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: src/share/man/man7/hier.7,v 1.29.2.17 2003/01/13 21:43:50 ceri Exp $ 30.\" 31.Dd October 1, 2015 32.Dt HIER 7 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm hier 36.Nd layout of filesystems 37.Sh DESCRIPTION 38A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy. 39.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /modules/" 40.It Pa / 41root directory of the filesystem 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 kernel/ 52pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory 53at boot time) and loadable kernel modules; 54see 55.Xr kldstat 8 56.El 57.It Pa /compat/ 58files related to compatibility layers 59.Pp 60.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ndis/" -compact 61.It Pa ndis/ 62firmware for 63.Xr ndis 4 64drivers 65.El 66.It Pa /dev/ 67block and character device files 68.Pp 69.Bl -tag -width ".Pa fd/" -compact 70.It Pa fd/ 71file descriptor files; 72see 73.Xr \&fd 4 74.El 75.It Pa /etc/ 76system configuration files and scripts 77.Pp 78.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 79.It Pa bluetooth/ 80bluetooth configuration files 81.It Pa defaults/ 82default system configuration files; 83see 84.Xr rc 8 85.It Pa dma/ 86.Xr dma 8 87configuration files 88.It Pa localtime 89local timezone information; 90see 91.Xr ctime 3 92.It Pa mail/ 93Sendmail control files 94.It Pa mtree/ 95mtree configuration files; 96see 97.Xr mtree 8 98.It Pa pam.d/ 99configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 100library 101.It Pa periodic/ 102scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 103.Xr cron 8 ; 104see 105.Xr periodic 8 106.It Pa ppp/ 107ppp configuration files; 108see 109.Xr ppp 8 110.It Pa rc.d/ 111System and daemon startup/control scripts; 112see 113.Xr rc 8 114.It Pa ssh/ 115OpenSSH configuration files; 116see 117.Xr ssh 1 118.It Pa ssl/ 119OpenSSL configuration files 120.It Pa upgrade/ 121Files relevant to system upgrades 122.It Pa uucp/ 123uucp configuration files; 124see 125.Xr uucp 1 126.El 127.It Pa /home/ 128HOME directories of non-root users 129.It Pa /lib/ 130critical system libraries needed for binaries in 131.Pa /bin 132and 133.Pa /sbin 134.It Pa /libexec/ 135critical system utilities needed for binaries in 136.Pa /bin 137and 138.Pa /sbin 139.It Pa /mnt/ 140empty directory commonly used by 141system administrators as a temporary mount point 142.It Pa /pfs/ 143pseudo file system directory (on 144.Xr hammer 5 145root file systems) 146.It Pa /proc/ 147process file system; 148see 149.Xr procfs 5 , 150.Xr mount_procfs 8 151.It Pa /root/ 152root's HOME directory 153.It Pa /sbin/ 154system programs and administration utilities 155fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 156.It Pa /sys/ 157the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to 158.Pa /usr/src/sys ) 159.It Pa /tmp/ 160temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 161.It Pa /usr/ 162contains the majority of user utilities and applications 163.Pp 164.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 165.It Pa bin/ 166common utilities, programming tools, and applications 167.It Pa dports/ 168The 169.Dx 170.Xr dports 7 171collection (optional). 172.It Pa games/ 173useful and semi-frivolous programs 174.It Pa include/ 175standard C include files 176.Pp 177.Bl -tag -width ".Pa protocols/" -compact 178.It Pa arpa/ 179C include files for Internet service protocols 180.It Pa c++/ 181C++ include files 182.It Pa cam/ 183C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 184.Pp 185.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scsi/" -compact 186.It Pa scsi/ 187The SCSI device on top of CAM 188.El 189.Pp 190.It Pa dev/ 191C include files for programming various 192.Dx 193devices 194.It Pa emulation/ 195Include Files for various emulation layers 196.It Pa fs/ 197.Pp 198.Bl -tag -width ".Pa smbfs/" -compact 199.It Pa smbfs/ 200SMB/CIFS filesystem 201.El 202.Pp 203.It Pa isofs/ 204.Pp 205.Bl -tag -width ".Pa cd9660/" -compact 206.It Pa cd9660/ 207iso9660 filesystem 208.El 209.Pp 210.It Pa libprop/ 211C include files for libprop 212.It Pa machine/ 213machine-specific C include files 214.It Pa msdosfs/ 215MS-DOS file system 216.It Pa net/ 217misc network C include files 218.It Pa netinet/ 219C include files for Internet standard protocols; 220see 221.Xr inet 4 222.It Pa netinet6/ 223C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 224see 225.Xr inet6 4 226.It Pa netkey/ 227kernel key-management service 228.It Pa netsmb/ 229SMB/CIFS requester 230.It Pa nfs/ 231C include files for NFS (Network File System) 232.It Pa openssl/ 233OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers 234.It Pa pcap/ 235Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 236see 237.Xr pcap 3 238.It Pa pccard/ 239PC-CARD controllers 240.It Pa protocols/ 241C include files for Berkeley service protocols 242.It Pa readline/ 243get a line from a user, with editing; 244see 245.Xr readline 3 246.It Pa rpc/ 247remote procedure calls; 248see 249.Xr rpc 3 250.It Pa rpcsvc/ 251definition of RPC service structures; see 252.Xr rpc 3 253.It Pa security/ 254PAM; see 255.Xr pam 8 256.It Pa sys/ 257system C include files (kernel data structures) 258.It Pa ufs/ 259C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 260.Pp 261.