NAME

hier — layout of file systems

SYNOPSIS

An overview of the file system hierarchy.

DESCRIPTION

/

root directory

/bin/

user utilities that are fundamental to single-user and multi-user modes

/boot/

programs and configuration files used during bootstrap of the operating system

defaults/

default bootstrap configuration files; see loader.conf(5)

dtb/

compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see fdt(4) and dtc(1)

overlays/

compiled flattened device tree (FDT) overlays; these can be applied using the fdt_overlays setting in loader.conf(5)

efi/

mount point for the EFI System Partition (ESP) on UEFI systems

firmware/

loadable kernel modules containing binary firmware, for hardware to which firmware must be downloaded

kernel/

pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory at boot time) and kernel modules

modules/

third-party loadable kernel modules, such as those associated with ports(7)

zfs/

zfs(8) pool cache files

/compat/

files supporting binary compatibility with other operating systems

linux/

default location for linux(4) compatibility run-time

/dev/

the normal mount point for devfs(5)

fd/

file descriptor files; see fd(4)

/etc/

system configuration files and scripts

bluetooth/

bluetooth configuration files

defaults/

default system configuration files; see rc(8)

localtime

local timezone information; see ctime(3)

mail/

sendmail(8) control files

mtree/

mtree(8) configuration files

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)

ppp/

PPP configuration files; see ppp(8)

rc.d/

system and daemon startup/control scripts; see rc(8)

security/

OpenBSM audit configuration files; see audit(8)

ssh/

OpenSSH configuration files; see ssh(1)

ssl/

OpenSSL configuration files

/home/

users' home directories; whilst the layout is not standardized, the typical home for an interactive user beastie would be /home/beastie/

/lib/

system libraries that are critical to 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/

system utilities that are critical to binaries in /bin and /sbin

/media/

empty directory commonly containing mount points for removable media such as USB drives, CDs, and DVDs

/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; conventionally, a home directory for special user accounts that do not require a 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/

system programs and administration utilities that are fundamental to single-user and multi-user modes

/tmp/

temporary files that may be removed by rc(8); see the clear_tmp_enable variable of rc.conf(5)

/usr/

contains the majority of user utilities and applications

bin/

common utilities, programming tools, and applications

freebsd-dist/

distribution files (like base.txz; see) release(7) and bsdinstall(8)

include/

standard C include files

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 configuration data

ldscripts/

linker scripts; see ld(1)

pkgconfig/

pc(5) (ports/devel/pkgconf) files; collections of compiler flags, linker flags, and other information relevant to library use

libexec/

system daemons and system utilities that are 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/

FreeBSD ports collection; see ports(7)

sbin/

system daemons and system utilities that are executed by users

share/

architecture-independent files

calendar/

system-wide calendar files; see calendar(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

examples/

various examples for users and programmers

firmware/

firmware images loaded by userland programs

games/

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 files

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/

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.

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 vi(1)

vt/

vt(4) files

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). 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

backups/

miscellaneous backup files

cache/

miscellaneous cache files

pkg/

cached packages for pkg(8)

crash/

default directory for kernel crash dumps; see crash(8) and savecore(8)

cron/

cron(8) files

tabs/

crontab(5) files

db/

miscellaneous automatically-generated system-specific database files

freebsd-update/

temporary files and downloads for freebsd-update(8)

empty/

for use by programs that require an empty directory. Uses include privilege separation by sshd(8)

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/

unused, present for historical reasons

quotas/

file system 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)

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 not removed by rc(8)

vi.recover/

vi(1) recovery files

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 appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.