HIER
layout of file systems
DESCRIPTION
A sketch of the file system hierarchy.
- / root directory of the file system
- /bin/ user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
- /boot/
programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap
- defaults/ default bootstrapping configuration files; see loader.conf(5)
- kernel/ pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory at boot time).
- modules/ third-party loadable kernel modules; see kldstat(8)
- /cdrom/ default mount point for CD-ROM drives (created by sysinstall(8))
- /compat/ normally a link to /usr/compat. If not, then the /usr/compat comments apply (created by sysinstall(8))
- /dev/
device special files managed by
devfs(5)
- fd/ file descriptor files; see fd(4)
- net/ network devices
- /dist/ mount point used by sysinstall(8)
- /etc/
system configuration files and scripts
- defaults/ default system configuration files; see rc(8)
- bluetooth/ bluetooth configuration files
- gnats/ gnats configuration files; see send-pr(1)
- isdn/ isdn4bsd configuration files; see isdnd(8)
- localtime local timezone information; see ctime(3)
- mail/ Sendmail control files
- mtree/ mtree configuration files; see mtree(8)
- namedb/ named configuration files; see named(8)
- pam.d/ configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) library
- periodic/ scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via cron(8); see periodic(8)
- rc.d/ System and daemon startup/control scripts; see rc(8)
- security/ OpenBSM audit configuration files; see audit(8)
- ppp/ ppp configuration files; see ppp(8)
- ssh/ OpenSSH configuration files; see ssh(1)
- ssl/ OpenSSL configuration files
- /lib/
critical system libraries needed for binaries in
/bin
and
/sbin
- geom/ class-specific libraries for the geom(8) utility
- /libexec/ critical system utilities needed for binaries in /bin and /sbin
- /media/ contains subdirectories to be used as mount points for removable media such as CDs, USB drives, and floppy disks
- /mnt/ empty directory commonly used by system administrators as a temporary mount point
- /proc/ process file system; see procfs(5)
- /rescue/ statically linked programs for emergency recovery; see rescue(8)
- /root/ root’s HOME directory
- /sbin/ system programs and administration utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
- /tmp/ temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
- /usr/
contains the majority of user utilities and applications
- bin/ common utilities, programming tools, and applications
- compat/ files needed to support binary compatibility with other operating systems, such as Linux (created by sysinstall(8))
- games/ useful and semi-frivolous programs
- include/
standard C include files
- altq/ C include files for alternate queueing
- arpa/ C include files for Internet service protocols
- bsnmp/ C include files for the SNMP daemon
- c++/ C++ include files
- cam/
C include files for the Common Access Methods Layer
- scsi/ The SCSI device on top of CAM
- dev/
C include files for programming various
devices
- ic/ Various header files describing driver- and bus-independent hardware circuits
- ofw/ Open Firmware support
- pbio/ 8255 PPI cards; see pbio(4)
- ppbus/ The parallel port bus; see ppbus(4)
- usb/ The USB subsystem
- utopia/ Physical chip driver for ATM interfaces; see utopia(4)
- wi/ The wi(4) WaveLAN driver
- fs/
- fdescfs/ per-process file descriptors file system
- fifofs/ IEEE Std 1003.1 ("POSIX.1") FIFOs file system
- msdosfs/ MS-DOS file system
- ntfs/ NTFS file system
- nullfs/ loopback file system
- nwfs/ NetWare file system
- portalfs/ portal file system
- procfs/ process file system
- smbfs/ SMB/CIFS file system
- udf/ UDF file system
- unionfs union file system
- geom/
GEOM framework
- concat/ CONCAT GEOM class
- gate/ GATE GEOM class
- mirror/ MIRROR GEOM class
- nop/ NOP GEOM class
- raid3/ RAID3 GEOM class
- stripe/ STRIPE GEOM class
- isc/ ISC utility library libisc include files
- isofs/
- cd9660/ iso9660 file system
- libmilter/ C include files for libmilter, the sendmail(8) mail filter API
- machine/ machine-specific C include files
- net/ miscellaneous network C include files
- netatalk/ Appletalk protocol
- netatm/ ATM include files; see atm(8)
- netinet/ C include files for Internet standard protocols; see inet(4)
- netinet6/ C include files for Internet protocol version 6; see inet6(4)
- netipsec/ kernel key-management service; see ipsec(4)
- netipx/ IPX/SPX protocol stacks
- netnatm/
NATM include files;
see
natm(4)
- api/ include files for the signalling API
- msg/ include files that describe signalling messages and declare associated functions
- saal/ include files for the signalling AAL layer
- sig/ include files for the UNI signalling protocol
- netsmb/ SMB/CIFS requester
- nfs/ C include files for NFS (Network File System)
- objc/ Objective C include files
- openssl/ OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) headers
- pccard/ PC-CARD controllers
- protocols/ C include files for Berkeley service protocols
- readline/ get a line from a user, with editing; see readline(3)
- rpc/ remote procedure calls; see rpc(3)
- rpcsvc/ definition of RPC service structures; see rpc(3)
- security/ PAM; see pam(8)
- sys/ system C include files (kernel data structures)
- ufs/
C include files for UFS (The U-word File System)
- ffs/ Fast file system
- ufs/ UFS file system
- vm/ virtual memory; see vmstat(8)
- lib/
shared and archive
ar(1)
libraries
- aout/ a.out archive libraries
- compat/
shared libraries for compatibility
- aout/ a.out backward compatibility libraries
- dtrace/ DTrace library scripts
- engines/ OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
- libdata/ miscellaneous utility data files
- libexec/
system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
- aout/ utilities to manipulate a.out executables
- elf/ utilities to manipulate ELF executables
- lpr/ utilities and filters for LP print system; see lpr(1)
- sendmail/ the sendmail(8) binary; see mailwrapper(8)
- sm.bin/ restricted shell for sendmail(8); see smrsh(8)
- local/ local executables, libraries, etc. Also used as the default destination for the ports framework. Within local/, the general layout sketched out by hier for /usr should be used. Exceptions are the man directory (directly under local/ rather than under local/share/), ports documentation (in share/doc/<port>/), and /usr/local/etc (mimics /etc).
