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 November 25, 2017 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 /root/ 162root's HOME directory 163.It Pa /sbin/ 164system programs and administration utilities 165fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments 166.It Pa /sys/ 167the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to 168.Pa /usr/src/sys ) 169.It Pa /tmp/ 170temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots 171.It Pa /usr/ 172contains the majority of user utilities and applications 173.Pp 174.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact 175.It Pa bin/ 176common utilities, programming tools, and applications 177.It Pa dports/ 178The 179.Dx 180.Xr dports 7 181collection (optional). 182.It Pa games/ 183useful and semi-frivolous programs 184.It Pa include/ 185standard C include files 186.Pp 187.Bl -tag -width ".Pa protocols/" -compact 188.It Pa arpa/ 189C include files for Internet service protocols 190.It Pa c++/ 191C++ include files 192.It Pa cam/ 193C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer 194.Pp 195.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scsi/" -compact 196.It Pa scsi/ 197The SCSI device on top of CAM 198.El 199.Pp 200.It Pa dev/ 201C include files for programming various 202.Dx 203devices 204.It Pa fs/ 205.Pp 206.Bl -tag -width ".Pa autofs/" -compact 207.It Pa autofs/ 208automounter filesystem 209.It Pa smbfs/ 210SMB/CIFS filesystem 211.El 212.Pp 213.It Pa isofs/ 214.Pp 215.Bl -tag -width ".Pa cd9660/" -compact 216.It Pa cd9660/ 217iso9660 filesystem 218.El 219.Pp 220.It Pa libprop/ 221C include files for libprop 222.It Pa machine/ 223machine-specific C include files 224.It Pa msdosfs/ 225MS-DOS file system 226.It Pa net/ 227misc network C include files 228.It Pa netinet/ 229C include files for Internet standard protocols; 230see 231.Xr inet 4 232.It Pa netinet6/ 233C include files for Internet protocol version 6; 234see 235.Xr inet6 4 236.It Pa netkey/ 237kernel key-management service 238.It Pa netsmb/ 239SMB/CIFS requester 240.It Pa nfs/ 241C include files for NFS (Network File System) 242.It Pa pcap/ 243Packet Capture (libpcap) headers; 244see 245.Xr pcap 3 246.It Pa pccard/ 247PC-CARD controllers 248.It Pa protocols/ 249C include files for Berkeley service protocols 250.It Pa readline/ 251get a line from a user, with editing; 252see 253.Xr readline 3 254.It Pa rpc/ 255remote procedure calls; 256see 257.Xr rpc 3 258.It Pa rpcsvc/ 259definition of RPC service structures; see 260.Xr rpc 3 261.It Pa security/ 262PAM; see 263.Xr pam 8 264.It Pa sys/ 265system C include files (kernel data structures) 266.It Pa ufs/ 267C include files for UFS (The U-word File System) 268.Pp 269.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ffs/" -compact 270.It Pa ffs/ 271Fast filesystem 272.It Pa mfs/ 273memory file system; 274see 275.Xr mount_mfs 8 276.It Pa ufs/ 277UFS filesystem 278.El 279.Pp 280.It Pa vm/ 281virtual memory; 282see 283.Xr vmstat 8 284.El 285.Pp 286.It Pa lib/ 287archive libraries 288.It Pa libdata/ 289misc. utility data files 290.It Pa libexec/ 291system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs) 292.Pp 293.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils225/" -compact 294.It Pa binutils225/ 295.Pp 296.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 297.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 298linker plugins 299.It Pa ldscripts/ 300linker scripts; 301see 302.Xr ld 1 303.El 304.Pp 305.It Pa binutils227/ 306.Pp 307.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact 308.It Pa bfd-plugins/ 309linker plugins 310.It Pa ldscripts/ 311linker scripts; 312see 313.Xr ld 1 314.El 315.Pp 316.It Pa lpr/ 317utilities and filters for LP print system; 318see 319.Xr lpr 1 320.El 321.Pp 322.It Pa local/ 323local executables, libraries, etc. 324Also used as the default destination for the 325.Dx 326.Xr dports 7 327framework. 