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ffs/" -compact 262.It Pa ffs/ 263Fast filesystem 264.It Pa mfs/ 265memory file system; 266see 267.Xr mount_mfs 8 268.It Pa ufs/ 269UFS filesystem 270.El 271.Pp 272.It Pa vm/ 273virtual memory; 274see 275.Xr vmstat 8 276.El 277.Pp 278.It Pa lib/ 279archive libraries 280.Pp 281.Bl -tag -width ".Pa engines/" -compact 282.It Pa aout/ 283a.out archive libraries 284.It Pa engines/ 285OpenSSL dynamic engines 286.El 287.Pp 288.It Pa libdata/ 289misc. utility data files 290.It Pa libexec/ 291system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 292.Pp 293.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils224/" -compact 294.It Pa binutils224/ 295.Pp 296.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ldscripts/" -compact 297.It Pa ldscripts/ 298linker scripts; 299see 300.Xr ld 1 301.El 302.Pp 303.It Pa binutils225/ 304.Pp 305.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ldscripts/" -compact 306.It Pa ldscripts/ 307linker scripts; 308see 309.Xr ld 1 310.El 311.Pp 312.It Pa lpr/ 313utilities and filters for LP print system; 314see 315.Xr lpr 1 316.It Pa sm.bin/ 317restricted shell for sendmail; 318see 319.Xr smrsh 8 320.It Pa uucp/ 321uucp utilities; 322see 323.Xr uucp 1 324.El 325.Pp 326.It Pa local/ 327local executables, libraries, etc. 328Also used as the default destination for the 329.Dx 330.Xr dports 7 331framework. 332Within 333.Pa local/ , 334the general layout sketched out by 335.Nm 336for 337.Pa /usr 338should be used. 339Exceptions are the 340.Pa man 341directory 342.Po directly under 343.Pa local/ 344rather than under 345.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 346ports documentation 347.Po in 348.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 349and 350.Pa /usr/local/etc 351.Po mimics 352.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 353.It Pa obj/ 354architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 355.Pa /usr/src 356tree 357.It Pa sbin/ 358system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 359.It Pa share/ 360architecture-independent files 361.Pp 362.Bl -tag -width ".Pa groff_font/" -compact 363.It Pa calendar/ 364a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 365see 366.Xr calendar 1 367.It Pa dict/ 368word lists; 369see 370.Xr look 1 371.Pp 372.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact 373.It Pa web2 374words from Webster's 2nd International 375.It Pa words 376common words 377.It Pa papers/ 378reference databases; 379see 380.Xr refer 1 381.El 382.Pp 383.It Pa doc/ 384miscellaneous documentation 385.Pp 386.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact 387.It Pa legal/ 388License files for vendor supplied firmware 389.El 390.Pp 391.It Pa examples/ 392various examples for users and programmers 393.It Pa games/ 394ASCII text files used by various games 395.It Pa groff_font/ 396device description file for device name 397.It Pa i18n/ 398internationalization databases; see 399.Xr iconv 3 400.It Pa info/ 401GNU Info hypertext system 402.It Pa libg++/ 403libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 404.It Pa locale/ 405localization files; 406see 407.Xr setlocale 3 408.It Pa man/ 409manual pages 410.It Pa me/ 411macros for use with the me macro package; 412see 413.Xr me 7 414.It Pa misc/ 415misc system-wide ASCII text files 416.Pp 417.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 418.It Pa termcap 419terminal characteristics database; 420see 421.Xr termcap 5 422.El 423.Pp 424.It Pa mk/ 425templates for make; 426see 427.Xr make 1 428.It Pa nls/ 429national language support files; 430see 431.Xr nls 7 432.It Pa openssl/ 433.Pp 434.Bl -tag -width ".Pa man/" -compact 435.It Pa man/ 436OpenSSL manual pages 437.El 438.Pp 439.It Pa sendmail/ 440sendmail configuration files; 441see 442.Xr sendmail 8 443.It Pa skel/ 444example . (dot) files for new accounts 445.It Pa syscons/ 446files used by 447.Xr syscons 4 448.Pp 449.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 450.It Pa fonts/ 451console fonts; 452see 453.Xr vidcontrol 1 454and 455.Xr vidfont 1 456.It Pa keymaps/ 457console keyboard maps; 458see 459.Xr kbdcontrol 1 460and 461.Xr kbdmap 1 462.It Pa scrnmaps/ 463console screen maps 464.El 465.Pp 466.It Pa tabset/ 467tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 468the termcap file; 469see 470.Xr termcap 5 471.It Pa terminfo/ 472compiled 473.Xr terminfo 5 474database files 475.It Pa tmac/ 476text processing macros; 477see 478.Xr nroff 1 479and 480.Xr troff 1 481.It Pa vi/ 482localization support and utilities for 483.Xr vi 1 484.It Pa zoneinfo/ 485timezone configuration information; 486see 487.Xr tzfile 5 488.El 489.Pp 490.It Pa src/ 491.Bx , 492third-party, and/or local source files 493.Pp 494.