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NAME

       hier - description of the filesystem 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  holds  only  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  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.

       /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 filesystem.

       /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 filesystem.  In some
              distributions, /mnt contains subdirectories intended to be used as mount points for
              several temporary filesystems.

       /opt   This directory should contain add-on packages that contain static files.

       /proc  This  is  a  mount  point for the proc filesystem, which provides information about
              running processes and the kernel.  This  pseudo-filesystem  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 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 booting 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 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.)

       /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 filesystem.  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 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 3.54 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/.