Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard Group

Edited by
Rusty Russell
Daniel Quinlan
Christopher Yeoh
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
by Filesystem Hierarchy Standard Group
Edited by Rusty Russell, Daniel Quinlan, and Christopher Yeoh
Published January 28 2004
Copyright 1994-2004 Daniel Quinlan
Copyright 2001-2004 Paul Rusty Russell
Copyright 2003-2004 Christopher Yeoh
This standard consists of a set of requirements and guidelines for le and directory placement under UNIX-like
operating systems. The guidelines are intended to support interoperability of applications, system administration
tools, development tools, and scripts as well as greater uniformity of documentation for these systems.
All trademarks and copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be
regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this standard provided the copyright and this permission notice are preserved
on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modied versions of this standard under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that
the title page is labeled as modied including a reference to the original standard, provided that information on retrieving the original
standard is included, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this
one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this standard into another language, under the above conditions for modied
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the copyright holder.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1. Purpose.................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Conventions............................................................................................................................................. 1
2. The Filesystem.................................................................................................................................................... 2
3. The Root Filesystem........................................................................................................................................... 3
3.1. Purpose.................................................................................................................................................... 3
3.2. Requirements........................................................................................................................................... 4
3.3. Specic Options ...................................................................................................................................... 4
3.4. /bin : Essential user command binaries (for use by all users) ................................................................. 4
3.4.1. Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 4
3.4.2. Requirements .............................................................................................................................. 5
3.4.3. Specic Options.......................................................................................................................... 6
3.5. /boot : Static les of the boot loader ....................................................................................................... 6
3.5.1. Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 6
3.5.2. Specic Options.......................................................................................................................... 7
3.6. /dev : Device les .................................................................................................................................... 7
3.6.1. Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 7
3.6.2. Specic Options.......................................................................................................................... 7
3.7. /etc : Host-specic system conguration ................................................................................................ 7
3.7.1. Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 7
3.7.2. Requirements .............................................................................................................................. 7
3.7.3. Specic Options.......................................................................................................................... 7
3.7.4. /etc/opt : Conguration les for /opt .......................................................................................... 8
3.7.4.1. Purpose........................................................................................................................... 9
3.7.4.2. Requirements ................................................................................................................. 9
3.7.5. /etc/X11 : Conguration for the X Window System (optional).................................................. 9
3.7.5.1. Purpose........................................................................................................................... 9
3.7.5.2. Specic Options ............................................................................................................. 9
3.7.6. /etc/sgml : Conguration les for SGML (optional) .................................................................. 9
3.7.6.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 10
3.7.7. /etc/xml : Conguration les for XML (optional).................................................................... 10
3.7.7.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 10
3.8. /home : User home directories (optional).............................................................................................. 10
3.8.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 10
3.8.2. Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 10
3.9. /lib : Essential shared libraries and kernel modules .............................................................................. 10
3.9.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 10
3.9.2. Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 10
3.9.3. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 11
3.10. /lib<qual> : Alternate format essential shared libraries (optional) ..................................................... 11
3.10.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 11
3.10.2. Requirements .......................................................................................................................... 11
3.11. /media : Mount point for removeable media....................................................................................... 11
3.11.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 11
3.11.2. Specic Options...................................................................................................................... 12
3.12. /mnt : Mount point for a temporarily mounted lesystem.................................................................. 12
3.12.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 12
3.13. /opt : Add-on application software packages ...................................................................................... 12
3.13.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 12
iii
3.13.2. Requirements .......................................................................................................................... 12
3.14. /root : Home directory for the root user (optional).............................................................................. 13
3.14.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 14
3.15. /sbin : System binaries......................................................................................................................... 14
3.15.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 14
3.15.2. Requirements .......................................................................................................................... 14
3.15.3. Specic Options...................................................................................................................... 14
3.16. /srv : Data for services provided by this system.................................................................................. 15
3.16.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 15
3.17. /tmp : Temporary les ......................................................................................................................... 15
3.17.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 15
4. The /usr Hierarchy........................................................................................................................................... 18
4.1. Purpose.................................................................................................................................................. 18
4.2. Requirements......................................................................................................................................... 18
4.3. Specic Options .................................................................................................................................... 18
4.4. /usr/X11R6 : X Window System, Version 11 Release 6 (optional)....................................................... 18
4.4.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 19
4.4.2. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 19
4.5. /usr/bin : Most user commands ............................................................................................................. 19
4.5.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 19
4.5.2. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 19
4.6. /usr/include : Directory for standard include les. ................................................................................ 20
4.6.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 20
4.6.2. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 20
4.7. /usr/lib : Libraries for programming and packages ............................................................................... 20
4.7.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 20
4.7.2. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 20
4.8. /usr/lib<qual> : Alternate format libraries (optional)............................................................................ 21
4.8.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 21
4.8.2. /usr/local : Local hierarchy ....................................................................................................... 21
4.8.2.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 21
4.8.2.2. Requirements ............................................................................................................... 21
4.8.2.3. Specic Options ........................................................................................................... 21
4.9. /usr/local/share ...................................................................................................................................... 22
4.10. /usr/sbin : Non-essential standard system binaries.............................................................................. 22
4.10.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 22
4.11. /usr/share : Architecture-independent data.......................................................................................... 22
4.11.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 22
4.11.2. Requirements .......................................................................................................................... 22
4.11.3. Specic Options...................................................................................................................... 23
4.11.4. /usr/share/dict : Word lists (optional)...................................................................................... 23
4.11.4.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................... 23
4.11.4.2. Specic Options ......................................................................................................... 23
4.11.5. /usr/share/man : Manual pages ............................................................................................... 24
4.11.5.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................... 24
4.11.5.2. Specic Options ......................................................................................................... 25
4.11.6. /usr/share/misc : Miscellaneous architecture-independent data ............................................. 26
4.11.6.1. Specic Options ......................................................................................................... 26
4.11.7. /usr/share/sgml : SGML data (optional) ................................................................................. 27
4.11.7.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................... 27
4.11.7.2. Specic Options ......................................................................................................... 27
iv
4.11.8. /usr/share/xml : XML data (optional) ..................................................................................... 27
4.11.8.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................... 27
4.11.8.2. Specic Options ......................................................................................................... 27
4.12. /usr/src : Source code (optional).......................................................................................................... 28
4.12.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 28
5. The /var Hierarchy........................................................................................................................................... 30
5.1. Purpose.................................................................................................................................................. 30
5.2. Requirements......................................................................................................................................... 30
5.3. Specic Options .................................................................................................................................... 30
5.4. /var/account : Process accounting logs (optional) ................................................................................. 31
5.4.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 31
