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HIER(7) Linux Programmer's Manual HIER(7)
NAME
hier - Description of the file system hierarchy
DESCRIPTION
A typical Linux system has, among others, the following directories:
/ This is the root directory. This is where the whole tree starts.
/bin This directory contains executable programs which are needed in single user
mode and to bring the system up or repair it.
/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 con-
figuration files should go to /sbin and /etc.
/dev Special or device files, which refer to physical devices. See mknod(1).
/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. Neverthe-
less, programs should always look for these files in /etc and you may have
links for these files to /usr/etc.
/etc/opt
Host-specific configuration files for add-on applications installed in /opt.
/etc/sgml
This directory contains the configuration files for SGML and XML (optional).
/etc/skel
When a new user account is created, files from this directory are usually
copied into the user's home directory.
/etc/X11
Configuration files for the X11 window system (optional).
/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.
/lib This directory should hold those shared libraries that are necessary to boot
the system and to run the commands in the root file system.
/media This directory contains mount points for removable media such as CD and DVD
disks or USB sticks.
/mnt This directory is a mount point for a temporarily mounted file system. In
some distributions, /mnt contains subdirectories intended to be used as
mount points for several temporary file systems.
/opt This directory should contain add-on packages that contain static files.
/proc This is a mount point for the proc file system, which provides information
about running processes and the kernel. This pseudo-file system is
described in more detail in proc(5).
/root This directory is usually the home directory for the root user (optional).
/sbin Like /bin, this directory holds commands needed to boot the system, but
which are usually not executed by normal users.
/srv This directory contains site-specific data that is served by this system.
/tmp This directory contains temporary files which may be deleted with no notice,
such as by a regular job or at system boot up.
/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.
/usr/X11R6
The X-Window system, version 11 release 6 (optional).
/usr/X11R6/bin
Binaries which belong to the X-Window system; often, there is a symbolic
link from the more traditional /usr/bin/X11 to here.
/usr/X11R6/lib
Data files associated with the X-Window system.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11
These contain miscellaneous files needed to run X; Often, there is a sym-
bolic link from /usr/lib/X11 to this directory.
/usr/X11R6/include/X11
Contains include files needed for compiling programs using the X11 window
system. Often, there is a symbolic link from /usr/include/X11 to this
directory.
/usr/bin
This is the primary directory for executable programs. Most programs exe-
cuted 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 direc-
tory.
/usr/bin/X11
is the traditional place to look for X11 executables; on Linux, it usually
is a symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/bin.
/usr/dict
Replaced by /usr/share/dict.
/usr/doc
Replaced by /usr/share/doc.
/usr/etc
Site-wide configuration files to be shared between several machines may be
stored in this directory. However, commands should always reference those
files using the /etc directory. Links from files in /etc should point to
the appropriate files in /usr/etc.
/usr/games
Binaries for games and educational programs (optional).
/usr/include
Include files for the C compiler.
/usr/include/X11
Include files for the C compiler and the X-Window system. This is usually a
symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/include/X11.
/usr/include/asm
Include files which declare some assembler functions. This used to be a
symbolic link to /usr/src/linux/include/asm.
/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.
(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 ver-
sion, provided in the libc*-dev package.)
/usr/include/g++
Include files to use with the GNU C++ compiler.
/usr/lib
Object libraries, including dynamic libraries, plus some executables which
usually are not invoked directly. More complicated programs may have whole
subdirectories there.
/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.
/usr/lib/gcc-lib
contains executables and include files for the GNU C compiler, gcc(1).
/usr/lib/groff
Files for the GNU groff document formatting system.
/usr/lib/uucp
Files for uucp(1).
/usr/local
This is where programs which are local to the site typically go.
/usr/local/bin
Binaries for programs local to the site.
/usr/local/doc
Local documentation.
/usr/local/etc
Configuration files associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/games
Binaries for locally installed games.
/usr/local/lib
Files associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/include
Header files for the local C compiler.
/usr/local/info
Info pages associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/man
Man pages associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/sbin
Locally installed programs for system administration.
/usr/local/share
Local application data that can be shared among different architectures of
the same OS.
/usr/local/src
Source code for locally installed software.
/usr/man
Replaced by /usr/share/man.
/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.
/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.
/usr/share/dict
Contains the word lists used by spell checkers.
/usr/share/doc
Documentation about installed programs.
/usr/share/games
Static data files for games in /usr/games.
/usr/share/info
Info pages go here.
/usr/share/locale
Locale information goes here.
/usr/share/man
Manual pages go here in subdirectories according to the man page sections.
/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.
/usr/share/misc
Miscellaneous data that can be shared among different architectures of the
same OS.
/usr/share/nls
The message catalogs for native language support go here.
/usr/share/sgml
Files for SGML and XML.
/usr/share/terminfo
The database for terminfo.
/usr/share/tmac
Troff macros that are not distributed with groff.
/usr/share/zoneinfo
Files for timezone information.
/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.
/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.
/usr/tmp
Obsolete. This should be a link to /var/tmp. This link is present only for
compatibility reasons and shouldn't be used.
/var This directory contains files which may change in size, such as spool and
log files.
/var/adm
This directory is superseded by /var/log and should be a symbolic link to
/var/log.
/var/backups
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/cache
Data cached for programs.
/var/catman/cat[1-9] or /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.)
/var/cron
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/lib
Variable state information for programs.
/var/local
Variable data for /usr/local.
/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 file
system. The format used is that of HDU UUCP lock files, that is, lock files
contain a PID as a 10-byte ASCII decimal number, followed by a newline char-
acter.
/var/log
Miscellaneous log files.
/var/opt
Variable data for /opt.
/var/mail
Users' mailboxes. Replaces /var/spool/mail.
/var/msgs
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/preserve
Reserved for historical reasons.
/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.
/var/spool
Spooled (or queued) files for various programs.
/var/spool/at
Spooled jobs for at(1).
/var/spool/cron
Spooled jobs for cron(8).
/var/spool/lpd
Spooled files for printing.
/var/spool/mail
Replaced by /var/mail.
/var/spool/mqueue
Queued outgoing mail.
/var/spool/news
Spool directory for news.
/var/spool/rwho
Spooled files for rwhod(8).
/var/spool/smail
Spooled files for the smail(1) mail delivery program.
/var/spool/uucp
Spooled files for uucp(1).
/var/tmp
Like /tmp, this directory holds temporary files stored for an unspecified
duration.
/var/yp
Database files for NIS.
CONFORMING TO
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, Version 2.2 <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/>.
BUGS
This list is not exhaustive; different systems may be configured differently.
SEE ALSO
find(1), ln(1), proc(5), mount(8)
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.22 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of
the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.ker-
nel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2009-03-30 HIER(7)
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