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 November 10, 2014 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 /proc/ 163process file system; 164see 165.Xr procfs 5 166.It Pa /rescue/ 167statically linked programs for emergency recovery; 168see 169.Xr rescue 8 170.It Pa /root/ 171root's HOME directory 172.It Pa /sbin/ 173system programs and administration utilities 174fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 175.It Pa /tmp/ 176temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 177.It Pa /usr/ 178contains the majority of user utilities and applications 179.Pp 180.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 181.It Pa bin/ 182common utilities, programming tools, and applications 183.It Pa compat/ 184files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, 185such as Linux 186.It Pa games/ 187useful and semi-frivolous programs 188.It Pa include/ 189standard C include files 190.Pp 191.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 192.It Pa altq/ 193C include files for alternate queueing 194.It Pa arpa/ 195C include files for Internet service protocols 196.It Pa bsnmp/ 197C include files for the SNMP daemon 198.It Pa c++/ 199C++ include files 200.It Pa cam/ 201C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 202.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 203.It Pa scsi/ 204The SCSI device on top of CAM 205.El 206.It Pa dev/ 207C include files for programming various 208.Fx 209devices 210.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 211.It Pa ic/ 212Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent 213hardware circuits 214.It Pa ofw/ 215Open Firmware support 216.It Pa pbio/ 2178255 PPI cards; 218see 219.Xr pbio 4 220.It Pa ppbus/ 221The parallel port bus; 222see 223.Xr ppbus 4 224.It Pa usb/ 225The USB subsystem 226.It Pa utopia/ 227Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; 228see 229.Xr utopia 4 230.It Pa wi/ 231The 232.Xr wi 4 233WaveLAN driver 234.El 235.It Pa fs/ 236.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 237.It Pa cd9660/ 238iso9660 file system 239.It Pa fdescfs/ 240per-process file descriptors file system 241.It Pa fifofs/ 242.St -p1003.1 243FIFOs file system 244.It Pa msdosfs/ 245MS-DOS file system 246.It Pa nfs/ 247C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2, 3 and 4 248.It Pa nullfs/ 249loopback file system 250.It Pa procfs/ 251process file system 252.It Pa smbfs/ 253SMB/CIFS file system 254.It Pa udf/ 255UDF file system 256.It Pa unionfs 257union file system 258.El 259.It Pa geom/ 260GEOM framework 261.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 262.It Pa concat/ 263CONCAT GEOM class 264.It Pa gate/ 265GATE GEOM class 266.It Pa mirror/ 267MIRROR GEOM class 268.It Pa nop/ 269NOP GEOM class 270.It Pa raid3/ 271RAID3 GEOM class 272.It Pa stripe/ 273STRIPE GEOM class 274.El 275.Pp 276.It Pa isc/ 277ISC utility library libisc include files 278.It Pa libmilter/ 279C include files for libmilter, 280the 281.Xr sendmail 8 282mail filter API 283.It Pa machine/ 284machine-specific C include files 285.It Pa net/ 286miscellaneous network C include files 287.It Pa net80211/ 288C include files for 802.11 wireless networking; 289see 290.Xr net80211 4 291.It Pa netinet/ 292C include files for Internet standard protocols; 293see 294.Xr inet 4 295.It Pa netinet6/ 296C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 297see 298.Xr inet6 4 299.It Pa netipsec/ 300kernel key-management service; 301see 302.Xr ipsec 4 303.It Pa netnatm/ 304NATM include files; 305see 306.Xr natm 4 307.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 308.It Pa api/ 309include files for the signalling API 310.It Pa msg/ 311include files that describe signalling messages and 312declare associated functions 313.It Pa saal/ 314include files for the signalling AAL layer 315.It Pa sig/ 316include files for the UNI signalling protocol 317.El 318.It Pa netsmb/ 319SMB/CIFS requester 320.It Pa nfs/ 321C include files for NFS (Network File System) version 2 and 3 (legacy) 322.It Pa objc/ 323Objective C include files 324.It Pa openssl/ 325OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 326.It Pa pccard/ 327PC-CARD controllers 328.It Pa protocols/ 329C include files for Berkeley service protocols 330.It Pa readline/ 331get a line from a user, with editing; 332see 333.Xr readline 3 334.It Pa rpc/ 335remote procedure calls; 336see 337.Xr rpc 3 338.It Pa rpcsvc/ 339definition of RPC service structures; see 340.Xr rpc 3 341.It Pa security/ 342PAM; see 343.Xr pam 8 344.It Pa sys/ 345system C include files (kernel data structures) 346.