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 24, 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 dsynth/ 392.Xr dsynth 1 393scripts 394.It Pa examples/ 395various examples for users and programmers 396.It Pa games/ 397ASCII text files used by various games 398.It Pa i18n/ 399internationalization databases; see 400.Xr iconv 3 401.It Pa info/ 402GNU Info hypertext system 403.It Pa libg++/ 404libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 405.It Pa locale/ 406localization files; 407see 408.Xr setlocale 3 409.It Pa man/ 410manual pages 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 vi/ 466localization support and utilities for 467.Xr vi 1 468.It Pa zoneinfo/ 469timezone configuration information; 470see 471.Xr tzfile 5 472.El 473.Pp 474.It Pa src/ 475.Bx , 476third-party, and/or local source files 477.Pp 478.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 479.It Pa bin/ 480source code for files in 481.Pa /bin 482.It Pa contrib/ 483source code for contributed software 484.It Pa crypto/ 485source code for contributed cryptography software 486.It Pa etc/ 487source code for files in 488.Pa /etc 489.It Pa games/ 490source code for files in 491.Pa /usr/games 492.It Pa gnu/ 493Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 494.It Pa include/ 495source code for files in 496.Pa /usr/include 497.It Pa lib/ 498source code for files in 499.Pa /usr/lib 500.It Pa libexec/ 501source code for files in 502.Pa /usr/libexec 503.It Pa nrelease/ 504files required to produce a 505.Dx 506release 507.It Pa sbin/ 508source code for files in 509.Pa /sbin 510.It Pa share/ 511source for files in 512.Pa /usr/share 513.It Pa sys/ 514kernel source code 515.It Pa tools/ 516tools used for maintenance and testing of 517.Dx 518.It Pa usr.bin/ 519source code for files in 520.Pa /usr/bin 521.It Pa usr.sbin/ 522source code for files in 523.Pa /usr/sbin 524.El 525.El 526.It Pa /var/ 527multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 528.Pp 529.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 530.It Pa account/ 531system accounting files 532.Pp 533.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 534.It Pa acct 535execution accounting file; 536see 537.Xr acct 5 538.El 539.Pp 540.It Pa at/ 541timed command scheduling files; 542see 543.Xr \&at 1 544.Pp 545.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 546.It Pa jobs/ 547directory containing job files 548.It Pa spool/ 549directory containing output spool files 550.El 551.Pp 552.It Pa backups/ 553misc. backup files 554.It Pa crash/ 555default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 556.Xr crash 8 557and 558.Xr savecore 8 559.It Pa cron/ 560files used by cron; 561see 562.Xr cron 8 563.Pp 564.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 565.It Pa tabs/ 566crontab files; 567see 568.Xr crontab 5 569.El 570.Pp 571.It Pa db/ 572misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 573.It Pa empty/ 574empty directory used by 575.Xr sshd 8 576for privilege separation 577.It Pa games/ 578misc. game status and score files 579.It Pa hammer/ 580per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 581.Xr hammer 5 582file systems 583.It Pa log/ 584misc. system log files 585.Pp 586.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmpx" -compact 587.It Pa wtmpx 588login/logout log; 589see 590.Xr wtmpx 5 591.El 592.Pp 593.It Pa mail/ 594user mailbox files 595.It Pa msgs/ 596system messages database; 597see 598.Xr msgs 1 599.It Pa preserve/ 600temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 601of an editor; 602see 603.Xr \&ex 1 604.It Pa quotas/ 605filesystem quota information files 606.It Pa run/ 607system information files describing various info about 608system since it was booted 609.Pp 610.Bl -tag -width ".Pa resolvconf/" -compact 611.It Pa dhcpcd/ 612for storing files by 613.Xr dhcpcd 8 614hooks 615.It Pa ppp/ 616writable by the 617.Dq network 618group for command connection sockets; see 619.Xr ppp 8 620.It Pa resolvconf/ 621state directory for 622.Xr resolvconf 8 623.It Pa utmpx 624database of current users; 625see 626.Xr utmpx 5 627.It Pa sem/ 628rendez-vous files for POSIX named semaphores; 629see 630.Xr sem_open 3 631.It Pa shm/ 632files associated with POSIX shared memory objects; 633see 634.Xr shm_open 3 635.El 636.Pp 637.It Pa rwho/ 638rwho data files; 639see 640.Xr rwhod 8 , 641.Xr rwho 1 , 642and 643.Xr ruptime 1 644.It Pa spool/ 645misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 646.Pp 647.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 648.It Pa clientmqueue/ 649undelivered submission mail queue; 650see 651.Xr sendmail 8 652.It Pa dma/ 653undelivered mail queue; 654see 655.Xr dma 8 656.It Pa ftp/ 657commonly 658.Pa ~ftp ; 659the anonymous ftp root directory 660.It Pa mqueue/ 661undelivered mail queue; 662see 663.Xr sendmail 8 664.It Pa output/ 665line printer spooling directories 666.El 667.Pp 668.It Pa tmp/ 669temporary files that are kept between system reboots 670.Pp 671.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 672.It Pa vi.recover/ 673the directory where recovery files are stored 674.El 675.Pp 676.It Pa yp/ 677the NIS maps 678.El 679.El 680.Sh NOTES 681This manual page documents the default 682.Dx 683filesystem layout, but 684the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 685administrator's discretion. 686A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 687this document. 688.Sh SEE ALSO 689.Xr apropos 1 , 690.Xr find 1 , 691.Xr finger 1 , 692.Xr grep 1 , 693.Xr ls 1 , 694.Xr whatis 1 , 695.Xr whereis 1 , 696.Xr which 1 , 697.Xr fsck 8 698.Sh HISTORY 699A 700.Nm 701manual page appeared in 702.At v7 . 703