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Annotated edit history of hier(7) version 8, including all changes. View license author blame.
Rev Author # Line
2 WikiAdmin 1 !!NAME
1 perry 2 hier - Description of the file system hierarchy
3 !!DESCRIPTION
4
2 WikiAdmin 5 A typical Linux system has, among others, the following directories:
1 perry 6
3 WikiAdmin 7 ;''/'': This is the root directory. This is where the whole tree starts.
1 perry 8
3 WikiAdmin 9 ;''/bin'': This directory contains executable programs which are needed in single user mode and to bring the system up or repair it.
1 perry 10
3 WikiAdmin 11 ;''/boot'': Contains static files for the boot loader. This directory only holds the files which are needed during the boot process. The map installer and configuration files should go to ''/sbin'' and ''/etc''.
1 perry 12
3 WikiAdmin 13 ;''/dev'': Special or device files, which refer to physical devices. See mknod(1).
1 perry 14
3 WikiAdmin 15 ;''/dos'': If both MS-DOS and Linux are run on one computer, this is a typical place to mount a DOS file system.
1 perry 16
3 WikiAdmin 17 ;''/etc'': Contains configuration files which are local to the machine. Some larger software packages, like X11, can have their own subdirectories below ''/etc''. Site-wide configuration files may be placed here or in ''/usr/etc''. Nevertheless, programs should always look for these files in ''/etc'' and you may have links for these files to ''/usr/etc''.
1 perry 18
3 WikiAdmin 19 ;''/etc/opt'': Host-specific configuration files for add-on applications installed in ''/opt''.
1 perry 20
3 WikiAdmin 21 ;''/etc/sgml'': This directory contains the configuration files for SGML and XML (optional).
1 perry 22
3 WikiAdmin 23 ;''/etc/skel'': When a new user account is created, files from this directory are usually copied into the user's home directory.
1 perry 24
3 WikiAdmin 25 ;''/etc/X11'': Configuration files for the X11 window system (optional).
1 perry 26
3 WikiAdmin 27 ;''/home'': On machines with home directories for users, these are usually beneath this directory, directly or not. The structure of this directory depends on local administration decisions.
1 perry 28
3 WikiAdmin 29 ;''/lib'': This directory should hold those shared libraries that are necessary to boot the system and to run the commands in the root filesystem.
1 perry 30
3 WikiAdmin 31 ;''/mnt'': This directory contains mount points for temporarily mounted filesystems
1 perry 32
3 WikiAdmin 33 ;''/opt'': This directory should contain add-on packages that contain static files.
1 perry 34
3 WikiAdmin 35 ;''/proc'': This is a mount point for the ''proc'' filesystem, which provides information about running processes and the kernel. This pseudo-file system is described in more detail in proc(5).
1 perry 36
3 WikiAdmin 37 ;''/root'': This directory is usually the home directory for the root user (optional).
1 perry 38
3 WikiAdmin 39 ;''/sbin'': Like ''/bin'', this directory holds commands needed to boot the system, but which are usually not executed by normal users.
1 perry 40
3 WikiAdmin 41 ;''/tmp'': This directory contains temporary files which may be deleted with no notice, such as by a regular job or at system boot up.
1 perry 42
3 WikiAdmin 43 ;''/usr'': This directory is usually mounted from a separate partition. It should hold only sharable, read-only data, so that it can be mounted by various machines running Linux.
1 perry 44
3 WikiAdmin 45 ;''/usr/X11R6'': The X-Window system, version 11 release 6 (optional).
1 perry 46
3 WikiAdmin 47 ;''/usr/X11R6/bin'': Binaries which belong to the X-Windows system; often, there is a symbolic link from the more traditional ''/usr/bin/X11'' to here.
1 perry 48
3 WikiAdmin 49 ;''/usr/X11R6/lib'': Data files associated with the X-Windows system.
1 perry 50
3 WikiAdmin 51 ;''/usr/X11R6/lib/X11'': These contain miscellaneous files needed to run X; Often, there is a symbolic link from ''/usr/lib/X11'' to this directory.