5.5. /var/cache : Application cache data....................................................................................................... 31
5.5.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 31
5.5.2. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 31
5.5.3. /var/cache/fonts : Locally-generated fonts (optional)............................................................... 32
5.5.3.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 32
5.5.3.2. Specic Options ........................................................................................................... 32
5.5.4. /var/cache/man : Locally-formatted manual pages (optional) .................................................. 32
5.5.4.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 32
5.6. /var/crash : System crash dumps (optional) .......................................................................................... 33
5.6.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 33
5.7. /var/games : Variable game data (optional) ........................................................................................... 33
5.7.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 33
5.8. /var/lib : Variable state information....................................................................................................... 33
5.8.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 33
5.8.2. Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 34
5.8.3. Specic Options........................................................................................................................ 34
5.8.4. /var/lib/<editor> : Editor backup les and state (optional)....................................................... 34
5.8.4.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 34
5.8.5. /var/lib/hwclock : State directory for hwclock (optional)......................................................... 35
5.8.5.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 35
5.8.6. /var/lib/misc : Miscellaneous variable data............................................................................... 35
5.8.6.1. Purpose......................................................................................................................... 35
5.9. /var/lock : Lock les.............................................................................................................................. 35
5.9.1. Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 35
5.10. /var/log : Log les and directories....................................................................................................... 35
5.10.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 36
5.10.2. Specic Options...................................................................................................................... 36
5.11. /var/mail : User mailbox les (optional) ............................................................................................. 36
5.11.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 36
5.12. /var/opt : Variable data for /opt............................................................................................................ 36
5.12.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 36
5.13. /var/run : Run-time variable data......................................................................................................... 37
5.13.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 37
5.13.2. Requirements .......................................................................................................................... 37
5.14. /var/spool : Application spool data...................................................................................................... 37
5.14.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 37
5.14.2. Specic Options...................................................................................................................... 37
5.14.3. /var/spool/lpd : Line-printer daemon print queues (optional)................................................. 38
5.14.3.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................... 38
5.14.3.2. Specic Options ......................................................................................................... 38
v
5.14.4. /var/spool/rwho : Rwhod les (optional) ................................................................................ 38
5.14.4.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................... 38
5.15. /var/tmp : Temporary les preserved between system reboots ........................................................... 38
5.15.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 38
5.16. /var/yp : Network Information Service (NIS) database les (optional) .............................................. 39
5.16.1. Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 39
6. Operating System Specic Annex................................................................................................................... 40
6.1. Linux ..................................................................................................................................................... 40
6.1.1. / : Root directory....................................................................................................................... 40
6.1.2. /bin : Essential user command binaries (for use by all users)................................................... 40
6.1.3. /dev : Devices and special les ................................................................................................. 40
6.1.4. /etc : Host-specic system conguration.................................................................................. 40
6.1.5. /lib64 and /lib32 : 64/32-bit libraries (architecture dependent) ................................................ 41
6.1.6. /proc : Kernel and process information virtual lesystem........................................................ 41
6.1.7. /sbin : Essential system binaries ............................................................................................... 41
6.1.8. /usr/include : Header les included by C programs.................................................................. 42
6.1.9. /usr/src : Source code................................................................................................................ 42
6.1.10. /var/spool/cron : cron and at jobs............................................................................................ 43
7. Appendix........................................................................................................................................................... 44
7.1. The FHS mailing list ............................................................................................................................. 44
7.2. Background of the FHS......................................................................................................................... 44
7.3. General Guidelines................................................................................................................................ 44
7.4. Scope ..................................................................................................................................................... 44
7.5. Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. 45
7.6. Contributors........................................................................................................................................... 45
vi
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Purpose
This standard enables:
Software to predict the location of installed les and directories, and
Users to predict the location of installed les and directories.
We do this by:
Specifying guiding principles for each area of the lesystem,
Specifying the minimum les and directories required,
Enumerating exceptions to the principles, and
Enumerating specic cases where there has been historical conict.
The FHS document is used by:
Independent software suppliers to create applications which are FHS compliant, and work with distributions
which are FHS complaint,
OS creators to provide systems which are FHS compliant, and
Users to understand and maintain the FHS compliance of a system.
The FHS document has a limited scope:
Local placement of local les is a local issue, so FHS does not attempt to usurp system administrators.
FHS addresses issues where le placements need to be coordinated between multiple parties such as local
sites, distributions, applications, documentation, etc.
1.2. Conventions
We recommend that you read a typeset version of this document rather than the plain text version. In the typeset
version, the names of les and directories are displayed in a constant-width font.
Components of lenames that vary are represented by a description of the contents enclosed in "<" and ">"
characters, <thus>. Electronic mail addresses are also enclosed in "<" and ">" but are shown in the usual
typeface.
Optional components of lenames are enclosed in "[" and "]" characters and may be combined with the "<" and
">" convention. For example, if a lename is allowed to occur either with or without an extension, it might be
represented by <lename>[.<extension>].
Variable substrings of directory names and lenames are indicated by "*".
The sections of the text marked as Rationale are explanatory and are non-normative.
1
Chapter 2. The Filesystem
This standard assumes that the operating system underlying an FHS-compliant le system supports the same
basic security features found in most UNIX lesystems.
It is possible to dene two independent distinctions among les: shareable vs. unshareable and variable vs. static.
In general, les that differ in either of these respects should be located in different directories. This makes it easy
to store les with different usage characteristics on different lesystems.
"Shareable" les are those that can be stored on one host and used on others. "Unshareable" les are those that
are not shareable. For example, the les in user home directories are shareable whereas device lock les are not.
"Static" les include binaries, libraries, documentation les and other les that do not change without system
administrator intervention. "Variable" les are les that are not static.
Rationale
Shareable les can be stored on one host and used on several others. Typically, however, not all les in the
lesystem hierarchy are shareable and so each system has local storage containing at least its unshareable
les. It is convenient if all the les a system requires that are stored on a foreign host can be made available
by mounting one or a few directories from the foreign host.
Static and variable les should be segregated because static les, unlike variable les, can be stored on
read-only media and do not need to be backed up on the same schedule as variable les.
Historical UNIX-like lesystem hierarchies contained both static and variable les under both /usr and /etc.
In order to realize the advantages mentioned above, the /var hierarchy was created and all variable les
were transferred from /usr to /var. Consequently /usr can now be mounted read-only (if it is a separate
lesystem). Variable les have been transferred from /etc to /var over a longer period as technology has
permitted.
Here is an example of a FHS-compliant system. (Other FHS-compliant layouts are possible.)
shareable unshareable
static /usr /etc
/opt /boot
variable /var/mail /var/run
/var/spool/news /var/lock
2
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.1. Purpose
The contents of the root lesystem must be adequate to boot, restore, recover, and/or repair the system.
To boot a system, enough must be present on the root partition to mount other lesystems. This includes
utilities, conguration, boot loader information, and other essential start-up data. /usr, /opt, and /var are
designed such that they may be located on other partitions or lesystems.
To enable recovery and/or repair of a system, those utilities needed by an experienced maintainer to diagnose
and reconstruct a damaged system must be present on the root lesystem.
To restore a system, those utilities needed to restore from system backups (on oppy, tape, etc.) must be
present on the root lesystem.
Rationale
The primary concern used to balance these considerations, which favor placing many things on the root
lesystem, is the goal of keeping root as small as reasonably possible. For several reasons, it is desirable to
keep the root lesystem small:
It is occasionally mounted from very small media.
The root lesystem contains many system-specic conguration les. Possible examples include a kernel
that is specic to the system, a specic hostname, etc. This means that the root lesystem isnt always
shareable between networked systems. Keeping it small on servers in networked systems minimizes the
amount of lost space for areas of unshareable les. It also allows workstations with smaller local hard
drives.
While you may have the root lesystem on a large partition, and may be able to ll it to your hearts
content, there will be people with smaller partitions. If you have more les installed, you may nd
incompatibilities with other systems using root lesystems on smaller partitions. If you are a developer
then you may be turning your assumption into a problem for a large number of users.
Disk errors that corrupt data on the root lesystem are a greater problem than errors on any other
partition. A small root lesystem is less prone to corruption as the result of a system crash.
Applications must never create or require special les or subdirectories in the root directory. Other locations in
the FHS hierarchy provide more than enough exibility for any package.
Rationale
There are several reasons why creating a new subdirectory of the root lesystem is prohibited:
It demands space on a root partition which the system administrator may want kept small and simple for
either performance or security reasons.
It evades whatever discipline the system administrator may have set up for distributing standard le
hierarchies across mountable volumes.
Distributions should not create new directories in the root hierarchy without extremely careful consideration
of the consequences including for application portability.
3
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.2. Requirements
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, are required in /.