\" .It Pa tcl/ 347.\" Tcl language; 348.\" see 349.\" .Xr Tcl n 350.\" .Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 351.\" .It Pa generic/ 352.\" ??? 353.\" .It Pa unix/ 354.\" ??? 355.\" .El 356.It Pa ufs/ 357C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 358.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 359.It Pa ffs/ 360Fast file system 361.It Pa ufs/ 362UFS file system 363.El 364.It Pa vm/ 365virtual memory; 366see 367.Xr vmstat 8 368.El 369.Pp 370.It Pa lib/ 371shared and archive 372.Xr ar 1 Ns -type 373libraries 374.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 375.It Pa aout/ 376a.out archive libraries 377.It Pa compat/ 378shared libraries for compatibility 379.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 380.It Pa aout/ 381a.out backward compatibility libraries 382.El 383.It Pa debug/ 384standalone debug data for the base system libraries and binaries 385.It Pa dtrace/ 386DTrace library scripts 387.It Pa engines/ 388OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines 389.It Pa private/ 390Private system libraries not for use by third-party programs. 391ABI and API stability are not guaranteed. 392.El 393.Pp 394.It Pa libdata/ 395miscellaneous utility data files 396.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 397.It Pa gcc/ 398.Xr gcc 1 399configuration data 400.It Pa ldscripts/ 401linker scripts; 402see 403.Xr ld 1 404.It Pa lint/ 405various prebuilt lint libraries; 406see 407.Xr lint 1 408.El 409.Pp 410.It Pa libexec/ 411system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 412.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 413.It Pa aout/ 414utilities to manipulate a.out executables 415.It Pa elf/ 416utilities to manipulate ELF executables 417.It Pa lpr/ 418utilities and filters for LP print system; 419see 420.Xr lpr 1 421.It Pa sendmail/ 422the 423.Xr sendmail 8 424binary; 425see 426.Xr mailwrapper 8 427.It Pa sm.bin/ 428restricted shell for 429.Xr sendmail 8 ; 430see 431.Xr smrsh 8 432.El 433.Pp 434.It Pa local/ 435local executables, libraries, etc. 436Also used as the default destination for the 437.Fx 438ports framework. 439Within 440.Pa local/ , 441the general layout sketched out by 442.Nm 443for 444.Pa /usr 445should be used. 446Exceptions are the 447.Pa man 448directory 449.Po directly under 450.Pa local/ 451rather than under 452.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 453ports documentation 454.Po in 455.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 456and 457.Pa /usr/local/etc 458.Po mimics 459.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 460.It Pa obj/ 461architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 462.Pa /usr/src 463tree 464.It Pa ports/ 465The 466.Fx 467ports collection (optional). 468.It Pa sbin/ 469system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 470.It Pa share/ 471architecture-independent files 472.Pp 473.Bl -tag -width ".Pa calendar/" -compact 474.It Pa calendar/ 475a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 476see 477.Xr calendar 1 478.It Pa dict/ 479word lists; 480see 481.Xr look 1 482.Pp 483.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 484.It Pa freebsd 485.Fx Ns -specific 486terms, proper names, and jargon 487.It Pa words 488common words 489.It Pa web2 490words from Webster's 2nd International 491.It Pa papers/ 492reference databases; 493see 494.Xr refer 1 495.El 496.Pp 497.It Pa doc/ 498miscellaneous documentation; 499source for most of the printed 500.Bx 501manuals (available 502from the 503.Tn USENIX 504association) 505.