1 perry 52
3 WikiAdmin 53 ;''/usr/X11R6/include/X11'': Contains include files needed for compiling programs using the X11 window system. Often, there is a symbolic link from ''/usr/inlcude/X11'' to this directory.
1 perry 54
3 WikiAdmin 55 ;''/usr/bin'': This is the primary directory for executable programs. Most programs executed by normal users which are not needed for booting or for repairing the system and which are not installed locally should be placed in this directory.
1 perry 56
3 WikiAdmin 57 ;''/usr/bin/X11'': is the traditional place to look for X11 executables; on Linux, it usually is a symbolic link to ''/usr/X11R6/bin''.
1 perry 58
3 WikiAdmin 59 ;''/usr/dict'': Replaced by ''/usr/share/dict''.
1 perry 60
3 WikiAdmin 61 ;''/usr/doc'': Replaced by ''/usr/share/doc''.
1 perry 62
3 WikiAdmin 63 ;''/usr/games'': Binaries for games and educational programs (optional).
1 perry 64
3 WikiAdmin 65 ;''/usr/include'': Include files for the C compiler.
1 perry 66
3 WikiAdmin 67 ;''/usr/include/X11'': Include files for the C compiler and the X-Windows system. This is usually a symbolic link to ''/usr/X11R6/include/X11.''
1 perry 68
3 WikiAdmin 69 ;''/usr/include/asm'': Include files which declare some assembler functions. This used to be a symbolic link to ''/usr/src/linux/include/asm''.
1 perry 70
3 WikiAdmin 71 ;''/usr/include/linux'': This contains information which may change from system release to system release and used to be a symbolic link to ''/usr/src/linux/include/linux'' to get at operating system specific information.
1 perry 72
6 WikiAdmin 73 ;:(Note that one should have include files there that work correctly with the current libc and in user space. However, Linux kernel source is not designed to be used with user programs and does not know anything about the libc you are using. It is very likely that things will break if you let ''/usr/include/asm'' and ''/usr/include/linux'' point at a random kernel tree. Debian systems don't do this and use headers from a known good kernel version, provided in the libc*-dev package.)
1 perry 74
3 WikiAdmin 75 ;''/usr/include/g++'': Include files to use with the GNU C++ compiler.
1 perry 76
3 WikiAdmin 77 ;''/usr/lib'': Object libraries, including dynamic libraries, plus some executables which usually are not invoked directly. More complicated programs may have whole subdirectories there.
1 perry 78
3 WikiAdmin 79 ;''/usr/lib/X11'': The usual place for data files associated with X programs, and configuration files for the X system itself. On Linux, it usually is a symbolic link to ''/usr/X11R6/lib/X11''.
1 perry 80
3 WikiAdmin 81 ;''/usr/lib/gcc-lib'': contains executables and include files for the GNU C compiler, gcc(1).
1 perry 82
3 WikiAdmin 83 ;''/usr/lib/groff'': Files for the GNU groff document formatting system.
1 perry 84
3 WikiAdmin 85 ;''/usr/lib/uucp'': Files for uucp(1).
1 perry 86
3 WikiAdmin 87 ;''/usr/local'': This is where programs which are local to the site typically go.
1 perry 88
3 WikiAdmin 89 ;''/usr/local/bin'': Binaries for programs local to the site.
1 perry 90
3 WikiAdmin 91 ;''/usr/local/doc'': Local documentation.
1 perry 92
3 WikiAdmin 93 ;''/usr/local/etc'': Configuration files associated with locally installed programs.
1 perry 94
3 WikiAdmin 95 ;''/usr/local/games'': Binaries for locally installed games.
1 perry 96
3 WikiAdmin 97 ;''/usr/local/lib'': Files associated with locally installed programs.
1 perry 98
3 WikiAdmin 99 ;''/usr/local/include'': Header files for the local C compiler.
1 perry 100
3 WikiAdmin 101 ;''/usr/local/info'': Info pages associated with locally installed programs.
1 perry 102
3 WikiAdmin 103 ;''/usr/local/man'': Man pages associated with locally installed programs.
1 perry 104
3 WikiAdmin 105 ;''/usr/local/sbin'': Locally installed programs for system administration.
1 perry 106
3 WikiAdmin 107 ;''/usr/local/share'': Local application data that can be shared among different architectures of the same OS.