Directory Description
bin Essential command binaries
boot Static les of the boot loader
dev Device les
etc Host-specic system conguration
lib Essential shared libraries and kernel modules
media Mount point for removeable media
mnt Mount point for mounting a lesystem temporarily
opt Add-on application software packages
sbin Essential system binaries
srv Data for services provided by this system
tmp Temporary les
usr Secondary hierarchy
var Variable data
Each directory listed above is specied in detail in separate subsections below. /usr and /var each have a
complete section in this document due to the complexity of those directories.
3.3. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /, if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
Directory Description
home User home directories (optional)
lib<qual> Alternate format essential shared libraries (optional)
root Home directory for the root user (optional)
Each directory listed above is specied in detail in separate subsections below.
3.4. /bin : Essential user command binaries (for use by all
users)
3.4.1. Purpose
/bin contains commands that may be used by both the system administrator and by users, but which are
required when no other lesystems are mounted (e.g. in single user mode). It may also contain commands which
4
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
are used indirectly by scripts.
1
3.4.2. Requirements
There must be no subdirectories in /bin.
The following commands, or symbolic links to commands, are required in /bin.
Command Description
cat Utility to concatenate les to standard output
chgrp Utility to change le group ownership
chmod Utility to change le access permissions
chown Utility to change le owner and group
cp Utility to copy les and directories
date Utility to print or set the system data and time
dd Utility to convert and copy a le
df Utility to report lesystem disk space usage
dmesg Utility to print or control the kernel message buffer
echo Utility to display a line of text
false Utility to do nothing, unsuccessfully
hostname Utility to show or set the systems host name
kill Utility to send signals to processes
ln Utility to make links between les
login Utility to begin a session on the system
ls Utility to list directory contents
mkdir Utility to make directories
mknod Utility to make block or character special les
more Utility to page through text
mount Utility to mount a lesystem
mv Utility to move/rename les
ps Utility to report process status
pwd Utility to print name of current working directory
rm Utility to remove les or directories
rmdir Utility to remove empty directories
sed The sed stream editor
sh The Bourne command shell
stty Utility to change and print terminal line settings
su Utility to change user ID
sync Utility to ush lesystem buffers
true Utility to do nothing, successfully
umount Utility to unmount le systems
uname Utility to print system information
If /bin/sh is not a true Bourne shell, it must be a hard or symbolic link to the real shell command.
The [ and test commands must be placed together in either /bin or /usr/bin.
5
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
Rationale
For example bash behaves differently when called as sh or bash. The use of a symbolic link also allows
users to easily see that /bin/sh is not a true Bourne shell.
The requirement for the [ and test commands to be included as binaries (even if implemented internally by
the shell) is shared with the POSIX.2 standard.
3.4.3. Specic Options
The following programs, or symbolic links to programs, must be in /bin if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
Command Description
csh The C shell (optional)
ed The ed editor (optional)
tar The tar archiving utility (optional)
cpio The cpio archiving utility (optional)
gzip The GNU compression utility (optional)
gunzip The GNU uncompression utility (optional)
zcat The GNU uncompression utility (optional)
netstat The network statistics utility (optional)
ping The ICMP network test utility (optional)
If the gunzip and zcat programs exist, they must be symbolic or hard links to gzip. /bin/csh may be a symbolic
link to /bin/tcsh or /usr/bin/tcsh.
Rationale
The tar, gzip and cpio commands have been added to make restoration of a system possible (provided that
/ is intact).
Conversely, if no restoration from the root partition is ever expected, then these binaries might be omitted
(e.g., a ROM chip root, mounting /usr through NFS). If restoration of a system is planned through the
network, then ftp or tftp (along with everything necessary to get an ftp connection) must be available on the
root partition.
3.5. /boot : Static les of the boot loader
3.5.1. Purpose
This directory contains everything required for the boot process except conguration les not needed at boot
time and the map installer. Thus /boot stores data that is used before the kernel begins executing user-mode
programs. This may include saved master boot sectors and sector map les.
2
6
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.5.2. Specic Options
The operating system kernel must be located in either / or /boot.
3
3.6. /dev : Device les
3.6.1. Purpose
The /dev directory is the location of special or device les.
3.6.2. Specic Options
If it is possible that devices in /dev will need to be manually created, /dev must contain a command named
MAKEDEV, which can create devices as needed. It may also contain a MAKEDEV.local for any local devices.
If required, MAKEDEV must have provisions for creating any device that may be found on the system, not just
those that a particular implementation installs.
3.7. /etc : Host-specic system conguration
3.7.1. Purpose
The /etc hierarchy contains conguration les. A "conguration le" is a local le used to control the operation
of a program; it must be static and cannot be an executable binary.
4
3.7.2. Requirements
No binaries may be located under /etc.
5
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories are required in /etc:
Directory Description
opt Conguration for /opt
X11 Conguration for the X Window system (optional)
sgml Conguration for SGML (optional)
xml Conguration for XML (optional)
3.7.3. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories must be in /etc, if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
7
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
Directory Description
opt Conguration for /opt
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /etc if the corresponding subsystem is installed:
6
File Description
csh.login Systemwide initialization le for C shell logins
(optional)
exports NFS lesystem access control list (optional)
fstab Static information about lesystems (optional)
ftpusers FTP daemon user access control list (optional)
gateways File which lists gateways for routed (optional)
gettydefs Speed and terminal settings used by getty (optional)
group User group le (optional)
host.conf Resolver conguration le (optional)
hosts Static information about host names (optional)
hosts.allow Host access le for TCP wrappers (optional)
hosts.deny Host access le for TCP wrappers (optional)
hosts.equiv List of trusted hosts for rlogin, rsh, rcp (optional)
hosts.lpd List of trusted hosts for lpd (optional)
inetd.conf Conguration le for inetd (optional)
inittab Conguration le for init (optional)
issue Pre-login message and identication le (optional)
ld.so.conf List of extra directories to search for shared libraries
(optional)
motd Post-login message of the day le (optional)
mtab Dynamic information about lesystems (optional)
mtools.conf Conguration le for mtools (optional)
networks Static information about network names (optional)
passwd The password le (optional)
printcap The lpd printer capability database (optional)
profile Systemwide initialization le for sh shell logins
(optional)
protocols IP protocol listing (optional)
resolv.conf Resolver conguration le (optional)
rpc RPC protocol listing (optional)
securetty TTY access control for root login (optional)
services Port names for network services (optional)
shells Pathnames of valid login shells (optional)
syslog.conf Conguration le for syslogd (optional)
mtab does not t the static nature of /etc: it is excepted for historical reasons.
7
8
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.7.4. /etc/opt : Conguration les for /opt
3.7.4.1. Purpose
Host-specic conguration les for add-on application software packages must be installed within the directory
/etc/opt/<subdir>, where <subdir> is the name of the subtree in /opt where the static data from that
package is stored.
3.7.4.2. Requirements
No structure is imposed on the internal arrangement of /etc/opt/<subdir>.
If a conguration le must reside in a different location in order for the package or system to function properly, it
may be placed in a location other than /etc/opt/<subdir>.
Rationale
Refer to the rationale for /opt.
3.7.5. /etc/X11 : Conguration for the X Window System (optional)
3.7.5.1. Purpose
/etc/X11 is the location for all X11 host-specic conguration. This directory is necessary to allow local control
if /usr is mounted read only.
3.7.5.2. Specic Options
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /etc/X11 if the corresponding subsystem is installed:
File Description
Xconfig The conguration le for early versions of XFree86
(optional)
XF86Config The conguration le for XFree86 versions 3 and 4
(optional)
Xmodmap Global X11 keyboard modication le (optional)
Subdirectories of /etc/X11 may include those for xdm and for any other programs (some window managers, for
example) that need them.
8
We recommend that window managers with only one conguration le which is a
default .*wmrc le must name it system.*wmrc (unless there is a widely-accepted alternative name) and not
use a subdirectory. Any window manager subdirectories must be identically named to the actual window
manager binary.
