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 July 7, 2018 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 modules.local/" -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.It Pa modules.local/ 57local loadable kernel modules and wrapped external firmware images; see 58.Xr firmware 9 59.El 60.It Pa /compat/ 61files related to compatibility layers 62.Pp 63.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ndis/" -compact 64.It Pa ndis/ 65firmware for 66.Xr ndis 4 67drivers 68.El 69.It Pa /dev/ 70block and character device files 71.Pp 72.Bl -tag -width ".Pa fd/" -compact 73.It Pa fd/ 74file descriptor files; 75see 76.Xr \&fd 4 77.El 78.It Pa /etc/ 79system configuration files and scripts 80.Pp 81.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact 82.It Pa autofs/ 83shell scripts to implement special maps and directory services via 84.Xr autofs 5 85.It Pa bluetooth/ 86bluetooth configuration files 87.It Pa defaults/ 88default system configuration files; 89see 90.Xr rc 8 91.It Pa devd/ 92hardware specific 93.Xr devd 8 94configuration files 95.It Pa dma/ 96.Xr dma 8 97configuration files 98.It Pa localtime 99local timezone information; 100see 101.Xr ctime 3 102.It Pa mail/ 103Sendmail control files 104.It Pa mtree/ 105mtree configuration files; 106see 107.Xr mtree 8 108.It Pa pam.d/ 109configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 110library 111.It Pa periodic/ 112scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 113.Xr cron 8 ; 114see 115.Xr periodic 8 116.It Pa ppp/ 117ppp configuration files; 118see 119.Xr ppp 8 120.It Pa rc.d/ 121System and daemon startup/control scripts; 122see 123.Xr rc 8 124.It Pa ssh/ 125OpenSSH configuration files; 126see 127.Xr ssh 1 128.It Pa ssl/ 129LibreSSL configuration files 130.It Pa upgrade/ 131Files relevant to system upgrades 132.El 133.It Pa /home/ 134HOME directories of non-root users 135.It Pa /lib/ 136critical system libraries needed for binaries in 137.Pa /bin 138and 139.Pa /sbin 140.It Pa /libexec/ 141critical system utilities needed for binaries in 142.Pa /bin 143and 144.Pa /sbin 145.It Pa /mnt/ 146empty directory commonly used by 147system administrators as a temporary mount point 148.It Pa /net/ 149automounted NFS shares; 150see 151.Xr auto_master 5 152.It Pa /pfs/ 153pseudo file system directory (on 154.Xr hammer 5 155root file systems) 156.It Pa /proc/ 157process file system; 158see 159.Xr procfs 5 , 160.Xr mount_procfs 8 161.It Pa /rescue/ 162statically linked rescue tools, see 163.Xr initrd 7 164.It Pa /root/ 165root's HOME directory 166.It Pa /sbin/ 167system programs and administration utilities 168fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 169.It Pa /sys/ 170the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to 171.Pa /usr/src/sys ) 172.It Pa /tmp/ 173temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 174.It Pa /usr/ 175contains the majority of user utilities and applications 176.Pp 177.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 178.It Pa bin/ 179common utilities, programming tools, and applications 180.It Pa dports/ 181The 182.Dx 183.Xr dports 7 184collection (optional). 185.It Pa games/ 186useful and semi-frivolous programs 187.It Pa include/ 188standard C include files 189.Pp 190.Bl -tag -width ".Pa protocols/" -compact 191.It Pa arpa/ 192C include files for Internet service protocols 193.It Pa c++/ 194C++ include files 195.It Pa cam/ 196C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 197.Pp 198.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scsi/" -compact 199.It Pa scsi/ 200The SCSI device on top of CAM 201.El 202.Pp 203.It Pa dev/ 204C include files for programming various 205.Dx 206devices 207.It Pa fs/ 208.Pp 209.Bl -tag -width ".Pa autofs/" -compact 210.It Pa autofs/ 211automounter filesystem 212.It Pa smbfs/ 213SMB/CIFS filesystem 214.El 215.Pp 216.It Pa isofs/ 217.Pp 218.Bl -tag -width ".Pa cd9660/" -compact 219.It Pa cd9660/ 220iso9660 filesystem 221.El 222.Pp 223.It Pa libprop/ 224C include files for libprop 225.It Pa machine/ 226machine-specific C include files 227.It Pa msdosfs/ 228MS-DOS file system 229.It Pa net/ 230misc network C include files 231.It Pa netinet/ 232C include files for Internet standard protocols; 233see 234.Xr inet 4 235.It Pa netinet6/ 236C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 237see 238.Xr inet6 4 239.It Pa netsmb/ 240SMB/CIFS requester 241.It Pa nfs/ 242C include files for NFS (Network File System) 243.It Pa pcap/ 244Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 245see 246.Xr pcap 3 247.It Pa pccard/ 248PC-CARD controllers 249.It Pa protocols/ 250C include files for Berkeley service protocols 251.It Pa readline/ 252get a line from a user, with editing; 253see 254.Xr readline 3 255.It Pa rpc/ 256remote procedure calls; 257see 258.Xr rpc 3 259.It Pa rpcsvc/ 260definition of RPC service structures; see 261.Xr rpc 3 262.It Pa security/ 263PAM; see 264.Xr pam 3 265.It Pa sys/ 266system C include files (kernel data structures) 267.It Pa ufs/ 268C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 269.Pp 270.