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 September 17, 2020 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 calendar/ 88system-wide 89.Xr calendar 1 90files 91.It Pa defaults/ 92default system configuration files; 93see 94.Xr rc 8 95.It Pa devd/ 96hardware specific 97.Xr devd 8 98configuration files 99.It Pa dma/ 100.Xr dma 8 101configuration files 102.It Pa localtime 103local timezone information; 104see 105.Xr ctime 3 106.It Pa mail/ 107Sendmail control files 108.It Pa mtree/ 109mtree configuration files; 110see 111.Xr mtree 8 112.It Pa pam.d/ 113configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) 114library 115.It Pa periodic/ 116scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via 117.Xr cron 8 ; 118see 119.Xr periodic 8 120.It Pa ppp/ 121ppp configuration files; 122see 123.Xr ppp 8 124.It Pa rc.d/ 125System and daemon startup/control scripts; 126see 127.Xr rc 8 128.It Pa ssh/ 129OpenSSH configuration files; 130see 131.Xr ssh 1 132.It Pa ssl/ 133LibreSSL configuration files 134.It Pa upgrade/ 135Files relevant to system upgrades 136.El 137.It Pa /home/ 138HOME directories of non-root users 139.It Pa /lib/ 140critical system libraries needed for binaries in 141.Pa /bin 142and 143.Pa /sbin 144.It Pa /libexec/ 145critical system utilities needed for binaries in 146.Pa /bin 147and 148.Pa /sbin 149.It Pa /mnt/ 150empty directory commonly used by 151system administrators as a temporary mount point 152.It Pa /net/ 153automounted NFS shares; 154see 155.Xr auto_master 5 156.It Pa /pfs/ 157pseudo file system directory (on 158.Xr hammer 5 159root file systems) 160.It Pa /proc/ 161process file system; 162see 163.Xr procfs 5 , 164.Xr mount_procfs 8 165.It Pa /rescue/ 166statically linked rescue tools, see 167.Xr initrd 7 168.It Pa /root/ 169root's HOME directory 170.It Pa /sbin/ 171system programs and administration utilities 172fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 173.It Pa /sys/ 174the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to 175.Pa /usr/src/sys ) 176.It Pa /tmp/ 177temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 178.It Pa /usr/ 179contains the majority of user utilities and applications 180.Pp 181.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 182.It Pa bin/ 183common utilities, programming tools, and applications 184.It Pa dports/ 185The 186.Dx 187.Xr dports 7 188collection (optional). 189.It Pa games/ 190useful and semi-frivolous programs 191.It Pa include/ 192standard C include files 193.Pp 194.Bl -tag -width ".Pa protocols/" -compact 195.It Pa arpa/ 196C include files for Internet service protocols 197.It Pa bus/ 198C include files for programming various 199.Dx 200buses 201.It Pa c++/ 202C++ include files 203.It Pa compat/ 204C include files for compatibility with code ported from other 205operating systems 206.It Pa dev/ 207C include files for programming various 208.Dx 209devices 210.It Pa libprop/ 211C include files for libprop 212.It Pa machine/ 213machine-specific C include files 214.It Pa net/ 215misc network C include files 216.It Pa netinet/ 217C include files for Internet standard protocols; 218see 219.Xr inet 4 220.It Pa netinet6/ 221C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 222see 223.Xr inet6 4 224.It Pa netsmb/ 225SMB/CIFS requester 226.It Pa pcap/ 227Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 228see 229.Xr pcap 3 230.It Pa protocols/ 231C include files for Berkeley service protocols 232.It Pa readline/ 233get a line from a user, with editing; 234see 235.Xr readline 3 236.It Pa rpc/ 237remote procedure calls; 238see 239.Xr rpc 3 240.It Pa rpcsvc/ 241definition of RPC service structures; see 242.Xr rpc 3 243.It Pa security/ 244PAM; see 245.Xr pam 3 246.It Pa sys/ 247system C include files (kernel data structures) 248.It Pa vfs/ 249C include files for various file systems 250.It Pa vm/ 251virtual memory; 252see 253.Xr vmstat 8 254.El 255.Pp 256.It Pa lib/ 257archive libraries 258.It Pa libdata/ 259misc. utility data files 260.It Pa libexec/ 261system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 262.Pp 263.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils234/" -compact 264.It Pa binutils227/ 265.Pp 266.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 267.