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 506.It Pa FAQ/ 507Frequently Asked Questions 508.It Pa IPv6/ 509implementation notes for IPv6 510.It Pa bind/ 511documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) 512.It Pa es/ 513Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 514.It Pa handbook/ 515.Fx 516Handbook 517.It Pa ja/ 518Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 519.It Pa legal/ 520License files for vendor supplied firmwares 521.It Pa ncurses/ 522HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; 523see 524.Xr ncurses 3 525.It Pa ntp/ 526HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol 527.It Pa papers/ 528UNIX Papers 529.It Pa psd/ 530UNIX Programmer's Supplementary Documents 531.It Pa ru/ 532Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 533.It Pa smm/ 534UNIX System Manager's Manual 535.It Pa tutorials/ 536.Fx 537tutorials 538.It Pa usd/ 539UNIX User's Supplementary Documents 540.It Pa zh/ 541Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc 542.El 543.Pp 544.It Pa examples/ 545various examples for users and programmers 546.It Pa games/ 547ASCII text files used by various games 548.It Pa groff_font/ 549device description file for device name 550.It Pa info/ 551GNU Info hypertext system 552.It Pa keys/ 553known trusted and revoked keys. 554.Bl -tag -width ".Pa keys/pkg/" -compact 555.It Pa keys/pkg/ 556fingerprints for 557.Xr pkg 7 558and 559.Xr pkg 8 560.El 561.Pp 562.It Pa locale/ 563localization files; 564see 565.Xr setlocale 3 566.It Pa man/ 567manual pages 568.It Pa mdocml/ 569data files used by mdocml 570.It Pa me/ 571macros for use with the me macro package; 572see 573.Xr me 7 574.It Pa misc/ 575miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files 576.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 577.It Pa fonts/ 578??? 579.It Pa termcap 580terminal characteristics database; 581see 582.Xr termcap 5 583.El 584.It Pa mk/ 585templates for make; 586see 587.Xr make 1 588.It Pa nls/ 589national language support files; 590see 591.Xr mklocale 1 592.It Pa security/ 593data files for security policies such as 594.Xr mac_lomac 4 595.It Pa sendmail/ 596.Xr sendmail 8 597configuration files 598.It Pa skel/ 599example 600.Pa .\& 601(dot) files for new accounts 602.It Pa snmp/ 603MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon. 604.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 605.It Pa defs/ 606Tree definition files for use with 607.Xr gensnmptree 1 608.It Pa mibs/ 609MIB files 610.El 611.It Pa syscons/ 612files used by syscons; 613see 614.Xr syscons 4 615.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 616.It Pa fonts/ 617console fonts; 618see 619.Xr vidcontrol 1 620and 621.Xr vidfont 1 622.It Pa keymaps/ 623console keyboard maps; 624see 625.Xr kbdcontrol 1 626and 627.Xr kbdmap 1 628.It Pa scrnmaps/ 629console screen maps 630.El 631.It Pa tabset/ 632tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 633the termcap file; 634see 635.Xr termcap 5 636.It Pa tmac/ 637text processing macros; 638see 639.Xr nroff 1 640and 641.Xr troff 1 642.It Pa vi/ 643localization support and utilities for 644.Xr vi 1 645.It Pa zoneinfo/ 646timezone configuration information; 647see 648.Xr tzfile 5 649.El 650.It Pa vt/ 651files used by vt; 652see 653.Xr vt 4 654.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 655.It Pa fonts/ 656console fonts; 657see 658.Xr vidcontrol 1 659and 660.Xr vidfont 1 661.It Pa keymaps/ 662console keyboard maps; 663see 664.Xr kbdcontrol 1 665and 666.Xr kbdmap 1 667.\" .It Pa scrnmaps/ 668.\" console screen maps 669.El 670.It Pa src/ 671.Bx , 672third-party, and/or local source files 673.Pp 674.Bl -tag -width ".Pa kerberos5/" -compact 675.It Pa bin/ 676source code for files in /bin 677.It Pa cddl/ 678Utilities covered by the Common Development and Distribution License 679.It Pa contrib/ 680source code for contributed software 681.It Pa crypto/ 682source code for contributed cryptography software 683.It Pa etc/ 684source code for files in 685.Pa /etc 686.It Pa games/ 687source code for files in 688.Pa /usr/games 689.It Pa gnu/ 690Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 691.It Pa include/ 692source code for files in 693.Pa /usr/include 694.It Pa kerberos5/ 695build infrastructure for kerberos version 5 696.It Pa lib/ 697source code for files in 698.Pa /usr/lib 699.It Pa libexec/ 700source code for files in 701.Pa /usr/libexec 702.It Pa release/ 703files required to produce a 704.Fx 705release 706.It Pa sbin/ 707source code for files in 708.Pa /sbin 709.It Pa secure/ 710build directory for files in 711.Pa /usr/src/crypto 712.It Pa share/ 713source for files in 714.Pa /usr/share 715.It Pa sys/ 716kernel source code 717.It Pa tools/ 718tools used for maintenance and testing of 719.Fx 720.It Pa usr.bin/ 721source code for files in 722.Pa /usr/bin 723.It Pa usr.sbin/ 724source code for files in 725.Pa /usr/sbin 726.El 727.Pp 728.It Pa tests/ 729The 730.Fx 731test suite. 