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 December 2, 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 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 fs/ 211.Pp 212.Bl -tag -width ".Pa autofs/" -compact 213.It Pa autofs/ 214automounter filesystem 215.It Pa smbfs/ 216SMB/CIFS filesystem 217.El 218.Pp 219.It Pa isofs/ 220.Pp 221.Bl -tag -width ".Pa cd9660/" -compact 222.It Pa cd9660/ 223iso9660 filesystem 224.El 225.Pp 226.It Pa libprop/ 227C include files for libprop 228.It Pa machine/ 229machine-specific C include files 230.It Pa msdosfs/ 231MS-DOS file system 232.It Pa net/ 233misc network C include files 234.It Pa netinet/ 235C include files for Internet standard protocols; 236see 237.Xr inet 4 238.It Pa netinet6/ 239C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 240see 241.Xr inet6 4 242.It Pa netsmb/ 243SMB/CIFS requester 244.It Pa nfs/ 245C include files for NFS (Network File System) 246.It Pa pcap/ 247Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 248see 249.Xr pcap 3 250.It Pa pccard/ 251PC-CARD controllers 252.It Pa protocols/ 253C include files for Berkeley service protocols 254.It Pa readline/ 255get a line from a user, with editing; 256see 257.Xr readline 3 258.It Pa rpc/ 259remote procedure calls; 260see 261.Xr rpc 3 262.It Pa rpcsvc/ 263definition of RPC service structures; see 264.Xr rpc 3 265.It Pa security/ 266PAM; see 267.Xr pam 3 268.It Pa sys/ 269system C include files (kernel data structures) 270.It Pa ufs/ 271C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 272.Pp 273.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ffs/" -compact 274.It Pa ffs/ 275Fast filesystem 276.It Pa mfs/ 277memory file system; 278see 279.Xr mount_mfs 8 280.It Pa ufs/ 281UFS filesystem 282.El 283.Pp 284.It Pa vm/ 285virtual memory; 286see 287.Xr vmstat 8 288.El 289.Pp 290.It Pa lib/ 291archive libraries 292.It Pa libdata/ 293misc. utility data files 294.It Pa libexec/ 295system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 296.Pp 297.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils225/" -compact 298.It Pa binutils225/ 299.Pp 300.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 301.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 302linker plugins 303.It Pa ldscripts/ 304linker scripts; 305see 306.Xr ld 1 307.El 308.Pp 309.It Pa binutils227/ 310.Pp 311.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 312.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 313linker plugins 314.It Pa ldscripts/ 315linker scripts; 316see 317.Xr ld 1 318.El 319.Pp 320.It Pa lpr/ 321utilities and filters for LP print system; 322see 323.Xr lpr 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 sendmail/ 433sendmail configuration files; 434see 435.Xr sendmail 8 436.It Pa skel/ 437example . (dot) files for new accounts 438.It Pa syscons/ 439files used by 440.Xr syscons 4 441.Pp 442.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 443.It Pa fonts/ 444console fonts; 445see 446.Xr vidcontrol 1 447and 448.Xr vidfont 1 449.It Pa keymaps/ 450console keyboard maps; 451see 452.Xr kbdcontrol 1 453and 454.Xr kbdmap 1 455.It Pa scrnmaps/ 456console screen maps 457.El 458.Pp 459.It Pa tabset/ 460tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 461the termcap file; 462see 463.Xr termcap 5 464.It Pa terminfo/ 465compiled 466.Xr terminfo 5 467database files 468.It Pa tmac/ 469text processing macros; 470see 471.Xr nroff 1 472and 473.Xr troff 1 474.It Pa vi/ 475localization support and utilities for 476.Xr vi 1 477.It Pa zoneinfo/ 478timezone configuration information; 479see 480.Xr tzfile 5 481.El 482.Pp 483.It Pa src/ 484.Bx , 485third-party, and/or local source files 486.Pp 487.