Manual Pages  — HIER

hier – index of FreeBSD file system hierarchy

DESCRIPTION NOTES SEE ALSO HISTORY

/	root directory of the file system
/COPYRIGHT
	FreeBSD copyright information
/bin/	fundamental BSD user utilities; see intro(1)
/boot/	programs and configurations used during FreeBSD boot(8)

defaults/	default boot configuration files; see loader.conf(5)
device.hints	kernel variables for controlling drivers; see device.hints(5)
dtb/	compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see fdt(4) and dtc(1)

overlays/
	compiled fdt(4) overlays; see fdt_overlays in loader.conf(5)

efi/	the uefi(8) EFI System Partition (ESP) mount point
firmware/
	loadable binary firmware kernel modules
fonts/	binary bitmap console fonts; see loader.conf(5) and vtfontcvt(8)
images/	beastie boot menu images; see loader_lua(8)
kernel/	FreeBSD kernel and modules; see kldstat(8)
kernel.old/
	alternative kernel and modules
loader.conf
	boot loader configuration; see loader.conf(5)
loader.conf.d/
	loader.conf(5) configuration files
lua/	scripts for the Lua boot loader; see loader_lua(8)
modules/	third-party loadable kernel modules, such as those installed with pkg(8) or from ports(7)
zfs/	ZFS zpool(8) cache files

/compat/	files supporting binary compatibility with other operating systems

linux/	default location for linux(4) compatibility run-time

/dev/	device nodes and special files; see intro(4) and devfs(5)
ada0	first ATA storage device
ada0p1	first partition on ada0
cd0	first optical drive
cuaU0	first USB serial port; see cu(1)
da0	first SCSI storage device
da0s1	first partition on da0
dri/	GPU character device nodes; see drm(7)
drm/	GPU drm(7) special files
fd/	file descriptor files; see fd(4)
fd0	first floppy drive
gpt/	storage partitions by GPT label
mmcsd0	first SD storage device
mmcsd0s1	first partition on mmcsd0
nda0	first NVMe storage device attached via cam(3)
null	infinite loop that accepts anything and contains nothing
nvd0	first NVMe storage device using NVMe namespaces
pts/	pseudo-terminals; see pts(4)
random	source of weak randomness; see random(4)
sa0	first tape drive
usb/	USB busses
vmm/	active bhyve(8) virtual machines
zvol/	zfs(8) volumes

/entropy	provides initial state to RNG; see save-entropy(8)
/etc/	base system configuration files and scripts; see intro(5)

auto_master	autofs automount(8) configuration
bluetooth/	bluetooth configuration files
cron.d/	tables for driving scheduled tasks; see crontab(5)
crontab	root's cron table
defaults/	default system configuration files; see rc(8)
devd/	configuration for devd(8), the device state change daemon
devfs.conf	boot time device configuration
dma/	configuration for dma(8)
freebsd-update.conf
	configuration for the base system updater; see freebsd-update(8)
fstab	static filesystem configuration; see fstab(5)
hosts	database of local hosts if no network name server is running
inetd.conf	configuration for BSD heritage internet servers; see inetd(8)
localtime	local timezone information; see ctime(3)
jail.conf.d/	jail(8) startup scripts
login.conf	login class capability database; see login.conf(5)
machine-id	defines the UUID for the local system, required for dbus
mail/	sendmail(8) control files

aliases	addresses to deliver system mail
mailer.conf
	mailwrapper(8) configuration

motd.template
	message displayed upon tty login; see motd(5)
mtree/	system mapper specification; see mtree(8)
newsyslog.conf.d/
	log rotation configuration files.
ntp/	stored time for the Network Time Protocol
ntp.conf	configuration for the NTP client, ntpd(8)
pam.d/	configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) library; see pam(3)
periodic/	scripts that are run daily, weekly, or monthly by cron(8); see periodic(8)
pf.conf	configuration for the Packet Filter firewall; see pf(4)
pkg/	default configuration for the package manager, pkg(8)
ppp/	PPP configuration files; see ppp(8)
rc.conf	system and daemon configuration; see rc.conf(5)
rc.d/	system and daemon startup/control scripts; see rc(8)
resolv.conf
	DNS configuration; see resolv.conf(5)
resolvconf.conf
	DNS configuration manager configuration, often generated by local-unbound; see local-unbound(8) or resolvconf(8)
security/	OpenBSM audit configuration files; see audit(8)
ssh/	OpenSSH configuration files; see ssh(1)
ssl/	OpenSSL configuration files
sysctl.conf
	kernel state defaults; see sysctl.conf(5)
syslog.conf
	system log configuration
ttys	tty creation configuration; see getty(8)
wpa_supplicant.conf
	client wifi configuration; see wpa_supplicant.conf(5)

/home/	home directories for users; the typical home for an interactive user beastie would be /home/beastie/
/lib/	system libraries critical to binaries in /bin and /sbin

geom/	class-specific libraries for the geom(8) utility
nvmecontrol/
	vendor-specific libraries to extend the nvmecontrol(8) utility

/libexec/	system utilities critical to binaries in /bin and /sbin
/media/	mount points for removable storage media such as CDs, DVDs, and USB drives; see automount(8), or bsdisks(8) if a using a desktop environment from ports(7)
/mnt/	empty directory commonly used by system administrators as a temporary mount point
/net/	automounted NFS shares; see auto_master(5)
/nonexistent/
	a non-existent directory; by convention, it serves as a home directory for user accounts that need no home directory; see also /var/empty/
/proc/	process file system; see procfs(5)
/rescue/	statically linked programs for emergency recovery; see rescue(8)
/root/	home directory of the root user
/sbin/	fundamental BSD system administration utilities; see intro(8)
/tmp/	temporary files commonly removed between system reboots; see clear_tmp_enable in rc.conf(5)
/usr/	contains the majority of user utilities and applications

bin/	common utilities, programming tools, and applications; see intro(1)
freebsd-dist/
	distribution files (like base.txz); see release(7) and bsdinstall(8)
include/	standard C include header files
lib/	shared and ar(1)-type libraries; see intro(3)

clang/
	shared libraries for the system compiler, clang(1)
compat/
	shared libraries for compatibility
debug/
	standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
dtrace/
	dtrace(1) library scripts
engines/
	OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit) dynamically loadable engines
flua/	FreeBSD Lua shared libraries
i18n/	shared libraries for internationalization

lib32/
	32-bit compatibility libraries
libdata/
	miscellaneous utility data files
ldscripts/
	linker scripts; see ld(1)
pkgconfig/
	collections of compiler and linker flags for the pkgconf(1) development tool

libexec/
	system daemons and utilities executed by programs

bsdconfig/	utilities called by the ncurses FreeBSD configuration wizard
bsdinstall/
	utilities for bsdinstall(8)
dwatch/	profiles for dwatch(1)
fwget/	utilities called by fwget(8)
hyperv/	scripts for communicating with the Hyper-V hypervisor
lpr/	utilities and filters for the line printer system; see lpr(1)
sendmail/	the sendmail(8) binary; see mailwrapper(8)
sm.bin/	restricted shell for sendmail(8); see smrsh(8)
zfs/	Z file system utilities

local/	local executables, libraries, etc, installed by pkg(7) or ports(7)

bin/	local user utilities, see intro(1)
etc/	local program configurations
include/
	local library headers
lib/	local libraries
lib32/
	local 32-bit compatability libraries
libdata/
	local utility data files
libexec/
	utilities executed by local utilities
sbin/	local administration utilities
share/
	local architecture-independent files
share/doc/
	local documentation
share/doc/freebsd/
	articles, books, FAQ, and handbooks available from the FreeBSD project
share/man/
	local manual pages; see man(1)

obj/	architecture-specific target tree produced by building FreeBSD from source; see build(7)
ports/
	FreeBSD ports collection; see ports(7)
sbin/	system daemons and utilities meant for user execution; see intro(8)
share/
	architecture-independent files
atf/	scripts for the Automated Testing Framework; see ATF(7)
bhyve/
	bhyve(8) keyboard mappings
calendar/
	system-wide calendar files; see calendar(1)
certs/
	TLS certificates for openssl(1)
dict/	word lists; see look(1)
freebsd
	FreeBSD Ns -specific terms, proper names, and jargon
web2	words from Webster's Second International

doc/	miscellaneous documentation
dtrace/
	scripts for the Dynamic Tracing Compiler; see dtrace(1)
examples/
	various examples for users and programmers
firmware/
	firmware images loaded by userland programs
games/
	ASCII text files used by BSD heritage games, see intro(6)
keys/	known trusted and revoked keys
pkg/	fingerprints for pkg(7) and pkg(8)

locale/
	localization files; see setlocale(3)
man/	system manual pages; see man(1)
misc/	miscellaneous system-wide files
ascii	chart of the ASCII codepoints
flowers
	the meanings of flowers
magic	magic numbers used by file(1)
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 .amp; (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/	management Information Base (MIB) files

syscons/
	syscons(4) files
fonts/
	console fonts; see vidcontrol(1) and vidfont(1)
keymaps/
	console keyboard maps; see kbdcontrol(1) and kbdmap(1)
scrnmaps/
	console screen maps

sysroot/
	files necessary for the -sysroot compiler/linker argument to build non-native binaries

VERSION/
	files for FreeBSD release VERSION; by convention, "VERSION" matches uname(1) -r
VERSION/MACHINE.MACHINE_ARCH/
	represent the binary ABI for these files; "MACHINE" matches uname(1) -m; "MACHINE_ARCH" matches uname(1) -p

tabset/	tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in the termcap file; see termcap(5)
vi/	localization support and utilities for the vi(1) editor
vt/	files used by the system console; see vt(4)

fonts/
	console fonts; see vidcontrol(1), vidfont(1), and vtfontcvt(8)
keymaps/
	console keyboard maps; see kbdcontrol(1) and kbdmap(1)

zoneinfo/
	timezone configuration information; see tzfile(5)

src/	FreeBSD source code; see development(7); the layout of the source tree is described by the top-level README.md file
tests/
	the FreeBSD test suite; see tests(7)

/var/	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/	job files
spool/
	output spool files

audit/
	security event audit trail files; see audit(8)
authpf/
	user shell sessions for authenticating gateways; see authpf(8)
backups/
	critical system configuration backups
cache/
	miscellaneous cache files
pkg/	cached packages for pkg(8)
cups/	cached printers for the Common Unix Prinitng system; see cups(1)

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/	autogenerated system-specific database files

etcupdate/	temporary files and log for etcupdate(8)
freebsd-update/
	downloads and temporary files for freebsd-update(8)
pkg/	package database

empty/	for use by programs that require an empty directory, used for instance by sshd(8) for privilege separation
games/	status and score files for BSD heritage games
heimdal/	Kerberos server databases; see kdc(8)
lib/	state information for ported Linux applications
log/	system log files

Xorg.0.log	Xserver(1) log, if X(7) is installed rotates to Xorg.0.log.old
aculog	serial line access log; see cu(1)
auth.log	system authentication log
bsdinstall_log
	system installation log
cron	scheduled task log; see cron(8)
cups/	logs for cups(1)
daemon.log	default log for system daemons
devd.log	default log for device state change daemon
dmesg.today	system message buffer log, rotates to dmesg.yesterday
debug.log	undiscarded debug syslog messages
lpd-errs	logs for the line printer spooler daemon; see lpd(8)
maillog	sendmail(8) log, rotates and compresses to maillog.0.bz2
messages	general system log; see syslogd(8)
mount.today	currently loaded fstab(5), rotates to mount.yesterday
pf.today	packet filter firewall log; see pf(4)
pflog	saved packets caught by pflogd(8)
ppp.log	see ppp(8)
security	transcript of events marked with the security flag
setuid.today	listing of executable files which run with elevated permissions, rotates to setuid.yesterday
userlog	logs changes in users or groups
utx.lastlogin	last login log; see getutxent(3)
utx.log	login/logout log; see getutxent(3)
xferlog	default log for ftpd(8)

mail/	user mailbox files
msgs/	system messages database; see msgs(1)
preserve/	unused, present for historical reasons
quotas/	UFS quota information files
run/	files containing information about the operating system since it was booted

bhyve/	bhyve(8) virtual machine unix(4)-domain sockets
ppp/	writable by the "network" group for command connection sockets; see ppp(8)
utx.active	database of current users; see getutxent(3)
wpa_supplicant/
	IEEE Std. 802.11 wifi run time files

rwho/	information about other systems on the local network; see rwhod(8), rwho(1), and ruptime(1)
spool/	printer and mail system spooling directories

clientmqueue/
	undelivered submission mail queue; see sendmail(8)
cups/	print jobs and temporary files for cups(1)
dma/	undelivered mail queue for .Dx Mail Agent; see dma(8)
lock/	serial device locks; see uucplock(3)
lpd/	line printer spooler daemon spool
ftp/	ftp root directory; see ftpd(8)
mqueue/	undelivered mail queue for sendmail(8)
output/	line printer spooling directories

tmp/	temporary files not removed between system reboots

vi.recover/
	recovery files for the vi(1) editor

unbound/	files and configuration for unbound(8)
yp/	the NIS maps; see yp(8)

This manual page documents the default FreeBSD file system layout. 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.

A hier manual page first appeared in 1979 with AT&T v7 .