328Within 329.Pa local/ , 330the general layout sketched out by 331.Nm 332for 333.Pa /usr 334should be used. 335Exceptions are the 336.Pa man 337directory 338.Po directly under 339.Pa local/ 340rather than under 341.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc , 342ports documentation 343.Po in 344.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc , 345and 346.Pa /usr/local/etc 347.Po mimics 348.Pa /etc Ns Pc . 349.It Pa obj/ 350architecture-specific target tree produced by building the 351.Pa /usr/src 352tree 353.It Pa sbin/ 354system daemons & system utilities (executed by users) 355.It Pa share/ 356architecture-independent files 357.Pp 358.Bl -tag -width ".Pa groff_font/" -compact 359.It Pa calendar/ 360a variety of pre-fab calendar files; 361see 362.Xr calendar 1 363.It Pa dict/ 364word lists; 365see 366.Xr look 1 367.Pp 368.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact 369.It Pa web2 370words from Webster's 2nd International 371.It Pa words 372common words 373.It Pa papers/ 374reference databases; 375see 376.Xr refer 1 377.El 378.Pp 379.It Pa doc/ 380miscellaneous documentation 381.Pp 382.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact 383.It Pa legal/ 384License files for vendor supplied firmware 385.El 386.Pp 387.It Pa examples/ 388various examples for users and programmers 389.It Pa games/ 390ASCII text files used by various games 391.It Pa groff_font/ 392device description file for device name 393.It Pa i18n/ 394internationalization databases; see 395.Xr iconv 3 396.It Pa info/ 397GNU Info hypertext system 398.It Pa libg++/ 399libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files 400.It Pa locale/ 401localization files; 402see 403.Xr setlocale 3 404.It Pa man/ 405manual pages 406.It Pa me/ 407macros for use with the me macro package; 408see 409.Xr me 7 410.It Pa misc/ 411misc system-wide ASCII text files 412.Pp 413.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact 414.It Pa termcap 415terminal characteristics database; 416see 417.Xr termcap 5 418.El 419.Pp 420.It Pa mk/ 421templates for make; 422see 423.Xr make 1 424.It Pa nls/ 425national language support files; 426see 427.Xr nls 7 428.It Pa sendmail/ 429sendmail configuration files; 430see 431.Xr sendmail 8 432.It Pa skel/ 433example . (dot) files for new accounts 434.It Pa syscons/ 435files used by 436.Xr syscons 4 437.Pp 438.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact 439.It Pa fonts/ 440console fonts; 441see 442.Xr vidcontrol 1 443and 444.Xr vidfont 1 445.It Pa keymaps/ 446console keyboard maps; 447see 448.Xr kbdcontrol 1 449and 450.Xr kbdmap 1 451.It Pa scrnmaps/ 452console screen maps 453.El 454.Pp 455.It Pa tabset/ 456tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in 457the termcap file; 458see 459.Xr termcap 5 460.It Pa terminfo/ 461compiled 462.Xr terminfo 5 463database files 464.It Pa tmac/ 465text processing macros; 466see 467.Xr nroff 1 468and 469.Xr troff 1 470.It Pa vi/ 471localization support and utilities for 472.Xr vi 1 473.It Pa zoneinfo/ 474timezone configuration information; 475see 476.Xr tzfile 5 477.El 478.Pp 479.It Pa src/ 480.Bx , 481third-party, and/or local source files 482.Pp 483.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact 484.It Pa bin/ 485source code for files in 486.Pa /bin 487.It Pa contrib/ 488source code for contributed software 489.It Pa crypto/ 490source code for contributed cryptography software 491.It Pa etc/ 492source code for files in 493.Pa /etc 494.It Pa games/ 495source code for files in 496.Pa /usr/games 497.It Pa gnu/ 498Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License 499.It Pa include/ 500source code for files in 501.Pa /usr/include 502.It Pa lib/ 503source code for files in 504.Pa /usr/lib 505.It Pa libexec/ 506source code for files in 507.Pa /usr/libexec 508.It Pa nrelease/ 509files required to produce a 510.Dx 511release 512.It Pa sbin/ 513source code for files in 514.Pa /sbin 515.It Pa share/ 516source for files in 517.Pa /usr/share 518.It Pa sys/ 519kernel source code 520.It Pa tools/ 521tools used for maintenance and testing of 522.Dx 523.It Pa usr.bin/ 524source code for files in 525.Pa /usr/bin 526.It Pa usr.sbin/ 527source code for files in 528.Pa /usr/sbin 529.El 530.El 531.It Pa /var/ 532multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files 533.Pp 534.