[nycbug-talk] why /var?
Isaac Levy
ike
Sat Feb 19 21:11:07 EST 2005
For the record on this thread, a straight FreeBSD system,
--
FreeBSD orangedragon 4.10-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE #0: Tue May 25
22:47:12 GMT 2004
root at perseus.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
HIER(7) FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual
HIER(7)
NAME
hier -- layout of filesystems
DESCRIPTION
A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy.
/ root directory of the filesystem
/bin/ user utilities fundamental to both single-user and
multi-user
environments
/boot/ programs and configuration files used during operating
system
bootstrap
defaults/ default bootstrapping configuration files; see
loader.conf(5)
/dev/ block and character device files
MAKEDEV script for creating device files; see MAKEDEV(8)
fd/ file descriptor files; see fd(4)
/etc/ system configuration files and scripts
defaults/ default system configuration files; see rc(8)
gnats/ gnats configuration files; see send-pr(1)
isdn/ isdn4bsd configuration files; see isdnd(8)
kerberosIV/ configuration files for kerberos version IV;
see
kerberos(1)
localtime local timezone information; see ctime(3)
mail/ Sendmail control files
mtree/ mtree configuration files; see mtree(8)
namedb/ named configuration files; see named(8)
periodic/ scripts that are run daily, weekly, and
monthly,
via cron(8); see periodic(8)
ppp/ ppp configuration files; see ppp(8)
ssl/ OpenSSL configuration files
uucp/ uucp configuration files; see uucp(1)
/kernel pure kernel executable (the operating system loaded into
memory
at boot time).
/modules/
loadable kernel modules; see kldstat(8)
/mnt/ empty directory commonly used by system administrators as
a tem-
porary mount point
/proc/ process file system; see procfs(5), mount_procfs(8)
/root/ root's HOME directory
/sbin/ system programs and administration utilities fundamental
to both
single-user and multi-user environments
/stand/ programs used in a standalone environment
/tmp/ temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across
system
reboots
/usr/ contains the majority of user utilities and applications
bin/ common utilities, programming tools, and
applications
games/ useful and semi-frivolous programs
include/ standard C include files
arpa/ C include files for Internet
service pro-
tocols
cam/ C include files for the Common
Access
Methods Layer
scsi/ The SCSI device on
top of
CAM
dev/ C include files for programming
various
FreeBSD devices
ppbus/ The parallel port
bus; see
ppbus(4)
usb/ The USB subsystem
fs/
smbfs/ SMB/CIFS filesystem
g++/ GNU C++ include files
std/ GNU C++ libstdc++
include
files
isc/ ISC utility library libisc include
files
isofs/
cd9660/ iso9660 filesystem
kerberosIV/ C include files for kerberos
authentica-
tion package; see kerberos(1)
libmilter/ C include files for libmilter, the
send-
mail mail filter API
machine/ machine-specific C include files
msdosfs/ MS-DOS file system
net/ misc network C include files
netatalk/ Appletalk protocol
netatm/ ATM include files; see atm(8)
netinet/ C include files for Internet
standard
protocols; see inet(4)
netinet6/ C include files for Internet
protocol
version 6; see inet6(4)
netipx/ IPX/SPX protocol stacks
netkey/ kernel key-management service
netnatm/ NATM include files; see natm(4)
netns/ Xerox NS protocols
netsmb/ SMB/CIFS requester
nfs/ C include files for NFS (Network
File
System)
objc/ Objective C include files
openssl/ OpenSSL (Cryptography/SSL toolkit)
head-
ers
pccard/ PC-CARD controllers
posix4/ POSIX real-time extensions
includes; see
p1003_1b(9)
protocols/ C include files for Berkeley
service pro-
tocols
readline/ get a line from a user, with
editing; see
readline(3)
rpc/ remote procedure calls; see rpc(3)
rpcsvc/ definition of RPC service
structures; see
rpc(3)
security/ PAM; see pam(8)
ss/ MIT SIPB `subsystem' library, part
of
Kerberos IV.