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 488.It Pa bin/ 489source code for files in 490.Pa /bin 491.It Pa contrib/ 492source code for contributed software 493.It Pa crypto/ 494source code for contributed cryptography software 495.It Pa etc/ 496source code for files in 497.Pa /etc 498.It Pa games/ 499source code for files in 500.Pa /usr/games 501.It Pa gnu/ 502Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 503.It Pa include/ 504source code for files in 505.Pa /usr/include 506.It Pa lib/ 507source code for files in 508.Pa /usr/lib 509.It Pa libexec/ 510source code for files in 511.Pa /usr/libexec 512.It Pa nrelease/ 513files required to produce a 514.Dx 515release 516.It Pa sbin/ 517source code for files in 518.Pa /sbin 519.It Pa share/ 520source for files in 521.Pa /usr/share 522.It Pa sys/ 523kernel source code 524.It Pa tools/ 525tools used for maintenance and testing of 526.Dx 527.It Pa usr.bin/ 528source code for files in 529.Pa /usr/bin 530.It Pa usr.sbin/ 531source code for files in 532.Pa /usr/sbin 533.El 534.El 535.It Pa /var/ 536multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 537.Pp 538.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 539.It Pa account/ 540system accounting files 541.Pp 542.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 543.It Pa acct 544execution accounting file; 545see 546.Xr acct 5 547.El 548.Pp 549.It Pa at/ 550timed command scheduling files; 551see 552.Xr \&at 1 553.Pp 554.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 555.It Pa jobs/ 556directory containing job files 557.It Pa spool/ 558directory containing output spool files 559.El 560.Pp 561.It Pa backups/ 562misc. backup files 563.It Pa crash/ 564default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 565.Xr crash 8 566and 567.Xr savecore 8 568.It Pa cron/ 569files used by cron; 570see 571.Xr cron 8 572.Pp 573.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 574.It Pa tabs/ 575crontab files; 576see 577.Xr crontab 5 578.El 579.Pp 580.It Pa db/ 581misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 582.It Pa empty/ 583empty directory used by 584.Xr sshd 8 585for privilege separation 586.It Pa games/ 587misc. game status and score files 588.It Pa hammer/ 589per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 590.Xr hammer 5 591file systems 592.It Pa log/ 593misc. system log files 594.Pp 595.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 596.It Pa wtmp 597login/logout log; 598see 599.Xr wtmp 5 600.El 601.Pp 602.It Pa mail/ 603user mailbox files 604.It Pa msgs/ 605system messages database; 606see 607.Xr msgs 1 608.It Pa preserve/ 609temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 610of an editor; 611see 612.Xr \&ex 1 613.It Pa quotas/ 614filesystem quota information files 615.It Pa run/ 616system information files describing various info about 617system since it was booted 618.Pp 619.Bl -tag -width ".Pa resolvconf/" -compact 620.It Pa dhcpcd/ 621for storing files by 622.Xr dhcpcd 8 623hooks 624.It Pa ppp/ 625writable by the 626.Dq network 627group for command connection sockets; see 628.Xr ppp 8 629.It Pa resolvconf/ 630state directory for 631.Xr resolvconf 8 632.It Pa utmp 633database of current users; 634see 635.Xr utmp 5 636.It Pa sem/ 637rendez-vous files for posix named semaphores; 638see 639.Xr sem_open 3 640.El 641.Pp 642.It Pa rwho/ 643rwho data files; 644see 645.Xr rwhod 8 , 646.Xr rwho 1 , 647and 648.Xr ruptime 1 649.It Pa spool/ 650misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 651.Pp 652.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 653.It Pa clientmqueue/ 654undelivered submission mail queue; 655see 656.Xr sendmail 8 657.It Pa dma/ 658undelivered mail queue; 659see 660.Xr dma 8 661.It Pa ftp/ 662commonly 663.Pa ~ftp ; 664the anonymous ftp root directory 665.It Pa mqueue/ 666undelivered mail queue; 667see 668.Xr sendmail 8 669.It Pa output/ 670line printer spooling directories 671.El 672.Pp 673.It Pa tmp/ 674temporary files that are kept between system reboots 675.Pp 676.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 677.It Pa vi.recover/ 678the directory where recovery files are stored 679.El 680.Pp 681.It Pa yp/ 682the NIS maps 683.El 684.El 685.Sh NOTES 686This manual page documents the default 687.Dx 688filesystem layout, but 689the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 690administrator's discretion. 691A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 692this document. 693.Sh SEE ALSO 694.Xr apropos 1 , 695.Xr find 1 , 696.Xr finger 1 , 697.Xr grep 1 , 698.Xr ls 1 , 699.Xr whatis 1 , 700.Xr whereis 1 , 701.Xr which 1 , 702.Xr fsck 8 703.Sh HISTORY 704A 705.Nm 706manual page appeared in 707.At v7 . 708