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 495.It Pa bin/ 496source code for files in 497.Pa /bin 498.It Pa contrib/ 499source code for contributed software 500.It Pa crypto/ 501source code for contributed cryptography software 502.It Pa etc/ 503source code for files in 504.Pa /etc 505.It Pa games/ 506source code for files in 507.Pa /usr/games 508.It Pa gnu/ 509Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 510.It Pa include/ 511source code for files in 512.Pa /usr/include 513.It Pa lib/ 514source code for files in 515.Pa /usr/lib 516.It Pa libexec/ 517source code for files in 518.Pa /usr/libexec 519.It Pa nrelease/ 520files required to produce a 521.Dx 522release 523.It Pa sbin/ 524source code for files in 525.Pa /sbin 526.It Pa secure/ 527build directory for files in 528.Pa /usr/src/crypto 529.It Pa share/ 530source for files in 531.Pa /usr/share 532.It Pa sys/ 533kernel source code 534.It Pa tools/ 535tools used for maintenance and testing of 536.Dx 537.It Pa usr.bin/ 538source code for files in 539.Pa /usr/bin 540.It Pa usr.sbin/ 541source code for files in 542.Pa /usr/sbin 543.El 544.El 545.It Pa /var/ 546multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 547.Pp 548.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 549.It Pa account/ 550system accounting files 551.Pp 552.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 553.It Pa acct 554execution accounting file; 555see 556.Xr acct 5 557.El 558.Pp 559.It Pa at/ 560timed command scheduling files; 561see 562.Xr \&at 1 563.Pp 564.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 565.It Pa jobs/ 566directory containing job files 567.It Pa spool/ 568directory containing output spool files 569.El 570.Pp 571.It Pa backups/ 572misc. backup files 573.It Pa crash/ 574default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 575.Xr crash 8 576and 577.Xr savecore 8 578.It Pa cron/ 579files used by cron; 580see 581.Xr cron 8 582.Pp 583.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 584.It Pa tabs/ 585crontab files; 586see 587.Xr crontab 5 588.El 589.Pp 590.It Pa db/ 591misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 592.It Pa empty/ 593empty directory used by 594.Xr sshd 8 595for privilege separation 596.It Pa games/ 597misc. game status and score files 598.It Pa hammer/ 599per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 600.Xr hammer 5 601file systems 602.It Pa log/ 603misc. system log files 604.Pp 605.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 606.It Pa wtmp 607login/logout log; 608see 609.Xr wtmp 5 610.El 611.Pp 612.It Pa mail/ 613user mailbox files 614.It Pa msgs/ 615system messages database; 616see 617.Xr msgs 1 618.It Pa preserve/ 619temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 620of an editor; 621see 622.Xr \&ex 1 623.It Pa quotas/ 624filesystem quota information files 625.It Pa run/ 626system information files describing various info about 627system since it was booted 628.Pp 629.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ppp/" -compact 630.It Pa ppp/ 631writable by the 632.Dq network 633group for command connection sockets; see 634.Xr ppp 8 635.It Pa utmp 636database of current users; 637see 638.Xr utmp 5 639.It Pa sem/ 640rendez-vous files for posix named semaphores; 641see 642.Xr sem_open 3 643.El 644.Pp 645.It Pa rwho/ 646rwho data files; 647see 648.Xr rwhod 8 , 649.Xr rwho 1 , 650and 651.Xr ruptime 1 652.It Pa spool/ 653misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 654.Pp 655.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 656.It Pa clientmqueue/ 657undelivered submission mail queue; 658see 659.Xr sendmail 8 660.It Pa dma/ 661undelivered mail queue; 662see 663.Xr dma 8 664.It Pa ftp/ 665commonly 666.Pa ~ftp ; 667the anonymous ftp root directory 668.It Pa mqueue/ 669undelivered mail queue; 670see 671.Xr sendmail 8 672.It Pa output/ 673line printer spooling directories 674.It Pa uucp/ 675uucp spool directory 676.It Pa uucppublic/ 677commonly 678.Pa ~uucp ; 679public uucp temporary directory 680.El 681.Pp 682.It Pa tmp/ 683temporary files that are kept between system reboots 684.Pp 685.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 686.It Pa vi.recover/ 687the directory where recovery files are stored 688.El 689.Pp 690.It Pa yp/ 691the NIS maps 692.El 693.El 694.Sh NOTES 695This manual page documents the default 696.Dx 697filesystem layout, but 698the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 699administrator's discretion. 700A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 701this document. 702.Sh SEE ALSO 703.Xr apropos 1 , 704.Xr find 1 , 705.Xr finger 1 , 706.Xr grep 1 , 707.Xr ls 1 , 708.Xr whatis 1 , 709.Xr whereis 1 , 710.Xr which 1 , 711.Xr fsck 8 712.Sh HISTORY 713A 714.Nm 715manual page appeared in 716.At v7 . 717