HIER(7) FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual HIER(7)
NAME
hier – layout of file systems
SYNOPSIS
A sketch of the file system hierarchy.
DESCRIPTION
/ 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
/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
/home/ users' HOME directories; the layout is not standardized, but a typical interactive user beastie might receive their own directory /home/beastie
/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; see linux(4)
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 & 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).
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 & 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 Second International
doc/ miscellaneous documentation
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
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/ 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). The layout of the source tree is described by the top-level README.md file.
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
freebsd-update/
freebsd-update(8) work directory for temporary files and downloaded updates
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
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 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 14.0-CURRENT May 22, 2023 FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT