" Modified Thu Jun 23 19:05:15 2011 by Vivek Prakash <vivekprakash@acm.org>
hier - Description of the file system hierarchy A tour through the MINIX 3 directory hierarchy.

/ This is where the whole tree starts, and is called root.

/bin/ Contains the utility programs; see also /sbin/, /usr/bin/, /usr/sbin.

 cat show files, cat(1) 
 cp copy files and directories, cp(1)
 mount mount file systems, mount(1) 
 sh shell
 ...

/dev/ Contains device, block, or other special files. See mknod(2).

 console computer's console device, tty(4)
 fd* floppy disk, fd(4)
 c?d* hard disk, hd(4)
 null accetps and discards all input; produces no output
 tty* terminal device, tty(4)
 zero the zero device; produces null bytes
 ...

/etc/ System configuration and data files; see also /usr/etc/.

 ethers ethernet addresses database, ethers(5)
 fstab filesystem table, fstab(5)
 group group permissions file
 hostname.file 
 name of the local system, usage(5)
 hosts TCP/IP hosts database, hosts(5)
 hosts.equiv
 trusted remote users or hosts, rhosts(5)
 keymap keymap for custom keyboard, loadkeys(1)
 man.conf
 configuration file for man(1), man.conf(5)
 motd system message of the day, login(1)
 mtab mounted file system table, fstab(5)
 passwd user database, passwd(1) 
 profile system wide shell profile
 rc system startup script, boot(8)
 resolv.conf
 TCP/IP domain name system, resolv.conf(5)
 services
 TCP/IP names to services
 serv.access
 internet service access control, serv.access(5)
 shadow shadow password database, passwd(5)
 termcap terminal type descriptions, termcap(1)
 ttytab terminals device table, ttytab(5)
 utmp user login database, utmp(5)
 ...

/home/ Contains home directories for users.

 bin home directory for user bin
 ast Honorary home directory of Andrew S. Tanenbaum

/mnt/ Mount point for temporarily mounted file system.

/proc/ Mount point for the process file system, which provides information about running processes and the kernel.

/root/ This directory is the home directory for the root user.

 .ashrc ash (shell) startup configuration, ash(1)
 .exrc ex/vi (editor) startup configuration, vim(1)
 .profile
 login shell profile configuration
 .rhosts remote users permission file, rhosts(5)
 .ssh/ contains user private keys, known_hosts and 
 authorized_keys, ssh(1) 

/sbin/ Contains system programs and administrative utilites.

/tmp/ Contains small, short-lived temporary files; see also /usr/tmp/.

/usr/ Contains source and majority of system utilities and files

 adm/ Contains System administration files. 
 
 lastlog last logins, login(1)
 log default log file
 old last weeks log files
 wtmp user logins and logouts, login(1)
 *.cache cached data of some programs
 ...
 
 ast/ Contains user skeleton files. 

 bin/ Common user programs and utilities.

 man show manual pages, man(1)
 ...

 etc/ More system data files; see also /etc. 

 daily daily system cleanup
 rc continued system initialization, boot(8)

 include/ 
 Standard C include files. 

 arpa include files for Internet service protocols 
 machine machine specific include files 
 minix MINIX 3 kernel include files
 netinet include files for Internet standard protocols
 sys system C include files.
 ...

 lib/ Compiler libraries and other support files. 
 
 cawf/ text formatter support files, cawf(1)
 crontab cron jobs, cron(8)
 dict/ word lists
 libc.a C library
 ...

 man/ Contains manual pages in subdirectories according to 
 the man page sections. See man(1).

 cat*/ preformatted manual pages
 man0/ section 0, Book style user commands
 man1/ user commands
 man2/ system calls
 man3/ library routines
 man4/ device files
 man5/ file formats
 man6/ games
 man7/ miscellaneous
 man8/ system utilities
 whatis table of manual pages, whatis(5)
 ...

 mdec/ 
 Contains binaries associated with various boot programs. 

 boot bootstrap code, installboot(8)
 ...

 pkg/
 Contains programs which are related to local softwares.
 
 bin/ utilities for locally installed programs
 etc/ local configuration and data files
 man/ manual pages associated with local programs
 ...

 preserve/
 Contains saved elvis editor buffers. 
 See elvprsv(8), elvrec(1).

 spool/
 Contains spooled files for various commands and 
 mail programs.

 at/ spooled jobs for at(1)
 at/past/ completed at(1) jobs
 crontabs/ spooled jobs for cron(8) 
 lpd/ spooled files for printing
 mail/ mail drops, mail(1)
 user mailbox of user
 ...

 src/ Contains system and command source files. 

 LICENSE MINIX 3 license to use
 Makefile targets for building and installing libraries, 
 utilities and boot files
 commands/ source file for command utilities
 common/ 
 include/ includes common to NetBSD and Minix
 lib/ lib files common to NetBSD kernel and libc
 docs/ documents related to recent source changes
 drivers/ source files for various device drivers
 etc/ source for files in /etc/ 
 include/ standard C include source files
 kernel/ kernel source files
 lib/ source for libraries in /usr/lib/
 man/ manual pages 
 servers/ source files for system servers
 share/ source for files in /usr/share/
 test/ source files for system test programs 
 tools/ kernel image making tools
 ...

 tmp/ Contains large, short lived temporary files.

ls (1), man (1), find (1), grep (1), mount (1). Not all of the directories and files shown are present. They must be created as needed. Many of the listed manual references do not yet exist. Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)