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 January 14, 2015 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 games/ 191useful and semi-frivolous programs 192.It Pa include/ 193standard C include files 194.Pp 195.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 196.It Pa altq/ 197C include files for alternate queueing 198.It Pa arpa/ 199C include files for Internet service protocols 200.It Pa bsnmp/ 201C include files for the SNMP daemon 202.It Pa c++/ 203C++ include files 204.It Pa cam/ 205C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 206.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 207.It Pa scsi/ 208The SCSI device on top of CAM 209.El 210.It Pa dev/ 211C include files for programming various 212.Fx 213devices 214.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 215.It Pa ic/ 216Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 217hardware circuits 218.It Pa ofw/ 219Open Firmware support 220.It Pa pbio/ 2218255 PPI cards; 222see 223.Xr pbio 4 224.It Pa ppbus/ 225The parallel port bus; 226see 227.Xr ppbus 4 228.It Pa usb/ 229The USB subsystem 230.It Pa utopia/ 231Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 232see 233.Xr utopia 4 234.It Pa wi/ 235The 236.Xr wi 4 237WaveLAN driver 238.El 239.It Pa fs/ 240.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 241.It Pa cd9660/ 242iso9660 file system 243.It Pa fdescfs/ 244per-process file descriptors file system 245.It Pa fifofs/ 246.St -p1003.1 247FIFOs file system 248.It Pa msdosfs/ 249MS-DOS file system 250.It Pa nfs/ 251C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 252.It Pa nullfs/ 253loopback file system 254.It Pa procfs/ 255process file system 256.It Pa smbfs/ 257SMB/CIFS file system 258.It Pa udf/ 259UDF 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 libmilter/ 283C include files for libmilter, 284the 285.Xr sendmail 8 286mail filter API 287.It Pa machine/ 288machine-specific C include files 289.It Pa net/ 290miscellaneous network C include files 291.It Pa net80211/ 292C include files for 802.11 wireless networking; 293see 294.Xr net80211 4 295.It Pa netinet/ 296C include files for Internet standard protocols; 297see 298.Xr inet 4 299.It Pa netinet6/ 300C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 301see 302.Xr inet6 4 303.It Pa netipsec/ 304kernel key-management service; 305see 306.Xr ipsec 4 307.It Pa netnatm/ 308NATM include files; 309see 310.Xr natm 4 311.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 312.It Pa api/ 313include files for the signalling API 314.It Pa msg/ 315include files that describe signalling messages and 316declare associated functions 317.It Pa saal/ 318include files for the signalling AAL layer 319.It Pa sig/ 320include files for the UNI signalling protocol 321.El 322.It Pa netsmb/ 323SMB/CIFS requester 324.It Pa nfs/ 325C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 326.It Pa objc/ 327Objective C include files 328.It Pa openssl/ 329OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 330.It Pa pccard/ 331PC-CARD controllers 332.It Pa protocols/ 333C include files for Berkeley service protocols 334.It Pa readline/ 335get a line from a user, with editing; 336see 337.Xr readline 3 338.It Pa rpc/ 339remote procedure calls; 340see 341.Xr rpc 3 342.It Pa rpcsvc/ 343definition of RPC service structures; see 344.Xr rpc 3 345.It Pa security/ 346PAM; see 347.Xr pam 8 348.It Pa sys/ 349system C include files (kernel data structures) 350.\" .It Pa tcl/ 351.\" Tcl language; 352.\" see 353.\" .Xr Tcl n 354.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 355.\" .It Pa generic/ 356.\" ??? 357.\" .It Pa unix/ 358.\" ??? 359.\" .El 360.It Pa ufs/ 361C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 362.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 363.It Pa ffs/ 364Fast file system 365.It Pa ufs/ 366UFS file system 367.El 368.It Pa vm/ 369virtual memory; 370see 371.Xr vmstat 8 372.El 373.Pp 374.It Pa lib/ 375shared and archive 376.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 377libraries 378.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 379.It Pa aout/ 380a.out archive libraries 381.It Pa compat/ 382shared libraries for compatibility 383.