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 21, 2019 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 installer/" -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 i18n/ 396internationalization databases; see 397.Xr iconv 3 398.It Pa info/ 399GNU Info hypertext system 400.It Pa libg++/ 401libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 402.It Pa locale/ 403localization files; 404see 405.Xr setlocale 3 406.It Pa man/ 407manual pages 408.It Pa misc/ 409misc system-wide ASCII text files 410.Pp 411.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 412.It Pa termcap 413terminal characteristics database; 414see 415.Xr termcap 5 416.El 417.Pp 418.It Pa mk/ 419templates for make; 420see 421.Xr make 1 422.It Pa nls/ 423national language support files; 424see 425.Xr nls 7 426.It Pa sendmail/ 427sendmail configuration files; 428see 429.Xr sendmail 8 430.It Pa skel/ 431example . (dot) files for new accounts 432.It Pa syscons/ 433files used by 434.Xr syscons 4 435.Pp 436.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 437.It Pa fonts/ 438console fonts; 439see 440.Xr vidcontrol 1 441and 442.Xr vidfont 1 443.It Pa keymaps/ 444console keyboard maps; 445see 446.Xr kbdcontrol 1 447and 448.Xr kbdmap 1 449.It Pa scrnmaps/ 450console screen maps 451.El 452.Pp 453.It Pa tabset/ 454tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 455the termcap file; 456see 457.Xr termcap 5 458.It Pa terminfo/ 459compiled 460.Xr terminfo 5 461database files 462.It Pa vi/ 463localization support and utilities for 464.Xr vi 1 465.It Pa zoneinfo/ 466timezone configuration information; 467see 468.Xr tzfile 5 469.El 470.Pp 471.It Pa src/ 472.Bx , 473third-party, and/or local source files 474.Pp 475.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 476.It Pa bin/ 477source code for files in 478.Pa /bin 479.It Pa contrib/ 480source code for contributed software 481.It Pa crypto/ 482source code for contributed cryptography software 483.It Pa etc/ 484source code for files in 485.Pa /etc 486.It Pa games/ 487source code for files in 488.Pa /usr/games 489.It Pa gnu/ 490Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 491.It Pa include/ 492source code for files in 493.Pa /usr/include 494.It Pa lib/ 495source code for files in 496.Pa /usr/lib 497.It Pa libexec/ 498source code for files in 499.Pa /usr/libexec 500.It Pa nrelease/ 501files required to produce a 502.Dx 503release 504.It Pa sbin/ 505source code for files in 506.Pa /sbin 507.It Pa share/ 508source for files in 509.Pa /usr/share 510.It Pa sys/ 511kernel source code 512.It Pa tools/ 513tools used for maintenance and testing of 514.Dx 515.It Pa usr.bin/ 516source code for files in 517.Pa /usr/bin 518.It Pa usr.sbin/ 519source code for files in 520.Pa /usr/sbin 521.El 522.El 523.It Pa /var/ 524multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 525.Pp 526.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 527.It Pa account/ 528system accounting files 529.Pp 530.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 531.It Pa acct 532execution accounting file; 533see 534.Xr acct 5 535.El 536.Pp 537.It Pa at/ 538timed command scheduling files; 539see 540.Xr \&at 1 541.Pp 542.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 543.It Pa jobs/ 544directory containing job files 545.It Pa spool/ 546directory containing output spool files 547.El 548.Pp 549.It Pa backups/ 550misc. backup files 551.It Pa crash/ 552default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 553.Xr crash 8 554and 555.Xr savecore 8 556.It Pa cron/ 557files used by cron; 558see 559.Xr cron 8 560.Pp 561.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 562.It Pa tabs/ 563crontab files; 564see 565.Xr crontab 5 566.El 567.Pp 568.It Pa db/ 569misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 570.It Pa empty/ 571empty directory used by 572.Xr sshd 8 573for privilege separation 574.It Pa games/ 575misc. game status and score files 576.It Pa hammer/ 577per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 578.Xr hammer 5 579file systems 580.It Pa log/ 581misc. system log files 582.Pp 583.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 584.It Pa wtmp 585login/logout log; 586see 587.Xr wtmp 5 588.El 589.Pp 590.It Pa mail/ 591user mailbox files 592.It Pa msgs/ 593system messages database; 594see 595.Xr msgs 1 596.It Pa preserve/ 597temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 598of an editor; 599see 600.Xr \&ex 1 601.It Pa quotas/ 602filesystem quota information files 603.It Pa run/ 604system information files describing various info about 605system since it was booted 606.Pp 607.Bl -tag -width ".Pa resolvconf/" -compact 608.It Pa dhcpcd/ 609for storing files by 610.Xr dhcpcd 8 611hooks 612.It Pa ppp/ 613writable by the 614.Dq network 615group for command connection sockets; see 616.Xr ppp 8 617.It Pa resolvconf/ 618state directory for 619.Xr resolvconf 8 620.It Pa utmp 621database of current users; 622see 623.Xr utmp 5 624.It Pa sem/ 625rendez-vous files for POSIX named semaphores; 626see 627.Xr sem_open 3 628.It Pa shm/ 629files associated with POSIX shared memory objects; 630see 631.Xr shm_open 3 632.El 633.Pp 634.It Pa rwho/ 635rwho data files; 636see 637.Xr rwhod 8 , 638.Xr rwho 1 , 639and 640.Xr ruptime 1 641.It Pa spool/ 642misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 643.Pp 644.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 645.It Pa clientmqueue/ 646undelivered submission mail queue; 647see 648.Xr sendmail 8 649.It Pa dma/ 650undelivered mail queue; 651see 652.Xr dma 8 653.It Pa ftp/ 654commonly 655.Pa ~ftp ; 656the anonymous ftp root directory 657.It Pa mqueue/ 658undelivered mail queue; 659see 660.Xr sendmail 8 661.It Pa output/ 662line printer spooling directories 663.El 664.Pp 665.It Pa tmp/ 666temporary files that are kept between system reboots 667.Pp 668.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 669.It Pa vi.recover/ 670the directory where recovery files are stored 671.El 672.Pp 673.It Pa yp/ 674the NIS maps 675.El 676.El 677.Sh NOTES 678This manual page documents the default 679.Dx 680filesystem layout, but 681the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 682administrator's discretion. 683A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 684this document. 685.Sh SEE ALSO 686.Xr apropos 1 , 687.Xr find 1 , 688.Xr finger 1 , 689.Xr grep 1 , 690.Xr ls 1 , 691.Xr whatis 1 , 692.Xr whereis 1 , 693.Xr which 1 , 694.Xr fsck 8 695.Sh HISTORY 696A 697.Nm 698manual page appeared in 699.At v7 . 700