9
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.7.6. /etc/sgml : Conguration les for SGML (optional)
3.7.6.1. Purpose
Generic conguration les dening high-level parameters of the SGML systems are installed here. Files with
names *.conf indicate generic conguration les. File with names *.cat are the DTD-specic centralized
catalogs, containing references to all other catalogs needed to use the given DTD. The super catalog le
catalog references all the centralized catalogs.
3.7.7. /etc/xml : Conguration les for XML (optional)
3.7.7.1. Purpose
Generic conguration les dening high-level parameters of the XML systems are installed here. Files with
names *.conf indicate generic conguration les. The super catalog le catalog references all the centralized
catalogs.
3.8. /home : User home directories (optional)
3.8.1. Purpose
/home is a fairly standard concept, but it is clearly a site-specic lesystem.
9
The setup will differ from host to
host. Therefore, no program should rely on this location.
10
3.8.2. Requirements
User specic conguration les for applications are stored in the users home directory in a le that starts with
the . character (a "dot le"). If an application needs to create more than one dot le then they should be placed
in a subdirectory with a name starting with a . character, (a "dot directory"). In this case the conguration les
should not start with the . character.
11
3.9. /lib : Essential shared libraries and kernel modules
3.9.1. Purpose
The /lib directory contains those shared library images needed to boot the system and run the commands in the
root lesystem, ie. by binaries in /bin and /sbin.
12
10
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.9.2. Requirements
At least one of each of the following lename patterns are required (they may be les, or symbolic links):
File Description
libc.so.* The dynamically-linked C library (optional)
ld* The execution time linker/loader (optional)
If a C preprocessor is installed, /lib/cpp must be a reference to it, for historical reasons.
13
3.9.3. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /lib, if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
Directory Description
modules Loadable kernel modules (optional)
3.10. /lib<qual> : Alternate format essential shared libraries
(optional)
3.10.1. Purpose
There may be one or more variants of the /lib directory on systems which support more than one binary format
requiring separate libraries.
14
3.10.2. Requirements
If one or more of these directories exist, the requirements for their contents are the same as the normal /lib
directory, except that /lib<qual>/cpp is not required.
15
3.11. /media : Mount point for removeable media
3.11.1. Purpose
This directory contains subdirectories which are used as mount points for removeable media such as oppy
disks, cdroms and zip disks.
Rationale
11
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
Historically there have been a number of other different places used to mount removeable media such as
/cdrom, /mnt or /mnt/cdrom. Placing the mount points for all removeable media directly in the root directory
would potentially result in a large number of extra directories in /. Although the use of subdirectories in /mnt
as a mount point has recently been common, it conicts with a much older tradition of using /mnt directly as
a temporary mount point.
3.11.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /media, if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
Directory Description
floppy Floppy drive (optional)
cdrom CD-ROM drive (optional)
cdrecorder CD writer (optional)
zip Zip drive (optional)
On systems where more than one device exists for mounting a certain type of media, mount directories can be
created by appending a digit to the name of those available above starting with 0, but the unqualied name
must also exist.
16
3.12. /mnt : Mount point for a temporarily mounted
lesystem
3.12.1. Purpose
This directory is provided so that the system administrator may temporarily mount a lesystem as needed. The
content of this directory is a local issue and should not affect the manner in which any program is run.
This directory must not be used by installation programs: a suitable temporary directory not in use by the system
must be used instead.
3.13. /opt : Add-on application software packages
3.13.1. Purpose
/opt is reserved for the installation of add-on application software packages.
A package to be installed in /opt must locate its static les in a separate /opt/<package> or
/opt/<provider> directory tree, where <package> is a name that describes the software package and
<provider> is the providers LANANA registered name.
12
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.13.2. Requirements
Directory Description
<package> Static package objects
<provider> LANANA registered provider name
The directories /opt/bin, /opt/doc, /opt/include, /opt/info, /opt/lib, and /opt/man are reserved
for local system administrator use. Packages may provide "front-end" les intended to be placed in (by linking or
copying) these reserved directories by the local system administrator, but must function normally in the absence
of these reserved directories.
Programs to be invoked by users must be located in the directory /opt/<package>/bin or under the
/opt/<provider> hierarchy. If the package includes UNIX manual pages, they must be located in
/opt/<package>/share/man or under the /opt/<provider> hierarchy, and the same substructure as
/usr/share/man must be used.
Package les that are variable (change in normal operation) must be installed in /var/opt. See the section on
/var/opt for more information.
Host-specic conguration les must be installed in /etc/opt. See the section on /etc for more information.
No other package les may exist outside the /opt, /var/opt, and /etc/opt hierarchies except for those
package les that must reside in specic locations within the lesystem tree in order to function properly. For
example, device lock les must be placed in /var/lock and devices must be located in /dev.
Distributions may install software in /opt, but must not modify or delete software installed by the local system
administrator without the assent of the local system administrator.
Rationale
The use of /opt for add-on software is a well-established practice in the UNIX community. The System V
Application Binary Interface [AT&T 1990], based on the System V Interface Denition (Third Edition),
provides for an /opt structure very similar to the one dened here.
The Intel Binary Compatibility Standard v. 2 (iBCS2) also provides a similar structure for /opt.
Generally, all data required to support a package on a system must be present within /opt/<package>,
including les intended to be copied into /etc/opt/<package> and /var/opt/<package> as well as
reserved directories in /opt.
The minor restrictions on distributions using /opt are necessary because conicts are possible between
distribution-installed and locally-installed software, especially in the case of xed pathnames found in some
binary software.
The structure of the directories below /opt/<provider> is left up to the packager of the software, though it
is recommended that packages are installed in /opt/<provider>/<package> and follow a similar structure
to the guidelines for /opt/package. A valid reason for diverging from this structure is for support packages
which may have les installed in /opt/<provider>/lib or /opt/<provider>/bin.
13
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
3.14. /root : Home directory for the root user (optional)
3.14.1. Purpose
The root accounts home directory may be determined by developer or local preference, but this is the
recommended default location.
17
3.15. /sbin : System binaries
3.15.1. Purpose
Utilities used for system administration (and other root-only commands) are stored in /sbin, /usr/sbin, and
/usr/local/sbin. /sbin contains binaries essential for booting, restoring, recovering, and/or repairing the
system in addition to the binaries in /bin.
18
Programs executed after /usr is known to be mounted (when there
are no problems) are generally placed into /usr/sbin. Locally-installed system administration programs
should be placed into /usr/local/sbin.
19
3.15.2. Requirements
The following commands, or symbolic links to commands, are required in /sbin.
Command Description
shutdown Command to bring the system down.
3.15.3. Specic Options
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /sbin if the corresponding subsystem is installed:
Command Description
fastboot Reboot the system without checking the disks (optional)
fasthalt Stop the system without checking the disks (optional)
fdisk Partition table manipulator (optional)
fsck File system check and repair utility (optional)
fsck.* File system check and repair utility for a specic
lesystem (optional)
getty The getty program (optional)
halt Command to stop the system (optional)
ifconfig Congure a network interface (optional)
init Initial process (optional)
mkfs Command to build a lesystem (optional)
mkfs.* Command to build a specic lesystem (optional)
mkswap Command to set up a swap area (optional)
14
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
Command Description
reboot Command to reboot the system (optional)
route IP routing table utility (optional)
swapon Enable paging and swapping (optional)
swapoff Disable paging and swapping (optional)
update Daemon to periodically ush lesystem buffers
(optional)
3.16. /srv : Data for services provided by this system
3.16.1. Purpose
/srv contains site-specic data which is served by this system.
Rationale
This main purpose of specifying this is so that users may nd the location of the data les for particular
service, and so that services which require a single tree for readonly data, writable data and scripts (such as
cgi scripts) can be reasonably placed. Data that is only of interest to a specic user should go in that users
home directory.