sys/ system C include files (kernel data
structures)
ufs/ C include files for UFS (The
U-word File
System)
ffs/ Fast filesystem
mfs/ memory file system;
see
mount_mfs(8)
ufs/ UFS filesystem
vm/ virtual memory; see vmstat(8)
lib/ archive libraries
aout/ a.out archive libraries
compat/ shared libraries for compatibility
aout/ a.out backward
compatibility
libraries
libdata/ misc. utility data files
doscmd/ files used by doscmd (drivers,
fonts,
etc.); see doscmd(1)
fonts/ fonts used by doscmd
gcc/ ???
ldscripts/ linker scripts; see ld(1)
lint/ various prebuilt lint libraries; see
lint(1)
msdosfs/ Character set conversion tables
perl/
5.00503/ contains Perl modules
for Perl
version 5.00503; see
perl(1)
stallion/ holds the download firmware images
libexec/ system daemons & system utilities (executed by
other
programs)
aout/ utilities to manipulate a.out
executables
elf/ utilities to manipulate ELF
executables
lpr/ utilities and filters for LP print
system;
see lpr(1)
sendmail/ the sendmail binary; see
mailwrapper(8)
and sendmail(8)
sm.bin/ restricted shell for sendmail; see
smrsh(8)
uucp/ uucp utilities; see uucp(1)
local/ local executables, libraries, etc. Also used
as the
default destination for the FreeBSD ports
framework.
Within local/, the general layout sketched out
by
hier(7) for /usr should be used. Exceptions
are the
man directory (directly under local/ rather
than under
local/share/), ports documentation (in
share/doc/<port>/), and /usr/local/etc (mimics
/etc).
obj/ architecture-specific target tree produced by
building
the /usr/src tree
ports/ The FreeBSD ports collection (optional).
sbin/ system daemons & system utilities (executed by
users)
share/ architecture-independent files
calendar/ a variety of pre-fab calendar files;
see
calendar(1)
dict/ word lists; see look(1)
web2 words from Webster's 2nd
Inter-
national
words common words
papers/ reference databases; see
refer(1)
doc/ miscellaneous documentation; source
for
most of the printed BSD manuals
(available
from the USENIX association)
FAQ/ Frequently Asked
Questions
IPv6/ implementation notes for
IPv6
bind/ documents pertaining to
BIND
(the Berkeley Internet
Name
Domain)
es/ Spanish translations of
docu-
ments in /usr/share/doc
handbook/ FreeBSD Handbook
ja/ Japanese translations of
docu-
ments in /usr/share/doc
ncurses/ HTML documents
pertaining to
ncurses; see ncurses(3X)
ntp/ HTML documents
pertaining to
the Network Time Protocol
papers/ UNIX Papers
psd/ UNIX Programmer's
Supplementary
Documents
ru/ Russian translations of
docu-
ments in /usr/share/doc
smm/ UNIX System Manager's
Manual
tutorials/ FreeBSD tutorials
usd/ UNIX User's
Supplementary Docu-
ments
zh/ Chinese translations of
docu-
ments in /usr/share/doc
examples/ various examples for users and
programmers
games/ ASCII text files used by various
games
groff_font/
device description file for device
name
info/ GNU Info hypertext system
isdn/ ISDN
libg++/ libg++'s genclass prototype/template
class
files
locale/ localization files; see setlocale(3)
man/ manual pages
me/ macros for use with the me macro
package;
see me(7)
misc/ misc system-wide ASCII text files
fonts/ ???