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 268linker plugins 269.It Pa ldscripts/ 270linker scripts; 271see 272.Xr ld 1 273.El 274.Pp 275.It Pa binutils234/ 276.Pp 277.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 278.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 279linker plugins 280.It Pa ldscripts/ 281linker scripts; 282see 283.Xr ld 1 284.El 285.Pp 286.It Pa lpr/ 287utilities and filters for LP print system; 288see 289.Xr lpr 1 290.El 291.Pp 292.It Pa local/ 293local executables, libraries, etc. 294Also used as the default destination for the 295.Dx 296.Xr dports 7 297framework. 298Within 299.Pa local/ , 300the general layout sketched out by 301.Nm 302for 303.Pa /usr 304should be used. 305Exceptions are the 306.Pa man 307directory 308.Po directly under 309.Pa local/ 310rather than under 311.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 312ports documentation 313.Po in 314.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 315and 316.Pa /usr/local/etc 317.Po mimics 318.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 319.It Pa obj/ 320architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 321.Pa /usr/src 322tree 323.It Pa sbin/ 324system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 325.It Pa share/ 326architecture-independent files 327.Pp 328.Bl -tag -width ".Pa installer/" -compact 329.It Pa calendar/ 330a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 331see 332.Xr calendar 1 333.It Pa dict/ 334word lists; 335see 336.Xr look 1 337.Pp 338.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact 339.It Pa web2 340words from Webster's 2nd International 341.It Pa words 342common words 343.It Pa papers/ 344reference databases; 345see 346.Xr refer 1 347.El 348.Pp 349.It Pa doc/ 350miscellaneous documentation 351.Pp 352.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact 353.It Pa legal/ 354License files for vendor supplied firmware 355.El 356.Pp 357.It Pa dsynth/ 358.Xr dsynth 1 359scripts 360.It Pa examples/ 361various examples for users and programmers 362.It Pa games/ 363ASCII text files used by various games 364.It Pa i18n/ 365internationalization databases; see 366.Xr iconv 3 367.It Pa info/ 368GNU Info hypertext system 369.It Pa libg++/ 370libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 371.It Pa locale/ 372localization files; 373see 374.Xr setlocale 3 375.It Pa man/ 376manual pages 377.It Pa misc/ 378misc system-wide ASCII text files 379.Pp 380.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 381.It Pa termcap 382terminal characteristics database; 383see 384.Xr termcap 5 385.El 386.Pp 387.It Pa mk/ 388templates for make; 389see 390.Xr make 1 391.It Pa nls/ 392national language support files; 393see 394.Xr nls 7 395.It Pa sendmail/ 396sendmail configuration files; 397see 398.Xr sendmail 8 399.It Pa skel/ 400example . (dot) files for new accounts 401.It Pa syscons/ 402files used by 403.Xr syscons 4 404.Pp 405.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 406.It Pa fonts/ 407console fonts; 408see 409.Xr vidcontrol 1 410and 411.Xr vidfont 1 412.It Pa keymaps/ 413console keyboard maps; 414see 415.Xr kbdcontrol 1 416and 417.Xr kbdmap 1 418.It Pa scrnmaps/ 419console screen maps 420.El 421.Pp 422.It Pa tabset/ 423tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 424the termcap file; 425see 426.Xr termcap 5 427.It Pa terminfo/ 428compiled 429.Xr terminfo 5 430database files 431.It Pa vi/ 432localization support and utilities for 433.Xr vi 1 434.It Pa zoneinfo/ 435timezone configuration information; 436see 437.Xr tzfile 5 438.El 439.Pp 440.It Pa src/ 441.Bx , 442third-party, and/or local source files 443.Pp 444.