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Manual Pages  — HIER

NAME

hier – layout of file systems

CONTENTS

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)
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; see kldstat(8)
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 amp;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)
/nonexistent/
  a non-existent directory; by convention, it serves as a home directory for special 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/ 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
freebsd-dist/
  distribution files (like base.txz); see release(7) and bsdinstall(8)
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
wi/ wi(4) WaveLAN driver
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 queueing
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

compat/
  shared libraries for compatibility
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 FreeBSD from source; see build(7)
ports/
  ports(7), the FreeBSD ports collection.
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 Ns -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 .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/ 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/ BSD , third-party, and/or local source files

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) for more details.
/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 amp;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 amp;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/ ftp root directory; see ftpd(8)
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

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), finger(1), grep(1), ls(1), whatis(1), whereis(1), which(1), fd(4), devfs(5), fsck(8)

HISTORY

A hier manual page appeared in AT&T v7 .

HIER (7) June 30, 2022

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As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.
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