The methodology used to name subdirectories of /srv is unspecied as there is currently no consensus on
how this should be done. One method for structuring data under /srv is by protocol, eg. ftp, rsync, www,
and cvs. On large systems it can be useful to structure /srv by administrative context, such as
/srv/physics/www, /srv/compsci/cvs, etc. This setup will differ from host to host. Therefore, no program
should rely on a specic subdirectory structure of /srv existing or data necessarily being stored in /srv.
However /srv should always exist on FHS compliant systems and should be used as the default location for
such data.
Distributions must take care not to remove locally placed les in these directories without administrator
permission.
20
3.17. /tmp : Temporary les
3.17.1. Purpose
The /tmp directory must be made available for programs that require temporary les.
Programs must not assume that any les or directories in /tmp are preserved between invocations of the
program.
15
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
Rationale
IEEE standard P1003.2 (POSIX, part 2) makes requirements that are similar to the above section.
Although data stored in /tmp may be deleted in a site-specic manner, it is recommended that les and
directories located in /tmp be deleted whenever the system is booted.
FHS added this recommendation on the basis of historical precedent and common practice, but did not
make it a requirement because system administration is not within the scope of this standard.
Notes
1. Command binaries that are not essential enough to place into /bin must be placed in /usr/bin, instead.
Items that are required only by non-root users (the X Window System, chsh, etc.) are generally not essential
enough to be placed into the root partition.
2. Programs necessary to arrange for the boot loader to be able to boot a le must be placed in /sbin.
Conguration les for boot loaders must be placed in /etc.
The GRUB bootloader reads its congurations le before booting, so that must be placed in /boot. However, it is a
conguration le, so should be in /etc. The answer here is a symbolic link such as /etc/grub/menu.lst ->
/boot/menu.lst.
3. On some i386 machines, it may be necessary for /boot to be located on a separate partition located
completely below cylinder 1024 of the boot device due to hardware constraints.
Certain MIPS systems require a /boot partition that is a mounted MS-DOS lesystem or whatever other lesystem type
is accessible for the rmware. This may result in restrictions with respect to usable lenames within /boot (only for
affected systems).
4. The setup of command scripts invoked at boot time may resemble System V, BSD or other models. Further
specication in this area may be added to a future version of this standard.
5. It is recommended that les be stored in subdirectories of /etc rather than directly in /etc.
6. Systems that use the shadow password suite will have additional conguration les in /etc (/etc/shadow
and others) and programs in /usr/sbin (useradd, usermod, and others).
7. On some Linux systems, this may be a symbolic link to /proc/mounts, in which case this exception is not
required.
8. /etc/X11/xdm holds the conguration les for xdm. These are most of the les previously found in
/usr/lib/X11/xdm. Some local variable data for xdm is stored in /var/lib/xdm.
9. Different people prefer to place user accounts in a variety of places. This section describes only a suggested
placement for user home directories; nevertheless we recommend that all FHS-compliant distributions use
this as the default location for home directories.
On small systems, each users directory is typically one of the many subdirectories of /home such as /home/smith,
/home/torvalds, /home/operator, etc. On large systems (especially when the /home directories are shared
amongst many hosts using NFS) it is useful to subdivide user home directories. Subdivision may be accomplished by
using subdirectories such as /home/staff, /home/guests, /home/students, etc.
10. If you want to nd out a users home directory, you should use the getpwent(3) library function rather
than relying on /etc/passwd because user information may be stored remotely using systems such as NIS.
11. It is recommended that apart from autosave and lock les programs should refrain from creating non dot les
or directories in a home directory without user intervention.
16
Chapter 3. The Root Filesystem
12. Shared libraries that are only necessary for binaries in /usr (such as any X Window binaries) must not be in
/lib. Only the shared libraries required to run binaries in /bin and /sbin may be here. In particular, the
library libm.so.* may also be placed in /usr/lib if it is not required by anything in /bin or /sbin.
13. The usual placement of this binary is /usr/bin/cpp.
14. This is commonly used for 64-bit or 32-bit support on systems which support multiple binary formats, but
require libraries of the same name. In this case, /lib32 and /lib64 might be the library directories, and
/lib a symlink to one of them.
15. /lib<qual>/cpp is still permitted: this allows the case where /lib and /lib<qual> are the same (one is
a symbolic link to the other).
16. A compliant implementation with two CDROM drives might have /media/cdrom0 and /media/cdrom1
with /media/cdrom a symlink to either of these.
17. If the home directory of the root account is not stored on the root partition it will be necessary to make
certain it will default to / if it can not be located.
We recommend against using the root account for tasks that can be performed as an unprivileged user, and that it be used
solely for system administration. For this reason, we recommend that subdirectories for mail and other applications not
appear in the root accounts home directory, and that mail for administration roles such as root, postmaster, and
webmaster be forwarded to an appropriate user.
18. Originally, /sbin binaries were kept in /etc.
19. Deciding what things go into "sbin" directories is simple: if a normal (not a system administrator) user will
ever run it directly, then it must be placed in one of the "bin" directories. Ordinary users should not have to
place any of the sbin directories in their path.
For example, les such as chfn which users only occasionally use must still be placed in /usr/bin. ping, although it is
absolutely necessary for root (network recovery and diagnosis) is often used by users and must live in /bin for that
reason.
We recommend that users have read and execute permission for everything in /sbin except, perhaps, certain setuid and
setgid programs. The division between /bin and /sbin was not created for security reasons or to prevent users from
seeing the operating system, but to provide a good partition between binaries that everyone uses and ones that are
primarily used for administration tasks. There is no inherent security advantage in making /sbin off-limits for users.
20. This is particularly important as these areas will often contain both les initially installed by the distributor,
and those added by the administrator.
17
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
4.1. Purpose
/usr is the second major section of the lesystem. /usr is shareable, read-only data. That means that /usr
should be shareable between various FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information that is
host-specic or varies with time is stored elsewhere.
Large software packages must not use a direct subdirectory under the /usr hierarchy.
4.2. Requirements
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, are required in /usr.
Directory Description
bin Most user commands
include Header les included by C programs
lib Libraries
local Local hierarchy (empty after main installation)
sbin Non-vital system binaries
share Architecture-independent data
4.3. Specic Options
Directory Description
X11R6 XWindow System, version 11 release 6 (optional)
games Games and educational binaries (optional)
lib<qual> Alternate Format Libraries (optional)
src Source code (optional)
An exception is made for the X Window System because of considerable precedent and widely-accepted
practice.
The following symbolic links to directories may be present. This possibility is based on the need to preserve
compatibility with older systems until all implementations can be assumed to use the /var hierarchy.
/usr/spool -> /var/spool
/usr/tmp -> /var/tmp
/usr/spool/locks -> /var/lock
Once a system no longer requires any one of the above symbolic links, the link may be removed, if desired.
4.4. /usr/X11R6 : X Window System, Version 11 Release 6
18
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
(optional)
4.4.1. Purpose
This hierarchy is reserved for the X Window System, version 11 release 6, and related les.
To simplify matters and make XFree86 more compatible with the X Window System on other systems, the
following symbolic links must be present if /usr/X11R6 exists:
/usr/bin/X11 -> /usr/X11R6/bin
/usr/lib/X11 -> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11
/usr/include/X11 -> /usr/X11R6/include/X11
In general, software must not be installed or managed via the above symbolic links. They are intended for
utilization by users only. The difculty is related to the release version of the X Window System in
transitional periods, it is impossible to know what release of X11 is in use.
4.4.2. Specic Options
Host-specic data in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 should be interpreted as a demonstration le. Applications
requiring information about the current host must reference a conguration le in /etc/X11, which may be
linked to a le in /usr/X11R6/lib.