732See 733.Xr tests 7 734for more details. 735.El 736.It Pa /var/ 737multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 738.Pp 739.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 740.It Pa account/ 741system accounting files 742.Pp 743.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 744.It Pa acct 745execution accounting file; 746see 747.Xr acct 5 748.El 749.Pp 750.It Pa at/ 751timed command scheduling files; 752see 753.Xr \&at 1 754.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 755.It Pa jobs/ 756directory containing job files 757.It Pa spool/ 758directory containing output spool files 759.El 760.Pp 761.It Pa backups/ 762miscellaneous backup files 763.It Pa cache/ 764miscellaneous cached files 765.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact 766.It Pa pkg/ 767cached packages for 768.Xr pkg 8 769.El 770.Pp 771.It Pa crash/ 772default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 773.Xr crash 8 774and 775.Xr savecore 8 776.It Pa cron/ 777files used by cron; 778see 779.Xr cron 8 780.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 781.It Pa tabs/ 782crontab files; 783see 784.Xr crontab 5 785.El 786.Pp 787.It Pa db/ 788miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files 789.It Pa empty/ 790empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. 791Used for instance by 792.Xr sshd 8 793for privilege separation. 794.It Pa games/ 795miscellaneous game status and score files 796.It Pa heimdal/ 797kerberos server databases; see 798.Xr kdc 8 799.It Pa log/ 800miscellaneous system log files 801.Pp 802.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 803.It Pa utx.lastlogin 804last login log; 805see 806.Xr getutxent 3 807.It Pa utx.log 808login/logout log; 809see 810.Xr getutxent 3 811.El 812.Pp 813.It Pa mail/ 814user mailbox files 815.It Pa msgs/ 816system messages database; 817see 818.Xr msgs 1 819.It Pa preserve/ 820temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 821of an editor; 822see 823.Xr \&ex 1 824.It Pa quotas/ 825file system quota information files 826.It Pa run/ 827system information files describing various info about 828system since it was booted 829.Pp 830.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 831.It Pa ppp/ 832writable by the 833.Dq network 834group for command connection sockets; see 835.Xr ppp 8 836.It Pa utx.active 837database of current users; 838see 839.Xr getutxent 3 840.El 841.Pp 842.It Pa rwho/ 843rwho data files; 844see 845.Xr rwhod 8 , 846.Xr rwho 1 , 847and 848.Xr ruptime 1 849.It Pa spool/ 850miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories 851.Pp 852.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 853.It Pa clientmqueue/ 854undelivered submission mail queue; 855see 856.Xr sendmail 8 857.It Pa ftp/ 858commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory 859.It Pa mqueue/ 860undelivered mail queue; 861see 862.Xr sendmail 8 863.It Pa output/ 864line printer spooling directories 865.El 866.Pp 867.It Pa tmp/ 868temporary files that are kept between system reboots 869.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact 870.It Pa vi.recover/ 871the directory where recovery files are stored 872.El 873.It Pa yp/ 874the NIS maps 875.El 876.El 877.Sh NOTES 878This manual page documents the default 879.Fx 880file system layout, but 881the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 882administrator's discretion. 883A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 884this document. 885.Sh SEE ALSO 886.Xr apropos 1 , 887.Xr find 1 , 888.Xr finger 1 , 889.Xr grep 1 , 890.Xr ls 1 , 891.Xr whatis 1 , 892.Xr whereis 1 , 893.Xr which 1 , 894.Xr fd 4 , 895.Xr devfs 5 , 896.Xr fsck 8 897.Sh HISTORY 898A 899.Nm 900manual page appeared in 901.At v7 . 902