1 perry 108
3 WikiAdmin 109 ;''/usr/local/src'': Source code for locally installed software.
1 perry 110
3 WikiAdmin 111 ;''/usr/man'': Replaced by ''/usr/share/man''.
1 perry 112
3 WikiAdmin 113 ;''/usr/sbin'': This directory contains program binaries for system administration which are not essential for the boot process, for mounting ''/usr'', or for system repair.
1 perry 114
3 WikiAdmin 115 ;''/usr/share'': This directory contains subdirectories with specific application data, that can be shared among different architectures of the same OS. Often one finds stuff here that used to live in ''/usr/doc'' or ''/usr/lib'' or ''/usr/man''.
1 perry 116
3 WikiAdmin 117 ;''/usr/share/dict'': Contains the word lists used by spell checkers.
1 perry 118
3 WikiAdmin 119 ;''/usr/share/doc'': Documentation about installed programs.
1 perry 120
3 WikiAdmin 121 ;''/usr/share/games'': Static data files for games in ''/usr/games''.
1 perry 122
3 WikiAdmin 123 ;''/usr/share/info'': Info pages go here.
1 perry 124
3 WikiAdmin 125 ;''/usr/share/locale'': Locale information goes here.
1 perry 126
3 WikiAdmin 127 ;''/usr/share/man'': Manpages go here in subdirectories according to the man page sections.
1 perry 128
3 WikiAdmin 129 ;''/usr/share/man/<locale>/man[[1-9]'': These directories contain manual pages for the specific locale in source code form. Systems which use a unique language and code set for all manual pages may omit the <locale> substring.
1 perry 130
3 WikiAdmin 131 ;''/usr/share/misc'': Miscellaneous data that can be shared among different architectures of the same OS.
1 perry 132
3 WikiAdmin 133 ;''/usr/share/nls'': The message catalogs for native language support go here.
1 perry 134
3 WikiAdmin 135 ;''/usr/share/sgml'': Files for SGML and XML.
1 perry 136
3 WikiAdmin 137 ;''/usr/share/terminfo'': The datebase for terminfo.
1 perry 138
3 WikiAdmin 139 ;''/usr/share/tmac'': Troff macros that are not distributed with groff.
1 perry 140
3 WikiAdmin 141 ;''/usr/share/zoneinfo'': Files for timezone information.
1 perry 142
6 WikiAdmin 143 ;''/usr/share/doc'':
144
145 ;''/usr/share/man'': Manpages go in there, into their subdirectories.
1 perry 146
3 WikiAdmin 147 ;''/usr/share/man/<locale>/man[[1-9]'': These directories contain manual pages which are in source code form. Systems which use a unique language and code set for all manual pages may omit the ''<locale>'' substring.
1 perry 148
3 WikiAdmin 149 ;''/usr/src'': Source files for different parts of the system, included with some packages for reference purposes. Don't work here with your own projects, as files below /usr should be read-only except when installing software.
1 perry 150
3 WikiAdmin 151 ;''/usr/src/linux'': This was the traditional place for the kernel source. Some distributions put here the source for the default kernel they ship. You should probably use another directory when building your own kernel.
1 perry 152
3 WikiAdmin 153 ;''/usr/tmp'': Obsolete. This should be a link to ''/var/tmp''. This link is present only for compatibility reasons and shouldn't be used.
1 perry 154
3 WikiAdmin 155 ;''/var'': This directory contains files which may change in size, such as spool and log files.
1 perry 156
3 WikiAdmin 157 ;''/var/adm'': This directory is superseded by ''/var/log'' and should be a symbolic link to ''/var/log''.
