NAME

hier — index of FreeBSD file system hierarchy

DESCRIPTION

/

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(4)

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

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/

pseduo-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(4)

/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-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 . (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 DragonFly 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)

NOTES

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.

SEE ALSO

apropos(1), find(1), grep(1), ls(1), whereis(1), which(1)

HISTORY

A hier manual page first appeared in 1979 with Version 7 AT&T UNIX.