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.\"	@(#)hier.7	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man7/hier.7,v 1.29.2.17 2003/01/13 21:43:50 ceri Exp $
.\"
.Dd February 19, 2023
.Dt HIER 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm hier
.Nd layout of filesystems
.Sh DESCRIPTION
A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy.
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /modules/"
.It Pa /
root directory of the filesystem
.It Pa /bin/
user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
.It Pa /boot/
programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa modules.local/" -compact
.It Pa defaults/
default bootstrapping configuration files; see
.Xr loader.conf 5
.It Pa kernel/
pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
at boot time) and loadable kernel modules;
see
.Xr kldstat 8
.It Pa modules.local/
local loadable kernel modules and wrapped external firmware images; see
.Xr firmware 9
.El
.It Pa /dev/
block and character device files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa fd/" -compact
.It Pa fd/
file descriptor files;
see
.Xr fd 4
.El
.It Pa /etc/
system configuration files and scripts
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bluetooth/" -compact
.It Pa autofs/
shell scripts to implement special maps and directory services via
.Xr autofs 5
.It Pa bluetooth/
bluetooth configuration files
.It Pa calendar/
system-wide
.Xr calendar 1
files
.It Pa defaults/
default system configuration files;
see
.Xr rc 8
.It Pa devd/
hardware specific
.Xr devd 8
configuration files
.It Pa dma/
.Xr dma 8
configuration files
.It Pa localtime
local timezone information;
see
.Xr ctime 3
.It Pa mail/
Sendmail control files
.It Pa mtree/
mtree configuration files;
see
.Xr mtree 8
.It Pa pam.d/
configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
library
.It Pa periodic/
scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via
.Xr cron 8 ;
see
.Xr periodic 8
.It Pa ppp/
ppp configuration files;
see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa rc.d/
System and daemon startup/control scripts;
see
.Xr rc 8
.It Pa ssh/
OpenSSH configuration files;
see
.Xr ssh 1
.It Pa ssl/
LibreSSL configuration files
.It Pa upgrade/
Files relevant to system upgrades
.El
.It Pa /home/
HOME directories of non-root users
.It Pa /lib/
critical system libraries needed for binaries in
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /sbin
.It Pa /libexec/
critical system utilities needed for binaries in
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /sbin
.It Pa /mnt/
empty directory commonly used by
system administrators as a temporary mount point
.It Pa /net/
automounted NFS shares;
see
.Xr auto_master 5
.It Pa /pfs/
pseudo file system directory (on
.Xr hammer 5
root file systems)
.It Pa /proc/
process file system;
see
.Xr procfs 5 ,
.Xr mount_procfs 8
.It Pa /rescue/
statically linked rescue tools, see
.Xr initrd 7
.It Pa /root/
root's HOME directory
.It Pa /sbin/
system programs and administration utilities
fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
.It Pa /sys/
the kernel's source code (usually a symbolic link to
.Pa /usr/src/sys )
.It Pa /tmp/
temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across system reboots
.It Pa /usr/
contains the majority of user utilities and applications
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa libdata/" -compact
.It Pa bin/
common utilities, programming tools, and applications
.It Pa dports/
The
.Dx
.Xr dports 7
collection (optional).
.It Pa games/
useful and semi-frivolous programs
.It Pa include/
standard C include files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa protocols/" -compact
.It Pa arpa/
C include files for Internet service protocols
.It Pa bus/
C include files for programming various
.Dx
buses
.It Pa c++/
C++ include files
.It Pa compat/
C include files for compatibility with code ported from other
operating systems
.It Pa dev/
C include files for programming various
.Dx
devices
.It Pa libprop/
C include files for libprop
.It Pa machine/
machine-specific C include files
.It Pa net/
misc network C include files
.It Pa netinet/
C include files for Internet standard protocols;
see
.Xr inet 4
.It Pa netinet6/
C include files for Internet protocol version 6;
see
.Xr inet6 4
.It Pa netsmb/
SMB/CIFS requester
.It Pa pcap/
Packet Capture (libpcap) headers;
see
.Xr pcap 3
.It Pa protocols/
C include files for Berkeley service protocols
.It Pa readline/
get a line from a user, with editing;
see
.Xr readline 3
.It Pa rpc/
remote procedure calls;
see
.Xr rpc 3
.It Pa rpcsvc/
definition of RPC service structures; see
.Xr rpc 3
.It Pa security/
PAM; see
.Xr pam 3
.It Pa sys/
system C include files (kernel data structures)
.It Pa vfs/
C include files for various file systems
.It Pa vm/
virtual memory;
see
.Xr vmstat 8
.El
.Pp
.It Pa lib/
archive libraries
.It Pa libdata/
misc. utility data files
.It Pa libexec/
system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa binutils234/" -compact
.It Pa binutils227/
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact
.It Pa bfd-plugins/
linker plugins
.It Pa ldscripts/
linker scripts;
see
.Xr ld 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa binutils234/
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa bfd-plugins/" -compact
.It Pa bfd-plugins/
linker plugins
.It Pa ldscripts/
linker scripts;
see
.Xr ld 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa lpr/
utilities and filters for LP print system;
see
.Xr lpr 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa local/
local executables, libraries, etc.
Also used as the default destination for the
.Dx
.Xr dports 7
framework.
Within
.Pa local/ ,
the general layout sketched out by
.Nm
for
.Pa /usr
should be used.
Exceptions are the
.Pa man
directory
.Po directly under
.Pa local/
rather than under
.Pa local/share/ Ns Pc ,
ports documentation
.Po in
.Pa share/doc/<port>/ Ns Pc ,
and
.Pa /usr/local/etc
.Po mimics
.Pa /etc Ns Pc .
.It Pa obj/
architecture-specific target tree produced by building the
.Pa /usr/src
tree
.It Pa sbin/
system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
.It Pa share/
architecture-independent files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa installer/" -compact
.It Pa calendar/
a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
see
.Xr calendar 1
.It Pa dict/
word lists;
see
.Xr look 1
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa papers/" -compact
.It Pa web2
words from Webster's 2nd International
.It Pa words
common words
.It Pa papers/
reference databases;
see
.Xr refer 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa doc/
miscellaneous documentation
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa legal/" -compact
.It Pa legal/
License files for vendor supplied firmware
.El
.Pp
.It Pa dsynth/
.Xr dsynth 1
scripts
.It Pa examples/
various examples for users and programmers
.It Pa games/
ASCII text files used by various games
.It Pa i18n/
internationalization databases; see
.Xr iconv 3
.It Pa info/
GNU Info hypertext system
.It Pa libg++/
libg++'s genclass prototype/template class files
.It Pa locale/
localization files;
see
.Xr setlocale 3
.It Pa man/
manual pages
.It Pa misc/
misc system-wide ASCII text files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa termcap" -compact
.It Pa termcap
terminal characteristics database;
see
.Xr termcap 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa mk/
templates for make;
see
.Xr make 1
.It Pa nls/
national language support files;
see
.Xr nls 7
.It Pa sendmail/
sendmail configuration files;
see
.Xr sendmail 8
.It Pa skel/
example . (dot) files for new accounts
.It Pa syscons/
files used by
.Xr syscons 4
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa scrnmaps/" -compact
.It Pa fonts/
console fonts;
see
.Xr vidcontrol 1
and
.Xr vidfont 1
.It Pa keymaps/
console keyboard maps;
see
.Xr kbdcontrol 1
and
.Xr kbdmap 1
.It Pa scrnmaps/
console screen maps
.El
.Pp
.It Pa tabset/
tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
the termcap file;
see
.Xr termcap 5
.It Pa terminfo/
compiled
.Xr terminfo 5
database files
.It Pa vi/
localization support and utilities for
.Xr vi 1
.It Pa zoneinfo/
timezone configuration information;
see
.Xr tzfile 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa src/
.Bx ,
third-party, and/or local source files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa nrelease/" -compact
.It Pa bin/
source code for files in
.Pa /bin
.It Pa contrib/
source code for contributed software
.It Pa crypto/
source code for contributed cryptography software
.It Pa etc/
source code for files in
.Pa /etc
.It Pa games/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/games
.It Pa gnu/
Utilities covered by the GNU General Public License
.It Pa include/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/include
.It Pa lib/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/lib
.It Pa libexec/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/libexec
.It Pa nrelease/
files required to produce a
.Dx
release
.It Pa sbin/
source code for files in
.Pa /sbin
.It Pa share/
source for files in
.Pa /usr/share
.It Pa stand/
source code for files in
.Pa /boot
.It Pa sys/
kernel source code
.It Pa tools/
tools used for maintenance and testing of
.Dx
.It Pa usr.bin/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/bin
.It Pa usr.sbin/
source code for files in
.Pa /usr/sbin
.El
.El
.It Pa /var/
multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa preserve/" -compact
.It Pa account/
system accounting files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa acct" -compact
.It Pa acct
execution accounting file;
see
.Xr acct 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa at/
timed command scheduling files;
see
.Xr at 1
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa spool/" -compact
.It Pa jobs/
directory containing job files
.It Pa spool/
directory containing output spool files
.El
.Pp
.It Pa backups/
misc. backup files
.It Pa crash/
default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
.Xr crash 8
and
.Xr savecore 8
.It Pa cron/
files used by cron;
see
.Xr cron 8
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa tabs/" -compact
.It Pa tabs/
crontab files;
see
.Xr crontab 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa db/
misc. automatically generated system-specific database files
.It Pa empty/
empty directory used by
.Xr sshd 8
for privilege separation
.It Pa games/
misc. game status and score files
.It Pa hammer/
per PFS (pseudo file system) snapshots directory for
.Xr hammer 5
file systems
.It Pa log/
misc. system log files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa wtmpx" -compact
.It Pa wtmpx
login/logout log;
see
.Xr wtmpx 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa mail/
user mailbox files
.It Pa msgs/
system messages database;
see
.Xr msgs 1
.It Pa preserve/
temporary home of files preserved after an accidental death
of an editor;
see
.Xr ex 1
.It Pa quotas/
filesystem quota information files
.It Pa run/
system information files describing various info about
system since it was booted
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa resolvconf/" -compact
.It Pa dhcpcd/
for storing files by
.Xr dhcpcd 8
hooks
.It Pa ppp/
writable by the
.Dq network
group for command connection sockets; see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa resolvconf/
state directory for
.Xr resolvconf 8
.It Pa utmpx
database of current users;
see
.Xr utmpx 5
.It Pa sem/
rendez-vous files for POSIX named semaphores;
see
.Xr sem_open 3
.It Pa shm/
files associated with POSIX shared memory objects;
see
.Xr shm_open 3
.El
.Pp
.It Pa rwho/
rwho data files;
see
.Xr rwhod 8 ,
.Xr rwho 1 ,
and
.Xr ruptime 1
.It Pa spool/
misc. printer and mail system spooling directories
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa mqueue/" -compact
.It Pa dma/
undelivered mail queue;
see
.Xr dma 8
.It Pa ftp/
commonly
.Pa ~ftp ;
the anonymous ftp root directory
.It Pa mqueue/
undelivered mail queue;
see
.Xr sendmail 8
.It Pa output/
line printer spooling directories
.El
.Pp
.It Pa tmp/
temporary files that are kept between system reboots
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa vi.recover/" -compact
.It Pa vi.recover/
the directory where recovery files are stored
.El
.Pp
.It Pa yp/
the NIS maps
.El
.El
.Sh NOTES
This manual page documents the default
.Dx
filesystem 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.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr find 1 ,
.Xr finger 1 ,
.Xr grep 1 ,
.Xr ls 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr whereis 1 ,
.Xr which 1 ,
.Xr fsck 8
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
manual page appeared in
.At v7 .