1 perry 158
3 WikiAdmin 159 ;''/var/backups'': Reserved for historical reasons.
1 perry 160
3 WikiAdmin 161 ;''/var/cache'': Data cached for programs.
1 perry 162
3 WikiAdmin 163 ;''/var/cache/man/cat[[1-9]'': These directories contain preformatted manual pages according to their man page section. (The use of preformatted manual pages is deprecated.)
1 perry 164
3 WikiAdmin 165 ;''/var/cron'': Reserved for historical reasons.
1 perry 166
3 WikiAdmin 167 ;''/var/lib'': Variable state information for programs.
1 perry 168
3 WikiAdmin 169 ;''/var/local'': Variable data for ''/usr/local''.
1 perry 170
3 WikiAdmin 171 ;''/var/lock'': Lock files are placed in this directory. The naming convention for device lock files is ''LCK..<device>'' where ''<device>'' is the device's name in the filesystem. The format used is that of HDU UUCP lock files, i.e. lock files contain a PID as a 10-byte ASCII decimal number, followed by a newline character.
1 perry 172
3 WikiAdmin 173 ;''/var/log'': Miscellaneous log files.
1 perry 174
3 WikiAdmin 175 ;''/var/opt'': Variable data for ''/opt''.
1 perry 176
3 WikiAdmin 177 ;''/var/mail'': Users' mailboxes. Replaces ''/var/spool/mail''.
1 perry 178
3 WikiAdmin 179 ;''/var/msgs'': Reserved for historical reasons.
1 perry 180
3 WikiAdmin 181 ;''/var/preserve'': Reserved for historical reasons.
1 perry 182
3 WikiAdmin 183 ;''/var/run'': Run-time variable files, like files holding process identifiers (PIDs) and logged user information ''(utmp)''. Files in this directory are usually cleared when the system boots.
1 perry 184
3 WikiAdmin 185 ;''/var/spool'': Spooled (or queued) files for various programs.
1 perry 186
3 WikiAdmin 187 ;''/var/spool/at'': Spooled jobs for at(1).
1 perry 188
5 WikiAdmin 189 ;''/var/spool/cron'': Spooled jobs for cron(8).
1 perry 190
3 WikiAdmin 191 ;''/var/spool/lpd'': Spooled files for printing.
1 perry 192
3 WikiAdmin 193 ;''/var/spool/mail'': Replaced by ''/var/mail''.
1 perry 194
3 WikiAdmin 195 ;''/var/spool/mqueue'': Queued outgoing mail.
1 perry 196
3 WikiAdmin 197 ;''/var/spool/news'': Spool directory for news.
1 perry 198
3 WikiAdmin 199 ;''/var/spool/rwho'': Spooled files for rwhod(8).
1 perry 200
3 WikiAdmin 201 ;''/var/spool/smail'': Spooled files for the smail(1) mail delivery program.
202 ;''/var/spool/news'': Spool directory for the news subsystem.
1 perry 203
3 WikiAdmin 204 ;''/var/spool/uucp'': Spooled files for uucp(1).
1 perry 205
8 WikiAdmin 206 ;''/var/tmp'': The /var/tmp directory is made available for programs that require temporary files or directories that are preserved between system reboots. Therefore, data stored in /var/tmp is more persistent than data in /tmp.
207
208 ;:Files and directories located in /var/tmp must not be deleted when the system is booted. Although data stored in /var/tmp is typically deleted in a site-specific manner, it is recommended that deletions occur at a less frequent interval than /tmp.
1 perry 209
3 WikiAdmin 210 ;''/var/yp'': Database files for NIS.
1 perry 211
2 WikiAdmin 212 !!CONFORMS TO
1 perry 213
7 WikiAdmin 214 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, Version 2.2 <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/>
2 WikiAdmin 215 This list is not exhaustive; different systems may be configured differently.
1 perry 216 !!SEE ALSO
217
4 WikiAdmin 218 find(1), ln(1), mount(8), proc(5), The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
3 WikiAdmin 219 ----
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