HIER(7) BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual HIER(7)NAMEhier — layout of filesystems
DESCRIPTION
A historical sketch of the filesystem hierarchy. The modern OS X
filesystem is documented in the “File System Programming Guide” available
on Apple Developer.
/ root directory of the filesystem
/bin/ user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-
user environments
/dev/ block and character device files
fd/ file descriptor files; see fd(4)
/etc/ system configuration files and scripts
/mach_kernel kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory
at boot time).
/sbin/ system programs and administration utilities fundamental to
both single-user and multi-user environments
/tmp/ temporary files
/usr/ contains the majority of user utilities and applications
bin/ common utilities, programming tools, and applica‐
tions
include/ standard C include files
arpa/ C include files for Internet service
protocols
hfs/ C include files for HFS
machine/ machine specific C include files
net/ misc network C include files
netinet/ C include files for Internet standard
protocols; see inet(4)
nfs/ C include files for NFS (Network File
System)
objc/ C include files for Objective-C
protocols/ C include files for Berkeley service
protocols
sys/ system C include files (kernel data
structures)
ufs/ C include files for UFS
lib/ archive libraries
libexec/ system daemons & system utilities (executed by
other programs)
local/ executables, libraries, etc. not included by the
basic operating system
sbin/ system daemons & system utilities (executed by
users)
share/ architecture-independent data files
calendar/ a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
see calendar(1)
dict/ word lists; see look(1)
web2 words from Webster's 2nd
International
words common words
man/ manual pages
misc/ misc system-wide ascii text files
mk/ templates for make; see make(1)
skel/ example . (dot) files for new accounts
tabset/ tab description files for a variety of
terminals; used in the termcap file;
see termcap(5)
zoneinfo/ timezone configuration information;
see tzfile(5)
/var/ multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
at/ timed command scheduling files; see at(1)
backups/ misc. backup files
db/ misc. automatically generated system-specific
database files
log/ misc. system log files
mail/ user mailbox files
run/ system information files describing various info
about system since it was booted
utmpx database of current users; see
utmpx(5)
rwho/ rwho data files; see rwhod(8), rwho(1), and
ruptime(1)
spool/ misc. printer and mail system spooling directo‐
ries
mqueue/ undelivered mail queue; see
sendmail(8)
tmp/ temporary files that are kept between system
reboots
folders/ per-user temporary files and caches
SEE ALSOls(1), apropos(1), whatis(1), whereis(1), finger(1), which(1), find(1),
grep(1), fsck(8)HISTORY
A hier manual page appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
BSD July 23, 2007 BSD