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ffs/" -compact 271.It Pa ffs/ 272Fast filesystem 273.It Pa mfs/ 274memory file system; 275see 276.Xr mount_mfs 8 277.It Pa ufs/ 278UFS filesystem 279.El 280.Pp 281.It Pa vm/ 282virtual memory; 283see 284.Xr vmstat 8 285.El 286.Pp 287.It Pa lib/ 288archive libraries 289.It Pa libdata/ 290misc. utility data files 291.It Pa libexec/ 292system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 293.Pp 294.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils225/" -compact 295.It Pa binutils225/ 296.Pp 297.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 298.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 299linker plugins 300.It Pa ldscripts/ 301linker scripts; 302see 303.Xr ld 1 304.El 305.Pp 306.It Pa binutils227/ 307.Pp 308.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 309.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 310linker plugins 311.It Pa ldscripts/ 312linker scripts; 313see 314.Xr ld 1 315.El 316.Pp 317.It Pa lpr/ 318utilities and filters for LP print system; 319see 320.Xr lpr 1 321.El 322.Pp 323.It Pa local/ 324local executables, libraries, etc. 325Also used as the default destination for the 326.Dx 327.Xr dports 7 328framework. 329Within 330.Pa local/ , 331the general layout sketched out by 332.Nm 333for 334.Pa /usr 335should be used. 336Exceptions are the 337.Pa man 338directory 339.Po directly under 340.Pa local/ 341rather than under 342.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 343ports documentation 344.Po in 345.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 346and 347.Pa /usr/local/etc 348.Po mimics 349.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 350.It Pa obj/ 351architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 352.Pa /usr/src 353tree 354.It Pa sbin/ 355system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 356.It Pa share/ 357architecture-independent files 358.Pp 359.Bl -tag -width ".Pa groff_font/" -compact 360.It Pa calendar/ 361a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 362see 363.Xr calendar 1 364.It Pa dict/ 365word lists; 366see 367.Xr look 1 368.Pp 369.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact 370.It Pa web2 371words from Webster's 2nd International 372.It Pa words 373common words 374.It Pa papers/ 375reference databases; 376see 377.Xr refer 1 378.El 379.Pp 380.It Pa doc/ 381miscellaneous documentation 382.Pp 383.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact 384.It Pa legal/ 385License files for vendor supplied firmware 386.El 387.Pp 388.It Pa examples/ 389various examples for users and programmers 390.It Pa games/ 391ASCII text files used by various games 392.It Pa groff_font/ 393device description file for device name 394.It Pa i18n/ 395internationalization databases; see 396.Xr iconv 3 397.It Pa info/ 398GNU Info hypertext system 399.It Pa libg++/ 400libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 401.It Pa locale/ 402localization files; 403see 404.Xr setlocale 3 405.It Pa man/ 406manual pages 407.It Pa me/ 408macros for use with the me macro package; 409see 410.Xr me 7 411.It Pa misc/ 412misc system-wide ASCII text files 413.Pp 414.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 415.It Pa termcap 416terminal characteristics database; 417see 418.Xr termcap 5 419.El 420.Pp 421.It Pa mk/ 422templates for make; 423see 424.Xr make 1 425.It Pa nls/ 426national language support files; 427see 428.Xr nls 7 429.It Pa sendmail/ 430sendmail configuration files; 431see 432.Xr sendmail 8 433.It Pa skel/ 434example . (dot) files for new accounts 435.It Pa syscons/ 436files used by 437.Xr syscons 4 438.Pp 439.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 440.It Pa fonts/ 441console fonts; 442see 443.Xr vidcontrol 1 444and 445.Xr vidfont 1 446.It Pa keymaps/ 447console keyboard maps; 448see 449.Xr kbdcontrol 1 450and 451.Xr kbdmap 1 452.It Pa scrnmaps/ 453console screen maps 454.El 455.Pp 456.It Pa tabset/ 457tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 458the termcap file; 459see 460.Xr termcap 5 461.It Pa terminfo/ 462compiled 463.Xr terminfo 5 464database files 465.It Pa tmac/ 466text processing macros; 467see 468.Xr nroff 1 469and 470.Xr troff 1 471.It Pa vi/ 472localization support and utilities for 473.Xr vi 1 474.It Pa zoneinfo/ 475timezone configuration information; 476see 477.Xr tzfile 5 478.El 479.Pp 480.It Pa src/ 481.Bx , 482third-party, and/or local source files 483.Pp 484.