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact 535.It Pa account/ 536system accounting files 537.Pp 538.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact 539.It Pa acct 540execution accounting file; 541see 542.Xr acct 5 543.El 544.Pp 545.It Pa at/ 546timed command scheduling files; 547see 548.Xr \&at 1 549.Pp 550.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact 551.It Pa jobs/ 552directory containing job files 553.It Pa spool/ 554directory containing output spool files 555.El 556.Pp 557.It Pa backups/ 558misc. backup files 559.It Pa crash/ 560default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see 561.Xr crash 8 562and 563.Xr savecore 8 564.It Pa cron/ 565files used by cron; 566see 567.Xr cron 8 568.Pp 569.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact 570.It Pa tabs/ 571crontab files; 572see 573.Xr crontab 5 574.El 575.Pp 576.It Pa db/ 577misc. automatically generated system-specific database files 578.It Pa empty/ 579empty directory used by 580.Xr sshd 8 581for privilege separation 582.It Pa games/ 583misc. game status and score files 584.It Pa hammer/ 585per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for 586.Xr hammer 5 587file systems 588.It Pa log/ 589misc. system log files 590.Pp 591.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmp" -compact 592.It Pa wtmp 593login/logout log; 594see 595.Xr wtmp 5 596.El 597.Pp 598.It Pa mail/ 599user mailbox files 600.It Pa msgs/ 601system messages database; 602see 603.Xr msgs 1 604.It Pa preserve/ 605temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death 606of an editor; 607see 608.Xr \&ex 1 609.It Pa quotas/ 610filesystem quota information files 611.It Pa run/ 612system information files describing various info about 613system since it was booted 614.Pp 615.Bl -tag -width ".Pa ppp/" -compact 616.It Pa ppp/ 617writable by the 618.Dq network 619group for command connection sockets; see 620.Xr ppp 8 621.It Pa utmp 622database of current users; 623see 624.Xr utmp 5 625.It Pa sem/ 626rendez-vous files for posix named semaphores; 627see 628.Xr sem_open 3 629.El 630.Pp 631.It Pa rwho/ 632rwho data files; 633see 634.Xr rwhod 8 , 635.Xr rwho 1 , 636and 637.Xr ruptime 1 638.It Pa spool/ 639misc. printer and mail system spooling directories 640.Pp 641.Bl -tag -width ".Pa clientmqueue/" -compact 642.It Pa clientmqueue/ 643undelivered submission mail queue; 644see 645.Xr sendmail 8 646.It Pa dma/ 647undelivered mail queue; 648see 649.Xr dma 8 650.It Pa ftp/ 651commonly 652.Pa ~ftp ; 653the anonymous ftp root directory 654.It Pa mqueue/ 655undelivered mail queue; 656see 657.Xr sendmail 8 658.It Pa output/ 659line printer spooling directories 660.El 661.Pp 662.It Pa tmp/ 663temporary files that are kept between system reboots 664.Pp 665.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact 666.It Pa vi.recover/ 667the directory where recovery files are stored 668.El 669.Pp 670.It Pa yp/ 671the NIS maps 672.El 673.El 674.Sh NOTES 675This manual page documents the default 676.Dx 677filesystem layout, but 678the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system 679administrator's discretion. 680A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of 681this document. 682.Sh SEE ALSO 683.Xr apropos 1 , 684.Xr find 1 , 685.Xr finger 1 , 686.Xr grep 1 , 687.Xr ls 1 , 688.Xr whatis 1 , 689.Xr whereis 1 , 690.Xr which 1 , 691.Xr fsck 8 692.Sh HISTORY 693A 694.Nm 695manual page appeared in 696.At v7 . 697