- obj/ architecture-specific target tree produced by building the /usr/src tree
- ports/ The ports collection (optional).
- sbin/ system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
- share/
architecture-independent files
- calendar/ a variety of pre-fab calendar files; see calendar(1)
- dict/
word lists;
see
look(1)
- freebsd terms, proper names, and jargon
- words common words
- web2 words from Webster’s 2nd International
- papers/ reference databases; see refer(1)
- doc/
miscellaneous documentation;
source for most of the printed
manuals (available
from the
USENIX
association)
- FAQ/ Frequently Asked Questions
- IPv6/ implementation notes for IPv6
- bind/ documents pertaining to BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain)
- es/ Spanish translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
- handbook/ Handbook
- ja/ Japanese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
- legal/ License files for vendor supplied firmwares
- ncurses/ HTML documents pertaining to ncurses; see ncurses(3)
- ntp/ HTML documents pertaining to the Network Time Protocol
- papers/ UNIX Papers
- psd/ UNIX Programmer’s Supplementary Documents
- ru/ Russian translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
- smm/ UNIX System Manager’s Manual
- tutorials/ tutorials
- usd/ UNIX User’s Supplementary Documents
- zh/ Chinese translations of documents in /usr/share/doc
- examples/ various examples for users and programmers
- games/ ASCII text files used by various games
- groff_font/ device description file for device name
- info/ GNU Info hypertext system
- isdn/ ISDN
- locale/ localization files; see setlocale(3)
- man/ manual pages
- me/ macros for use with the me macro package; see me(7)
- misc/
miscellaneous system-wide ASCII text files
- fonts/ ???
- termcap terminal characteristics database; see termcap(5)
- mk/ templates for make; see make(1)
- nls/ national language support files; see mklocale(1)
- security/ data files for security policies such as mac_lomac(4)
- sendmail/ sendmail(8) configuration files
- skel/ example . (dot) files for new accounts
- snmp/
MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon.
- defs/ Tree definition files for use with gensnmptree(1)
- mibs/ MIB files
- syscons/
files used by syscons;
see
syscons(4)
- fonts/ console fonts; see vidcontrol(1) and vidfont(1)
- keymaps/ console keyboard maps; see kbdcontrol(1) and kbdmap(1)
- scrnmaps/ console screen maps
- tabset/ tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in the termcap file; see termcap(5)
- tmac/ text processing macros; see nroff(1) and troff(1)
- vi/ localization support and utilities for vi(1)
- zoneinfo/ timezone configuration information; see tzfile(5)
- src/
third-party, and/or local source files
- bin/ source code for files in /bin
- contrib/ source code for contributed software
- crypto/ source code for contributed cryptography software
- etc/ source code for files in /etc
- games/ source code for files in /usr/games
- gnu/ Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
- include/ source code for files in /usr/include
- kerberos5/ build infrastructure for kerberos version 5
- lib/ source code for files in /usr/lib
- libexec/ source code for files in /usr/libexec
- release/ files required to produce a release
- sbin/ source code for files in /sbin
- secure/ build directory for files in /usr/src/crypto
- share/ source for files in /usr/share
- sys/ kernel source code
- tools/ tools used for maintenance and testing of
- usr.bin/ source code for files in /usr/bin
- usr.sbin/ source code for files in /usr/sbin
- /var/
multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
- account/
system accounting files
- acct execution accounting file; see acct(5)
- at/
timed command scheduling files;
see
at(1)
- jobs/ directory containing job files
- spool/ directory containing output spool files
- backups/ miscellaneous backup files
- crash/ default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see crash(8) and savecore(8)
- cron/
files used by cron;
see
cron(8)
- tabs/ crontab files; see crontab(5)
- db/ miscellaneous automatically generated system-specific database files
- empty/ empty directory for use by programs that need a specifically empty directory. Used for instance by sshd(8) for privilege separation.
- games/ miscellaneous game status and score files
- heimdal/ kerberos server databases; see kdc(8)
- log/
miscellaneous system log files
- wtmp login/logout log; see wtmp(5)
- mail/ user mailbox files
- msgs/ system messages database; see msgs(1)
- preserve/ temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death of an editor; see ex(1)
- quotas/ file system quota information files
- run/ system information files describing various info about system since it was booted
- rwho/ rwho data files; see rwhod(8), rwho(1), and ruptime(1)
- spool/
miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories
- clientmqueue/ undelivered submission mail queue; see sendmail(8)
- ftp/ commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp root directory
- mqueue/ undelivered mail queue; see sendmail(8)
- output/ line printer spooling directories
- tmp/
temporary files that are kept between system reboots
- vi.recover/ the directory where recovery files are stored
- yp/ the NIS maps
- account/
system accounting files
NOTES
This manual page documents the default file system layout, but the actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system administrator’s discretion. A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of this document.
Comments