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 485.It Pa bin/ 486source code for files in 487.Pa /bin 488.It Pa contrib/ 489source code for contributed software 490.It Pa crypto/ 491source code for contributed cryptography software 492.It Pa etc/ 493source code for files in 494.Pa /etc 495.It Pa games/ 496source code for files in 497.Pa /usr/games 498.It Pa gnu/ 499Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 500.It Pa include/ 501source code for files in 502.Pa /usr/include 503.It Pa lib/ 504source code for files in 505.Pa /usr/lib 506.It Pa libexec/ 507source code for files in 508.Pa /usr/libexec 509.It Pa nrelease/ 510files required to produce a 511.Dx 512release 513.It Pa sbin/ 514source code for files in 515.Pa /sbin 516.It Pa share/ 517source for files in 518.Pa /usr/share 519.It Pa sys/ 520kernel source code 521.It Pa tools/ 522tools used for maintenance and testing of 523.Dx 524.It Pa usr.bin/ 525source code for files in 526.Pa /usr/bin 527.It Pa usr.sbin/ 528source code for files in 529.Pa /usr/sbin 530.El 531.El 532.It Pa /var/ 533multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 534.Pp 535.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 536.It Pa account/ 537system accounting files 538.Pp 539.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 540.It Pa acct 541execution accounting file; 542see 543.Xr acct 5 544.El 545.Pp 546.It Pa at/ 547timed command scheduling files; 548see 549.Xr \&at 1 550.Pp 551.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 552.It Pa jobs/ 553directory containing job files 554.It Pa spool/ 555directory containing output spool files 556.El 557.Pp 558.It Pa backups/ 559misc. backup files 560.It Pa crash/ 561default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 562.Xr crash 8 563and 564.Xr savecore 8 565.It Pa cron/ 566files used by cron; 567see 568.Xr cron 8 569.Pp 570.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 571.It Pa tabs/ 572crontab files; 573see 574.Xr crontab 5 575.El 576.Pp 577.It Pa db/ 578misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 579.It Pa empty/ 580empty directory used by 581.Xr sshd 8 582for privilege separation 583.It Pa games/ 584misc. game status and score files 585.It Pa hammer/ 586per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 587.Xr hammer 5 588file systems 589.It Pa log/ 590misc. system log files 591.Pp 592.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 593.It Pa wtmp 594login/logout log; 595see 596.Xr wtmp 5 597.El 598.Pp 599.It Pa mail/ 600user mailbox files 601.It Pa msgs/ 602system messages database; 603see 604.Xr msgs 1 605.It Pa preserve/ 606temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 607of an editor; 608see 609.Xr \&ex 1 610.It Pa quotas/ 611filesystem quota information files 612.It Pa run/ 613system information files describing various info about 614system since it was booted 615.Pp 616.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ppp/" -compact 617.It Pa ppp/ 618writable by the 619.Dq network 620group for command connection sockets; see 621.Xr ppp 8 622.It Pa utmp 623database of current users; 624see 625.Xr utmp 5 626.It Pa sem/ 627rendez-vous files for posix named semaphores; 628see 629.Xr sem_open 3 630.El 631.Pp 632.It Pa rwho/ 633rwho data files; 634see 635.Xr rwhod 8 , 636.Xr rwho 1 , 637and 638.Xr ruptime 1 639.It Pa spool/ 640misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 641.Pp 642.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 643.It Pa clientmqueue/ 644undelivered submission mail queue; 645see 646.Xr sendmail 8 647.It Pa dma/ 648undelivered mail queue; 649see 650.Xr dma 8 651.It Pa ftp/ 652commonly 653.Pa ~ftp ; 654the anonymous ftp root directory 655.It Pa mqueue/ 656undelivered mail queue; 657see 658.Xr sendmail 8 659.It Pa output/ 660line printer spooling directories 661.El 662.Pp 663.It Pa tmp/ 664temporary files that are kept between system reboots 665.Pp 666.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 667.It Pa vi.recover/ 668the directory where recovery files are stored 669.El 670.Pp 671.It Pa yp/ 672the NIS maps 673.El 674.El 675.Sh NOTES 676This manual page documents the default 677.Dx 678filesystem layout, but 679the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 680administrator's discretion. 681A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 682this document. 683.Sh SEE ALSO 684.Xr apropos 1 , 685.Xr find 1 , 686.Xr finger 1 , 687.Xr grep 1 , 688.Xr ls 1 , 689.Xr whatis 1 , 690.Xr whereis 1 , 691.Xr which 1 , 692.Xr fsck 8 693.Sh HISTORY 694A 695.Nm 696manual page appeared in 697.At v7 . 698