa utx.active
844database of current users;
845see
846.Xr getutxent 3
847.El
848.Pp
849.It Pa rwho/
850rwho data files;
851see
852.Xr rwhod 8 ,
853.Xr rwho 1 ,
854and
855.Xr ruptime 1
856.It Pa spool/
857miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
858.Pp
859.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
860.It Pa clientmqueue/
861undelivered submission mail queue;
862see
863.Xr sendmail 8
864.It Pa ftp/
865commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
866.It Pa mqueue/
867undelivered mail queue;
868see
869.Xr sendmail 8
870.It Pa output/
871line printer spooling directories
872.El
873.Pp
874.It Pa tmp/
875temporary files that are kept between system reboots
876.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
877.It Pa vi.recover/
878the directory where recovery files are stored
879.El
880.It Pa yp/
881the NIS maps
882.El
883.El
884.Sh NOTES
885This manual page documents the default
886.Fx
887file system layout, but
888the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
889administrator's discretion.
890A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
891this document.
892.Sh SEE ALSO
893.Xr apropos 1 ,
894.Xr find 1 ,
895.Xr finger 1 ,
896.Xr grep 1 ,
897.Xr ls 1 ,
898.Xr whatis 1 ,
899.Xr whereis 1 ,
900.Xr which 1 ,
901.Xr fd 4 ,
902.Xr devfs 5 ,
903.Xr fsck 8
904.Sh HISTORY
905A
906.Nm
907manual page appeared in
908.At v7 .
909