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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  configuration  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 sub‐
	      directories  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.

       /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 nec‐
	      essary 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 sys‐
	      tem, but which are usually not executed by normal users.

       /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 symbolic 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 executed by normal users which are not needed for boot‐
	      ing  or  for  repairing  the  system and which are not installed
	      locally should be placed in this directory.

       /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  cor‐
	      rectly  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 sys‐
	      tems 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 exe‐
	      cutables which usually are not invoked directly.	 More  compli‐
	      cated 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  usu‐
	      ally 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 archi‐
	      tectures 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 administra‐
	      tion 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 architec‐
	      tures 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 dis‐
	      tributions 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  sym‐
	      bolic 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 character.

       /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 direc‐
	      tory 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.path‐
       name.com/fhs/>.

BUGS
       This  list  is not exhaustive; different systems may be configured dif‐
       ferently.

SEE ALSO
       find(1), ln(1), proc(5), mount(8)

       The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.15 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux				  2001-09-07			       HIER(7)
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