NAME
hier – 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 applications
- 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)
- spool/
-
misc. printer and mail system spooling directories
- mqueue/
-
undelivered mail queue; see sendmail(8)
- tmp/
-
temporary files that are kept between system reboots
- folders/
-
per-user temporary files and caches
SEE ALSO
ls(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.