1
4.5. /usr/bin : Most user commands
4.5.1. Purpose
This is the primary directory of executable commands on the system.
4.5.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/bin, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
Directory Description
mh Commands for the MH mail handling system (optional)
/usr/bin/X11 must be a symlink to /usr/X11R6/bin if the latter exists.
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /usr/bin, if the corresponding subsystem is installed:
Command Description
perl The Practical Extraction and Report Language
(optional)
python The Python interpreted language (optional)
tclsh Simple shell containing Tcl interpreter (optional)
wish Simple Tcl/Tk windowing shell (optional)
19
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
Command Description
expect Program for interactive dialog (optional)
Rationale
Because shell script interpreters (invoked with #!<path> on the rst line of a shell script) cannot rely on a
path, it is advantageous to standardize their locations. The Bourne shell and C-shell interpreters are already
xed in /bin, but Perl, Python, and Tcl are often found in many different places. They may be symlinks to the
physical location of the shell interpreters.
4.6. /usr/include : Directory for standard include les.
4.6.1. Purpose
This is where all of the systems general-use include les for the C programming language should be placed.
4.6.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/include, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
Directory Description
bsd BSD compatibility include les (optional)
The symbolic link /usr/include/X11 must link to /usr/X11R6/include/X11 if the latter exists.
4.7. /usr/lib : Libraries for programming and packages
4.7.1. Purpose
/usr/lib includes object les, libraries, and internal binaries that are not intended to be executed directly by
users or shell scripts.
2
Applications may use a single subdirectory under /usr/lib. If an application uses a subdirectory, all
architecture-dependent data exclusively used by the application must be placed within that subdirectory.
3
4.7.2. Specic Options
For historical reasons, /usr/lib/sendmail must be a symbolic link to /usr/sbin/sendmail if the latter exists.
4
20
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
If /lib/X11 exists, /usr/lib/X11 must be a symbolic link to /lib/X11, or to whatever /lib/X11 is a
symbolic link to.
5
4.8. /usr/lib<qual> : Alternate format libraries (optional)
4.8.1. Purpose
/usr/lib<qual> performs the same role as /usr/lib for an alternate binary format, except that the symbolic
links /usr/lib<qual>/sendmail and /usr/lib<qual>/X11 are not required.
6
4.8.2. /usr/local : Local hierarchy
4.8.2.1. Purpose
The /usr/local hierarchy is for use by the system administrator when installing software locally. It needs to
be safe from being overwritten when the system software is updated. It may be used for programs and data that
are shareable amongst a group of hosts, but not found in /usr.
Locally installed software must be placed within /usr/local rather than /usr unless it is being installed to
replace or upgrade software in /usr.
7
4.8.2.2. Requirements
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/local
Directory Description
bin Local binaries
etc Host-specic system conguration for local binaries
games Local game binaries
include Local C header les
lib Local libraries
man Local online manuals
sbin Local system binaries
share Local architecture-independent hierarchy
src Local source code
No other directories, except those listed below, may be in /usr/local after rst installing a FHS-compliant
system.
4.8.2.3. Specic Options
If directories /lib<qual> or /usr/lib<qual> exist, the equivalent directories must also exist in
/usr/local.
/usr/local/etc may be a symbolic link to /etc/local.
21
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
Rationale
The consistency of /usr/local/etc is benecial to installers, and is already used in other systems. As all of
/usr/local needs to be backed up to reproduce a system, it introduces no additional maintenance
overhead, but a symlink to /etc/local is suitable if systems want alltheir conguration under one hierarchy.
Note that /usr/etc is still not allowed: programs in /usr should place conguration les in /etc.
4.9. /usr/local/share
The requirements for the contents of this directory are the same as /usr/share. The only additional constraint
is that /usr/local/share/man and /usr/local/man directories must be synonomous (usually this means
that one of them must be a symbolic link).
8
4.10. /usr/sbin : Non-essential standard system binaries
4.10.1. Purpose
This directory contains any non-essential binaries used exclusively by the system administrator. System
administration programs that are required for system repair, system recovery, mounting /usr, or other essential
functions must be placed in /sbin instead.
9
4.11. /usr/share : Architecture-independent data
4.11.1. Purpose
The /usr/share hierarchy is for all read-only architecture independent data les.
10
This hierarchy is intended to be shareable among all architecture platforms of a given OS; thus, for example, a
site with i386, Alpha, and PPC platforms might maintain a single /usr/share directory that is
centrally-mounted. Note, however, that /usr/share is generally not intended to be shared by different OSes or
by different releases of the same OS.
Any program or package which contains or requires data that doesnt need to be modied should store that data
in /usr/share (or /usr/local/share, if installed locally). It is recommended that a subdirectory be used in
/usr/share for this purpose.
Game data stored in /usr/share/games must be purely static data. Any modiable les, such as score les,
game play logs, and so forth, should be placed in /var/games.
4.11.2. Requirements
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/share
22
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
Directory Description
man Online manuals
misc Miscellaneous architecture-independent data
4.11.3. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/share, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
Directory Description
dict Word lists (optional)
doc Miscellaneous documentation (optional)
games Static data les for /usr/games (optional)
info GNU Info system s primary directory (optional)
locale Locale information (optional)
nls Message catalogs for Native language support (optional)
sgml SGML data (optional)
terminfo Directories for terminfo database (optional)
tmac troff macros not distributed with groff (optional)
xml XML data (optional)
zoneinfo Timezone information and conguration (optional)
It is recommended that application-specic, architecture-independent directories be placed here. Such directories
include groff, perl, ghostscript, texmf, and kbd (Linux) or syscons (BSD). They may, however, be placed in
/usr/lib for backwards compatibility, at the distributors discretion. Similarly, a /usr/lib/games hierarchy
may be used in addition to the /usr/share/games hierarchy if the distributor wishes to place some game data
there.
4.11.4. /usr/share/dict : Word lists (optional)
4.11.4.1. Purpose
This directory is the home for word lists on the system; Traditionally this directory contains only the English
words le, which is used by look(1) and various spelling programs. words may use either American or British
spelling.
Rationale
The reason that only word lists are located here is that they are the only les common to all spell checkers.
23
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
4.11.4.2. Specic Options
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /usr/share/dict, if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
File Description
words List of English words (optional)
Sites that require both American and British spelling may link words to
/usr/share/dict/american-english or /usr/share/dict/british-english.
Word lists for other languages may be added using the English name for that language, e.g.,
/usr/share/dict/french, /usr/share/dict/danish, etc. These should, if possible, use an ISO 8859
character set which is appropriate for the language in question; if possible the Latin1 (ISO 8859-1) character set
should be used (this is often not possible).
Other word lists must be included here, if present.
4.11.5. /usr/share/man : Manual pages
4.11.5.1. Purpose
This section details the organization for manual pages throughout the system, including /usr/share/man. Also
refer to the section on /var/cache/man.
The primary <mandir> of the system is /usr/share/man. /usr/share/man contains manual information for
commands and data under the / and /usr lesystems.
11
Manual pages are stored in <mandir>/<locale>/man<section>/<arch>. An explanation of <mandir>,
<locale>, <section>, and <arch> is given below.
A description of each section follows:
man1: User programs Manual pages that describe publicly accessible commands are contained in this chapter.
Most program documentation that a user will need to use is located here.
man2: System calls This section describes all of the system calls (requests for the kernel to perform
operations).
man3: Library functions and subroutines Section 3 describes program library routines that are not direct calls
to kernel services. This and chapter 2 are only really of interest to programmers.
man4: Special les Section 4 describes the special les, related driver functions, and networking support
available in the system. Typically, this includes the device les found in /dev and the kernel interface to
networking protocol support.
man5: File formats The formats for many data les are documented in the section 5. This includes various
include les, program output les, and system les.
man6: Games This chapter documents games, demos, and generally trivial programs. Different people have
various notions about how essential this is.
man7: Miscellaneous Manual pages that are difcult to classify are designated as being section 7. The troff
and other text processing macro packages are found here.
man8: System administration Programs used by system administrators for system operation and maintenance
are documented here. Some of these programs are also occasionally useful for normal users.