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 445.It Pa bin/ 446source code for files in 447.Pa /bin 448.It Pa contrib/ 449source code for contributed software 450.It Pa crypto/ 451source code for contributed cryptography software 452.It Pa etc/ 453source code for files in 454.Pa /etc 455.It Pa games/ 456source code for files in 457.Pa /usr/games 458.It Pa gnu/ 459Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 460.It Pa include/ 461source code for files in 462.Pa /usr/include 463.It Pa lib/ 464source code for files in 465.Pa /usr/lib 466.It Pa libexec/ 467source code for files in 468.Pa /usr/libexec 469.It Pa nrelease/ 470files required to produce a 471.Dx 472release 473.It Pa sbin/ 474source code for files in 475.Pa /sbin 476.It Pa share/ 477source for files in 478.Pa /usr/share 479.It Pa sys/ 480kernel source code 481.It Pa tools/ 482tools used for maintenance and testing of 483.Dx 484.It Pa usr.bin/ 485source code for files in 486.Pa /usr/bin 487.It Pa usr.sbin/ 488source code for files in 489.Pa /usr/sbin 490.El 491.El 492.It Pa /var/ 493multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 494.Pp 495.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 496.It Pa account/ 497system accounting files 498.Pp 499.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 500.It Pa acct 501execution accounting file; 502see 503.Xr acct 5 504.El 505.Pp 506.It Pa at/ 507timed command scheduling files; 508see 509.Xr at 1 510.Pp 511.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 512.It Pa jobs/ 513directory containing job files 514.It Pa spool/ 515directory containing output spool files 516.El 517.Pp 518.It Pa backups/ 519misc. backup files 520.It Pa crash/ 521default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 522.Xr crash 8 523and 524.Xr savecore 8 525.It Pa cron/ 526files used by cron; 527see 528.Xr cron 8 529.Pp 530.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 531.It Pa tabs/ 532crontab files; 533see 534.Xr crontab 5 535.El 536.Pp 537.It Pa db/ 538misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 539.It Pa empty/ 540empty directory used by 541.Xr sshd 8 542for privilege separation 543.It Pa games/ 544misc. game status and score files 545.It Pa hammer/ 546per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 547.Xr hammer 5 548file systems 549.It Pa log/ 550misc. system log files 551.Pp 552.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmpx" -compact 553.It Pa wtmpx 554login/logout log; 555see 556.Xr wtmpx 5 557.El 558.Pp 559.It Pa mail/ 560user mailbox files 561.It Pa msgs/ 562system messages database; 563see 564.Xr msgs 1 565.It Pa preserve/ 566temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 567of an editor; 568see 569.Xr ex 1 570.It Pa quotas/ 571filesystem quota information files 572.It Pa run/ 573system information files describing various info about 574system since it was booted 575.Pp 576.Bl -tag -width ".Pa resolvconf/" -compact 577.It Pa dhcpcd/ 578for storing files by 579.Xr dhcpcd 8 580hooks 581.It Pa ppp/ 582writable by the 583.Dq network 584group for command connection sockets; see 585.Xr ppp 8 586.It Pa resolvconf/ 587state directory for 588.Xr resolvconf 8 589.It Pa utmpx 590database of current users; 591see 592.Xr utmpx 5 593.It Pa sem/ 594rendez-vous files for POSIX named semaphores; 595see 596.Xr sem_open 3 597.It Pa shm/ 598files associated with POSIX shared memory objects; 599see 600.Xr shm_open 3 601.El 602.Pp 603.It Pa rwho/ 604rwho data files; 605see 606.Xr rwhod 8 , 607.Xr rwho 1 , 608and 609.Xr ruptime 1 610.It Pa spool/ 611misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 612.Pp 613.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 614.It Pa clientmqueue/ 615undelivered submission mail queue; 616see 617.Xr sendmail 8 618.It Pa dma/ 619undelivered mail queue; 620see 621.Xr dma 8 622.It Pa ftp/ 623commonly 624.Pa ~ftp ; 625the anonymous ftp root directory 626.It Pa mqueue/ 627undelivered mail queue; 628see 629.Xr sendmail 8 630.It Pa output/ 631line printer spooling directories 632.El 633.Pp 634.It Pa tmp/ 635temporary files that are kept between system reboots 636.Pp 637.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 638.It Pa vi.recover/ 639the directory where recovery files are stored 640.El 641.Pp 642.It Pa yp/ 643the NIS maps 644.El 645.El 646.Sh NOTES 647This manual page documents the default 648.Dx 649filesystem layout, but 650the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 651administrator's discretion. 652A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 653this document. 654.Sh SEE ALSO 655.Xr apropos 1 , 656.Xr find 1 , 657.Xr finger 1 , 658.Xr grep 1 , 659.Xr ls 1 , 660.Xr whatis 1 , 661.Xr whereis 1 , 662.Xr which 1 , 663.Xr fsck 8 664.Sh HISTORY 665A 666.Nm 667manual page appeared in 668.At v7 . 669