pcvtfonts/ pcvt fonts; see pcvt(4)
termcap terminal characteristics
data-
base; see termcap(5)
mk/ templates for make; see make(1)
nls/ national language support files; see
mklocale(1)
pcvt/ pcvt documentation and etc examples;
see
pcvt(4)
perl/ perl library files; see perl(1)
sendmail/ sendmail configuration files; see
sendmail(8)
skel/ example . (dot) files for new
accounts
syscons/ files used by syscons; see syscons(4)
fonts/ console fonts; see
vidcontrol(1) and
vidfont(1)
keymaps/ console keyboard maps;
see
kbdcontrol(1) and
kbdmap(1)
scrnmaps/ console screen maps
tabset/ tab description files for a variety
of ter-
minals; used in the termcap file; see
termcap(5)
tmac/ text processing macros; see nroff(1)
and
troff(1)
vi/ localization support and utilities
for
vi(1)
zoneinfo/ timezone configuration information;
see
tzfile(5)
src/ BSD, third-party, and/or local source files
bin/ source code for files in /bin
contrib/ source code for contributed
software
crypto/ source code for contributed
cryptography
software
etc/ source code for files in /etc
games/ source code for files in /usr/games
gnu/ Utilities covered by the GNU
General Pub-
lic License
include/ source code for files in
/usr/include
kerberosIV/ source code for kerberos version IV
lib/ source code for files in /usr/lib
libexec/ source code for files in
/usr/libexec
release/ files required to produce a FreeBSD
release
sbin/ source code for files in /sbin
secure/ build directory for files in
/usr/src/crypto
share/ source for files in /usr/share
sys/ kernel source code
tools/ tools used for maintenance and
testing of
FreeBSD
usr.bin/ source code for files in /usr/bin
usr.sbin/ source code for files in /usr/sbin
X11R6/ X11R6 distribution executables, libraries, etc
(optional).
bin/ X11R6 binaries (servers, utilities,
local
packages/ports).
etc/ X11R6 configuration files and scripts.
include/ X11R6 include files.
lib/ X11R6 libraries.
man/ X11R6 manual pages.
share/ architecture-independent files.
/var/ multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
account/ system accounting files
acct execution accounting file; see
acct(5)
at/ timed command scheduling files; see at(1)
jobs/ directory containing job files
spool/ directory containing output spool
files
backups/ misc. backup files
crash/ default directory to store kernel crash dumps;
see
crash(8) and savecore(8)
cron/ files used by cron; see cron(8)
tabs/ crontab files; see crontab(5)
db/ misc. automatically generated system-specific
data-
base files
empty/ empty directory used by sshd(8) for privilege
separa-
tion; see sshd(8)
games/ misc. game status and score files
heimdal/ kerberos server databases; see kdc(8)
log/ misc. system log files
wtmp login/logout log; see wtmp(5)
mail/ user mailbox files
msgs/ system messages database; see msgs(1)
preserve/ temporary home of files preserved after an
accidental
death of an editor; see ex(1)
quotas/ filesystem quota information files
run/ system information files describing various
info
about system since it was booted
ppp/ writable by the ``network'' group
for
command connection sockets; see
ppp(8)
utmp database of current users; see
utmp(5)
rwho/ rwho data files; see rwhod(8), rwho(1), and
ruptime(1)
spool/ misc. printer and mail system spooling
directories
clientmqueue/
undelivered submission mail queue;
see
sendmail(8)
ftp/ commonly ~ftp; the anonymous ftp
root
directory
mqueue/ undelivered mail queue; see
sendmail(8)
output/ line printer spooling directories
uucp/ uucp spool directory
uucppublic/
commonly ~uucp; public uucp
temporary
directory
tmp/ temporary files that are kept between system
reboots
vi.recover/
the directory where recovery files
are
stored
yp/ the NIS maps
NOTES
This manual page documents the default FreeBSD filesystem layout,
but the
actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
administra-
tor's discretion. A well-maintained installation will include a
cus-
tomized version of this document.
SEE ALSO
apropos(1), find(1), finger(1), grep(1), ls(1), whatis(1),
whereis(1),
which(1), fsck(8)
HISTORY
A hier manual page appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
FreeBSD 4.11 June 5, 1993
FreeBSD 4.11
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