xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/hier.7 (revision 076ad2f8)
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28.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd March 15, 2016
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 sbin/
708source code for files in
709.Pa /sbin
710.It Pa secure/
711build directory for files in
712.Pa /usr/src/crypto
713.It Pa share/
714source for files in
715.Pa /usr/share
716.It Pa sys/
717kernel source code
718.It Pa tools/
719tools used for maintenance and testing of
720.Fx
721.It Pa usr.bin/
722source code for files in
723.Pa /usr/bin
724.It Pa usr.sbin/
725source code for files in
726.Pa /usr/sbin
727.El
728.Pp
729.It Pa tests/
730The
731.Fx
732test suite.
733See
734.Xr tests 7
735for more details.
736.El
737.It Pa /var/
738multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
739.Pp
740.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
741.It Pa account/
742system accounting files
743.Pp
744.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
745.It Pa acct
746execution accounting file;
747see
748.Xr acct 5
749.El
750.Pp
751.It Pa at/
752timed command scheduling files;
753see
754.Xr \&at 1
755.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
756.It Pa jobs/
757directory containing job files
758.It Pa spool/
759directory containing output spool files
760.El
761.Pp
762.It Pa backups/
763miscellaneous backup files
764.It Pa cache/
765miscellaneous cached files
766.Bl -tag -width ".Pa pkg/" -compact
767.It Pa pkg/
768cached packages for
769.Xr pkg 8
770.El
771.Pp
772.It Pa crash/
773default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
774.Xr crash 8
775and
776.Xr savecore 8
777.It Pa cron/
778files used by cron;
779see
780.Xr cron 8
781.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
782.It Pa tabs/
783crontab files;
784see
785.Xr crontab 5
786.El
787.Pp
788.It Pa db/
789miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
790.It Pa empty/
791empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory.
792Used for instance by
793.Xr sshd 8
794for privilege separation.
795.It Pa games/
796miscellaneous game status and score files
797.It Pa heimdal/
798kerberos server databases; see
799.Xr kdc 8
800.It Pa log/
801miscellaneous system log files
802.Pp
803.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
804.It Pa utx.lastlogin
805last login log;
806see
807.Xr getutxent 3
808.It Pa utx.log
809login/logout log;
810see
811.Xr getutxent 3
812.El
813.Pp
814.It Pa mail/
815user mailbox files
816.It Pa msgs/
817system messages database;
818see
819.Xr msgs 1
820.It Pa preserve/
821temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
822of an editor;
823see
824.Xr \&ex 1
825.It Pa quotas/
826file system quota information files
827.It Pa run/
828system information files describing various info about
829system since it was booted
830.Pp
831.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
832.It Pa ppp/
833writable by the
834.Dq network
835group for command connection sockets; see
836.Xr ppp 8
837.It Pa utx.active
838database of current users;
839see
840.Xr getutxent 3
841.El
842.Pp
843.It Pa rwho/
844rwho data files;
845see
846.Xr rwhod 8 ,
847.Xr rwho 1 ,
848and
849.Xr ruptime 1
850.It Pa spool/
851miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
852.Pp
853.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
854.It Pa clientmqueue/
855undelivered submission mail queue;
856see
857.Xr sendmail 8
858.It Pa ftp/
859commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
860.It Pa mqueue/
861undelivered mail queue;
862see
863.Xr sendmail 8
864.It Pa output/
865line printer spooling directories
866.El
867.Pp
868.It Pa tmp/
869temporary files that are kept between system reboots
870.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
871.It Pa vi.recover/
872the directory where recovery files are stored
873.El
874.It Pa yp/
875the NIS maps
876.El
877.El
878.Sh NOTES
879This manual page documents the default
880.Fx
881file system layout, but
882the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
883administrator's discretion.
884A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
885this document.
886.Sh SEE ALSO
887.Xr apropos 1 ,
888.Xr find 1 ,
889.Xr finger 1 ,
890.Xr grep 1 ,
891.Xr ls 1 ,
892.Xr whatis 1 ,
893.Xr whereis 1 ,
894.Xr which 1 ,
895.Xr fd 4 ,
896.Xr devfs 5 ,
897.Xr fsck 8
898.Sh HISTORY
899A
900.Nm
901manual page appeared in
902.At v7 .
903