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(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

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-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.

HISTORY

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

NAME

DESCRIPTION

NOTES

SEE ALSO

HISTORY