HIER(7) FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual HIER(7)
NAME
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)
dtb/ Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see
fdt(4) and dtc(1)
efi/ Mount point for EFI System Partition (ESP) on UEFI
systems
firmware/ loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware
for hardware that needs firmware downloaded to it
to function
kernel/ pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded
into memory at boot time) and kernel modules
modules/ third-party loadable kernel modules, such as the
ones installed from ports(7)
overlays/ Compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; see
fdt(4) and dtc(1)
zfs/ zfs(8) zpool cache files
/cdrom/ default mount point for CD-ROM drives
/compat/ normally a link to /usr/compat. If not, then the /usr/compat
comments apply
/dev/ device special files managed by devfs(5)
fd/ file descriptor files; see fd(4)
/etc/ system configuration files and scripts
defaults/ default system configuration files; see rc(8)
bluetooth/
bluetooth configuration files
localtime local timezone information; see ctime(3)
mail/ Sendmail control files
mtree/ mtree configuration files; see mtree(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
casper/ service-specific libcasper(3) Capsicum support
libraries
geom/ class-specific libraries for the geom(8) utility
nvmecontrol/
vendor-specific libraries to extend the
nvmecontrol(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
/net/ automounted NFS shares; see auto_master(5)
/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; see linux(4)
include/ standard C include files
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/ SCSI device on top of CAM
dev/ C include files for programming various
FreeBSD devices
ic/ various header files
describing driver- and bus-
independent hardware
circuits
ofw/ Open Firmware support
pbio/ 8255 PPI cards; see pbio(4)
ppbus/ parallel port bus; see
ppbus(4)
usb/ USB subsystem
fs/
fdescfs/ per-process file
descriptors file system
msdosfs/ MS-DOS file system
nfs/ C include files for NFS
(Network File System)
version 2, 3 and 4
nullfs/ loopback 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
libmilter/ C include files for libmilter, the
sendmail(8) mail filter API
machine/ machine-specific C include files
net/ miscellaneous network C include files
altq/ C include files for
alternate packet queueing;
see altq(4)
net80211/ C include files for 802.11 wireless
networking; see net80211(4)
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)
netsmb/ SMB/CIFS requester
nfs/ C include files for NFS (Network File
System) version 2 and 3 (legacy)
openssl/ OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit)
headers
protocols/ C include files for Berkeley service
protocols
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)-type libraries
aout/ a.out archive libraries
compat/ shared libraries for compatibility
aout/ a.out backward
compatibility libraries
debug/ standalone debug data for the kernel
and base system libraries and binaries
dtrace/ DTrace library scripts
engines/ OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit)
dynamically loadable engines
libdata/ miscellaneous utility data files
gcc/ gcc(1) configuration data
ldscripts/ linker scripts; see ld(1)
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(7) framework.
Within local/, the general layout sketched out by
hier for /usr should be used. Exceptions are the
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/ FreeBSD ports collection; see ports(7)
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 FreeBSD-specific terms,
proper names, and jargon
web2 words from Webster's 2nd
International
doc/ miscellaneous documentation; source for
most of the printed BSD manuals
(available from the USENIX association)
FAQ/ Frequently Asked Questions
IPv6/ implementation notes for
IPv6
es/ Spanish translations of
documents in /usr/share/doc
handbook/ FreeBSD Handbook
ja/ Japanese translations of
documents in /usr/share/doc
legal/ License files for vendor
supplied firmware files
ncurses/ HTML documents pertaining
to ncurses; see ncurses(3)
ntp/ HTML documents pertaining
to the Network Time
Protocol
ru/ Russian translations of
documents in /usr/share/doc
tutorials/ FreeBSD tutorials
zh/ Chinese translations of
documents in /usr/share/doc
examples/ various examples for users and
programmers
firmware/ firmware images loaded by userland
programs
games/ ASCII text files used by various games
keys/ known trusted and revoked keys
pkg/ fingerprints for pkg(7) and
pkg(8)
locale/ localization files; see setlocale(3)
man/ manual pages
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
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)
vi/ localization support and utilities for
vi(1)
vt/ files used by vt; see vt(4)
fonts/ console fonts; see
vidcontrol(1) and
vidfont(1)
keymaps/ console keyboard maps; see
kbdcontrol(1) and kbdmap(1)
zoneinfo/ timezone configuration information; see
tzfile(5)
src/ FreeBSD source code; see development(7)
bin/ source code for files in /bin
cddl/ utilities covered by the Common
Development and Distribution License
contrib/ source code for contributed software
crypto/ source code for contributed
cryptography software
etc/ source code for files in /etc
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 /lib and
/usr/lib
libexec/ source code for files in /usr/libexec
release/ files required to produce a FreeBSD
release
rescue/ source code for files in /rescue
sbin/ source code for files in /sbin
secure/ build directory for files in
/usr/src/crypto
share/ source for files in /usr/share
stand/ boot loader source code
sys/ kernel source code
amd64/ AMD64 architecture support
arm/ ARM architecture support
arm64/ ARMv8 architecture support
cam/ cam(4) and ctl(4)
cddl/ CDDL-licensed optional
sources, including ZFS and
DTrace
ddb/ ddb(4)
fs/ most filesystems
dev/ device drivers
geom/ geom(4)
i386/ i386 (32 bit) architecture
support
kern/ main part of the kernel
mips/ MIPS architecture support
net80211/ net80211(4)
netgraph/ netgraph(4)
netinet/ inet(4)
netinet6/ inet6(4)
netipsec/ ipsec(4)
netpfil/ ipfw(4) and pf(4)
opencrypto/
crypto(7)
powerpc/ PowerPC/POWER architecture
support
riscv/ RISC-V architecture support
security/ audit(4) and mac(4)
sparc64/ SPARC64 architecture
support
sys/ kernel headers
ufs/ Unix File System
x86/ code shared by AMD64 and
i386 architectures
targets/ support for experimental DIRDEPS_BUILD
tests/ source code for files in /usr/tests
tools/ tools used for maintenance and testing
of FreeBSD
usr.bin/ source code for files in /usr/bin
usr.sbin/ source code for files in /usr/sbin
tests/ The FreeBSD test suite; see tests(7)
/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
cache/ miscellaneous cached files
pkg/ cached packages for pkg(8)
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
utx.lastlogin
last login log; see getutxent(3)
utx.log login/logout log; see getutxent(3)
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
ppp/ writable by the "network" group for
command connection sockets; see ppp(8)
utx.active database of current users; see
getutxent(3)
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; see yp(8)
NOTES
This manual page documents the default FreeBSD 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.
SEE ALSO
apropos(1), find(1), grep(1), ls(1), whereis(1), which(1)
HISTORY
A hier manual page appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 December 11, 2021 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6
man2web Home...