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 384.It Pa aout/ 385a.out backward compatibility libraries 386.El 387.It Pa debug/ 388standalone debug data for the base system libraries and binaries 389.It Pa dtrace/ 390DTrace library scripts 391.It Pa engines/ 392OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 393.It Pa private/ 394Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 395ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 396.El 397.Pp 398.It Pa libdata/ 399miscellaneous utility data files 400.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 401.It Pa gcc/ 402.Xr gcc 1 403configuration data 404.It Pa ldscripts/ 405linker scripts; 406see 407.Xr ld 1 408.It Pa lint/ 409various prebuilt lint libraries; 410see 411.Xr lint 1 412.El 413.Pp 414.It Pa libexec/ 415system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 416.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 417.It Pa aout/ 418utilities to manipulate a.out executables 419.It Pa elf/ 420utilities to manipulate ELF executables 421.It Pa lpr/ 422utilities and filters for LP print system; 423see 424.Xr lpr 1 425.It Pa sendmail/ 426the 427.Xr sendmail 8 428binary; 429see 430.Xr mailwrapper 8 431.It Pa sm.bin/ 432restricted shell for 433.Xr sendmail 8 ; 434see 435.Xr smrsh 8 436.El 437.Pp 438.It Pa local/ 439local executables, libraries, etc. 440Also used as the default destination for the 441.Fx 442ports framework. 443Within 444.Pa local/ , 445the general layout sketched out by 446.Nm 447for 448.Pa /usr 449should be used. 450Exceptions are the 451.Pa man 452directory 453.Po directly under 454.Pa local/ 455rather than under 456.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 457ports documentation 458.Po in 459.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 460and 461.Pa /usr/local/etc 462.Po mimics 463.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 464.It Pa obj/ 465architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 466.Pa /usr/src 467tree 468.It Pa ports/ 469The 470.Fx 471ports collection (optional). 472.It Pa sbin/ 473system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 474.It Pa share/ 475architecture-independent files 476.Pp 477.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 478.It Pa calendar/ 479a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 480see 481.Xr calendar 1 482.It Pa dict/ 483word lists; 484see 485.Xr look 1 486.Pp 487.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 488.It Pa freebsd 489.Fx Ns -specific 490terms, proper names, and jargon 491.It Pa words 492common words 493.It Pa web2 494words from Webster's 2nd International 495.It Pa papers/ 496reference databases; 497see 498.Xr refer 1 499.El 500.Pp 501.It Pa doc/ 502miscellaneous documentation; 503source for most of the printed 504.Bx 505manuals (available 506from the 507.Tn USENIX 508association) 509.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 510.It Pa FAQ/ 511Frequently Asked Questions 512.It Pa IPv6/ 513implementation notes for IPv6 514.It Pa bind/ 515documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 516.It Pa es/ 517Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 518.It Pa handbook/ 519.Fx 520Handbook 521.It Pa ja/ 522Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 523.It Pa legal/ 524License files for vendor supplied firmwares 525.It Pa ncurses/ 526HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 527see 528.Xr ncurses 3 529.It Pa ntp/ 530HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 531.It Pa papers/ 532UNIX Papers 533.It Pa psd/ 534UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 535.It Pa ru/ 536Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 537.It Pa smm/ 538UNIX System Manager's Manual 539.It Pa tutorials/ 540.Fx 541tutorials 542.It Pa usd/ 543UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 544.It Pa zh/ 545Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 546.El 547.Pp 548.It Pa examples/ 549various examples for users and programmers 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 games/ 691source code for files in 692.Pa /usr/games 693.It Pa gnu/ 694Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 695.It Pa include/ 696source code for files in 697.Pa /usr/include 698.It Pa kerberos5/ 699build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 700.It Pa lib/ 701source code for files in 702.Pa /usr/lib 703.It Pa libexec/ 704source code for files in 705.Pa /usr/libexec 706.It Pa release/ 707files required to produce a 708.Fx 709release 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 tools/ 722tools used for maintenance and testing of 723.Fx 724.It Pa usr.bin/ 725source code for files in 726.Pa /usr/bin 727.It Pa usr.sbin/ 728source code for files in 729.Pa /usr/sbin 730.El 731.Pp 732.It Pa tests/ 733The 734.Fx 735test suite. 