24
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
4.11.5.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/share/<mandir>/<locale>,
unless they are empty:
12
Directory Description
man1 User programs (optional)
man2 System calls (optional)
man3 Library calls (optional)
man4 Special les (optional)
man5 File formats (optional)
man6 Games (optional)
man7 Miscellaneous (optional)
man8 System administration (optional)
The component <section> describes the manual section.
Provisions must be made in the structure of /usr/share/man to support manual pages which are written in
different (or multiple) languages. These provisions must take into account the storage and reference of these
manual pages. Relevant factors include language (including geographical-based differences), and character code
set.
This naming of language subdirectories of /usr/share/man is based on Appendix E of the POSIX 1003.1
standard which describes the locale identication string the most well-accepted method to describe a cultural
environment. The <locale> string is:
<language>[_<territory>][.<character-set>][,<version>]
The <language> eld must be taken from ISO 639 (a code for the representation of names of languages). It
must be two characters wide and specied with lowercase letters only.
The <territory> eld must be the two-letter code of ISO 3166 (a specication of representations of
countries), if possible. (Most people are familiar with the two-letter codes used for the country codes in email
addresses.) It must be two characters wide and specied with uppercase letters only.
13
The <character-set> eld must represent the standard describing the character set. If the
<character-set> eld is just a numeric specication, the number represents the number of the international
standard describing the character set. It is recommended that this be a numeric representation if possible (ISO
standards, especially), not include additional punctuation symbols, and that any letters be in lowercase.
A parameter specifying a <version> of the prole may be placed after the <character-set> eld, delimited
by a comma. This may be used to discriminate between different cultural needs; for instance, dictionary order
versus a more systems-oriented collating order. This standard recommends not using the <version> eld,
unless it is necessary.
Systems which use a unique language and code set for all manual pages may omit the <locale> substring and
store all manual pages in <mandir>. For example, systems which only have English manual pages coded with
ASCII, may store manual pages (the man<section> directories) directly in /usr/share/man. (That is the
traditional circumstance and arrangement, in fact.)
Countries for which there is a well-accepted standard character code set may omit the <character-set> eld,
but it is strongly recommended that it be included, especially for countries with several competing standards.
Various examples:
Language Territory Character Set Directory
English ASCII /usr/share/man/en
25
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
Language Territory Character Set Directory
English United Kingdom ISO 8859-15 /usr/share/man/en_GB
English United States ASCII /usr/share/man/en_US
French Canada ISO 8859-1 /usr/share/man/fr_CA
French France ISO 8859-1 /usr/share/man/fr_FR
German Germany ISO 646 /usr/share/man/de_DE.646
German Germany ISO 6937 /usr/share/man/de_DE.6937
German Germany ISO 8859-1 /usr/share/man/de_DE.88591
German Switzerland ISO 646 /usr/share/man/de_CH.646
Japanese Japan JIS /usr/share/man/ja_JP.jis
Japanese Japan SJIS /usr/share/man/ja_JP.sjis
Japanese Japan UJIS (or EUC-J) /usr/share/man/ja_JP.ujis
Similarly, provision must be made for manual pages which are architecture-dependent, such as documentation
on device-drivers or low-level system administration commands. These must be placed under an <arch>
directory in the appropriate man<section> directory; for example, a man page for the i386 ctrlaltdel(8)
command might be placed in /usr/share/man/<locale>/man8/i386/ctrlaltdel.8.
Manual pages for commands and data under /usr/local are stored in /usr/local/man. Manual pages for
X11R6 are stored in /usr/X11R6/man. It follows that all manual page hierarchies in the system must have the
same structure as /usr/share/man.
The cat page sections (cat<section>) containing formatted manual page entries are also found within
subdirectories of <mandir>/<locale>, but are not required nor may they be distributed in lieu of nroff source
manual pages.
The numbered sections "1" through "8" are traditionally dened. In general, the le name for manual pages
located within a particular section end with .<section>.
In addition, some large sets of application-specic manual pages have an additional sufx appended to the
manual page lename. For example, the MH mail handling system manual pages must have mh appended to all
MH manuals. All X Window System manual pages must have an x appended to the lename.
The practice of placing various language manual pages in appropriate subdirectories of /usr/share/man also
applies to the other manual page hierarchies, such as /usr/local/man and /usr/X11R6/man. (This portion of
the standard also applies later in the section on the optional /var/cache/man structure.)
4.11.6. /usr/share/misc : Miscellaneous architecture-independent data
This directory contains miscellaneous architecture-independent les which dont require a separate subdirectory
under /usr/share.
4.11.6.1. Specic Options
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /usr/share/misc, if the corresponding subsystem is
installed:
File Description
ascii ASCII character set table (optional)
26
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
File Description
magic Default list of magic numbers for the le command
(optional)
termcap Terminal capability database (optional)
termcap.db Terminal capability database (optional)
Other (application-specic) les may appear here, but a distributor may place them in /usr/lib at their
discretion.
14
4.11.7. /usr/share/sgml : SGML data (optional)
4.11.7.1. Purpose
/usr/share/sgml contains architecture-independent les used by SGML applications, such as ordinary
catalogs (not the centralized ones, see /etc/sgml), DTDs, entities, or style sheets.
4.11.7.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/share/sgml, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
Directory Description
docbook docbook DTD (optional)
tei tei DTD (optional)
html html DTD (optional)
mathml mathml DTD (optional)
Other les that are not specic to a given DTD may reside in their own subdirectory.
4.11.8. /usr/share/xml : XML data (optional)
4.11.8.1. Purpose
/usr/share/xml contains architecture-independent les used by XML applications, such as ordinary catalogs
(not the centralized ones, see /etc/sgml), DTDs, entities, or style sheets.
4.11.8.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /usr/share/xml, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
Directory Description
docbook docbook XML DTD (optional)
xhtml XHTML DTD (optional)
27
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
Directory Description
mathml MathML DTD (optional)
4.12. /usr/src : Source code (optional)
4.12.1. Purpose
Source code may be place placed in this subdirectory, only for reference purposes.
15
Notes
1. Examples of such conguration les include Xconfig, XF86Config, or system.twmrc)
2. Miscellaneous architecture-independent application-specic static les and subdirectories must be placed in
/usr/share.
3. For example, the perl5 subdirectory for Perl 5 modules and libraries.
4. Some executable commands such as makewhatis and sendmail have also been traditionally placed in
/usr/lib. makewhatis is an internal binary and must be placed in a binary directory; users access only
catman. Newer sendmail binaries are now placed by default in /usr/sbin. Additionally, systems using a
sendmail-compatible mail transfer agent must provide /usr/sbin/sendmail as a symbolic link to the
appropriate executable.
5. Host-specic data for the X Window System must not be stored in /usr/lib/X11. Host-specic
conguration les such as Xconfig or XF86Config must be stored in /etc/X11. This includes
conguration data such as system.twmrc even if it is only made a symbolic link to a more global
conguration le (probably in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11).
6. The case where /usr/lib and /usr/lib<qual> are the same (one is a symbolic link to the other) these
les and the per-application subdirectories will exist.
7. Software placed in / or /usr may be overwritten by system upgrades (though we recommend that
distributions do not overwrite data in /etc under these circumstances). For this reason, local software must
not be placed outside of /usr/local without good reason.
8. /usr/local/man may be deprecated in future FHS releases, so if all else is equal, making that one a
symlink seems sensible.