736See 737.Xr tests 7 738for more details. 739.El 740.It Pa /var/ 741multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 742.Pp 743.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 744.It Pa account/ 745system accounting files 746.Pp 747.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 748.It Pa acct 749execution accounting file; 750see 751.Xr acct 5 752.El 753.Pp 754.It Pa at/ 755timed command scheduling files; 756see 757.Xr \&at 1 758.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 759.It Pa jobs/ 760directory containing job files 761.It Pa spool/ 762directory containing output spool files 763.El 764.Pp 765.It Pa backups/ 766miscellaneous backup files 767.It Pa cache/ 768miscellaneous cached files 769.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 770.It Pa pkg/ 771cached packages for 772.Xr pkg 8 773.El 774.Pp 775.It Pa crash/ 776default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 777.Xr crash 8 778and 779.Xr savecore 8 780.It Pa cron/ 781files used by cron; 782see 783.Xr cron 8 784.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 785.It Pa tabs/ 786crontab files; 787see 788.Xr crontab 5 789.El 790.Pp 791.It Pa db/ 792miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 793.It Pa empty/ 794empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 795Used for instance by 796.Xr sshd 8 797for privilege separation. 798.It Pa games/ 799miscellaneous game status and score files 800.It Pa heimdal/ 801kerberos server databases; see 802.Xr kdc 8 803.It Pa log/ 804miscellaneous system log files 805.Pp 806.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 807.It Pa utx.lastlogin 808last login log; 809see 810.Xr getutxent 3 811.It Pa utx.log 812login/logout log; 813see 814.Xr getutxent 3 815.El 816.Pp 817.It Pa mail/ 818user mailbox files 819.It Pa msgs/ 820system messages database; 821see 822.Xr msgs 1 823.It Pa preserve/ 824temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 825of an editor; 826see 827.Xr \&ex 1 828.It Pa quotas/ 829file system quota information files 830.It Pa run/ 831system information files describing various info about 832system since it was booted 833.Pp 834.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 835.It Pa ppp/ 836writable by the 837.Dq network 838group for command connection sockets; see 839.Xr ppp 8 840.It Pa utx.active 841database of current users; 842see 843.Xr getutxent 3 844.El 845.Pp 846.It Pa rwho/ 847rwho data files; 848see 849.Xr rwhod 8 , 850.Xr rwho 1 , 851and 852.Xr ruptime 1 853.It Pa spool/ 854miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 855.Pp 856.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 857.It Pa clientmqueue/ 858undelivered submission mail queue; 859see 860.Xr sendmail 8 861.It Pa ftp/ 862commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 863.It Pa mqueue/ 864undelivered mail queue; 865see 866.Xr sendmail 8 867.It Pa output/ 868line printer spooling directories 869.El 870.Pp 871.It Pa tmp/ 872temporary files that are kept between system reboots 873.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 874.It Pa vi.recover/ 875the directory where recovery files are stored 876.El 877.It Pa yp/ 878the NIS maps 879.El 880.El 881.Sh NOTES 882This manual page documents the default 883.Fx 884file system layout, but 885the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 886administrator's discretion. 887A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 888this document. 889.Sh SEE ALSO 890.Xr apropos 1 , 891.Xr find 1 , 892.Xr finger 1 , 893.Xr grep 1 , 894.Xr ls 1 , 895.Xr whatis 1 , 896.Xr whereis 1 , 897.Xr which 1 , 898.Xr fd 4 , 899.Xr devfs 5 , 900.Xr fsck 8 901.Sh HISTORY 902A 903.Nm 904manual page appeared in 905.At v7 . 906