9. Locally installed system administration programs should be placed in /usr/local/sbin.
10. Much of this data originally lived in /usr (man, doc) or /usr/lib (dict, terminfo, zoneinfo).
11. Obviously, there are no manual pages in / because they are not required at boot time nor are they required in
emergencies. Really.
12. For example, if /usr/local/man has no manual pages in section 4 (Devices), then
/usr/local/man/man4 may be omitted.
13. A major exception to this rule is the United Kingdom, which is GB in the ISO 3166, but UK for most
email addresses.
28
Chapter 4. The /usr Hierarchy
14. Some such les include: airport, birthtoken, eqnchar, getopt, gprof.callg, gprof.flat,
inter.phone, ipfw.samp.filters, ipfw.samp.scripts, keycap.pcvt, mail.help,
mail.tildehelp, man.template, map3270, mdoc.template, more.help, na.phone,
nslookup.help, operator, scsi_modes, sendmail.hf, style, units.lib, vgrindefs,
vgrindefs.db, zipcodes
15. Generally, source should not be built within this hierarchy.
29
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
5.1. Purpose
/var contains variable data les. This includes spool directories and les, administrative and logging data, and
transient and temporary les.
Some portions of /var are not shareable between different systems. For instance, /var/log, /var/lock, and
/var/run. Other portions may be shared, notably /var/mail, /var/cache/man, /var/cache/fonts, and
/var/spool/news.
/var is specied here in order to make it possible to mount /usr read-only. Everything that once went into /usr
that is written to during system operation (as opposed to installation and software maintenance) must be in /var.
If /var cannot be made a separate partition, it is often preferable to move /var out of the root partition and into
the /usr partition. (This is sometimes done to reduce the size of the root partition or when space runs low in the
root partition.) However, /var must not be linked to /usr because this makes separation of /usr and /var
more difcult and is likely to create a naming conict. Instead, link /var to /usr/var.
Applications must generally not add directories to the top level of /var. Such directories should only be added if
they have some system-wide implication, and in consultation with the FHS mailing list.
5.2. Requirements
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, are required in /var.
Directory Description
cache Application cache data
lib Variable state information
local Variable data for /usr/local
lock Lock les
log Log les and directories
opt Variable data for /opt
run Data relevant to running processes
spool Application spool data
tmp Temporary les preserved between system reboots
Several directories are reserved in the sense that they must not be used arbitrarily by some new application,
since they would conict with historical and/or local practice. They are:
/var/backups
/var/cron
/var/msgs
/var/preserve
5.3. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /var, if the corresponding subsystem is
30
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
installed:
Directory Description
account Process accounting logs (optional)
crash System crash dumps (optional)
games Variable game data (optional)
mail User mailbox les (optional)
yp Network Information Service (NIS) database les
(optional)
5.4. /var/account : Process accounting logs (optional)
5.4.1. Purpose
This directory holds the current active process accounting log and the composite process usage data (as used in
some UNIX-like systems by lastcomm and sa).
5.5. /var/cache : Application cache data
5.5.1. Purpose
/var/cache is intended for cached data from applications. Such data is locally generated as a result of
time-consuming I/O or calculation. The application must be able to regenerate or restore the data. Unlike
/var/spool, the cached les can be deleted without data loss. The data must remain valid between invocations
of the application and rebooting the system.
Files located under /var/cache may be expired in an application specic manner, by the system administrator,
or both. The application must always be able to recover from manual deletion of these les (generally because of
a disk space shortage). No other requirements are made on the data format of the cache directories.
Rationale
The existence of a separate directory for cached data allows system administrators to set different disk and
backup policies from other directories in /var.
5.5.2. Specic Options
Directory Description
fonts Locally-generated fonts (optional)
man Locally-formatted manual pages (optional)
31
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
Directory Description
www WWW proxy or cache data (optional)
<package> Package specic cache data (optional)
5.5.3. /var/cache/fonts : Locally-generated fonts (optional)
5.5.3.1. Purpose
The directory /var/cache/fonts should be used to store any dynamically-created fonts. In particular, all of
the fonts which are automatically generated by mktexpk must be located in appropriately-named subdirectories
of /var/cache/fonts.
1
5.5.3.2. Specic Options
Other dynamically created fonts may also be placed in this tree, under appropriately-named subdirectories of
/var/cache/fonts.
5.5.4. /var/cache/man : Locally-formatted manual pages (optional)
5.5.4.1. Purpose
This directory provides a standard location for sites that provide a read-only /usr partition, but wish to allow
caching of locally-formatted man pages. Sites that mount /usr as writable (e.g., single-user installations) may
choose not to use /var/cache/man and may write formatted man pages into the cat<section> directories in
/usr/share/man directly. We recommend that most sites use one of the following options instead:
Preformat all manual pages alongside the unformatted versions.
Allow no caching of formatted man pages, and require formatting to be done each time a man page is brought
up.
Allow local caching of formatted man pages in /var/cache/man.
The structure of /var/cache/man needs to reect both the fact of multiple man page hierarchies and the
possibility of multiple language support.
Given an unformatted manual page that normally appears in <path>/man/<locale>/man<section>, the
directory to place formatted man pages in is /var/cache/man/<catpath>/<locale>/cat<section>,
where <catpath> is derived from <path> by removing any leading usr and/or trailing share pathname
components. (Note that the <locale> component may be missing.)
2
Man pages written to /var/cache/man may eventually be transferred to the appropriate preformatted
directories in the source man hierarchy or expired; likewise formatted man pages in the source man hierarchy
may be expired if they are not accessed for a period of time.
If preformatted manual pages come with a system on read-only media (a CD-ROM, for instance), they must be
installed in the source man hierarchy (e.g. /usr/share/man/cat<section>). /var/cache/man is reserved
as a writable cache for formatted manual pages.
32
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
Rationale
Release 1.2 of the standard specied /var/catman for this hierarchy. The path has been moved under
/var/cache to better reect the dynamic nature of the formatted man pages. The directory name has been
changed to man to allow for enhancing the hierarchy to include post-processed formats other than "cat", such
as PostScript, HTML, or DVI.
5.6. /var/crash : System crash dumps (optional)
5.6.1. Purpose
This directory holds system crash dumps. As of the date of this release of the standard, system crash dumps were
not supported under Linux but may be supported by other systems which may comply with the FHS.
5.7. /var/games : Variable game data (optional)
5.7.1. Purpose
Any variable data relating to games in /usr should be placed here. /var/games should hold the variable data
previously found in /usr; static data, such as help text, level descriptions, and so on, must remain elsewhere,
such as /usr/share/games.
Rationale
/var/games has been given a hierarchy of its own, rather than leaving it merged in with the old /var/lib as
in release 1.2. The separation allows local control of backup strategies, permissions, and disk usage, as well
as allowing inter-host sharing and reducing clutter in /var/lib. Additionally, /var/games is the path
traditionally used by BSD.
5.8. /var/lib : Variable state information
5.8.1. Purpose
This hierarchy holds state information pertaining to an application or the system. State information is data that
programs modify while they run, and that pertains to one specic host. Users must never need to modify les in
/var/lib to congure a packages operation.
33
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
State information is generally used to preserve the condition of an application (or a group of inter-related
applications) between invocations and between different instances of the same application. State information
should generally remain valid after a reboot, should not be logging output, and should not be spooled data.
An application (or a group of inter-related applications) must use a subdirectory of /var/lib for its data. There
is one required subdirectory, /var/lib/misc, which is intended for state les that dont need a subdirectory;
the other subdirectories should only be present if the application in question is included in the distribution.
3
/var/lib/<name> is the location that must be used for all distribution packaging support. Different
distributions may use different names, of course.
5.8.2. Requirements
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, are required in /var/lib:
Directory Description
misc Miscellaneous state data
5.8.3. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /var/lib, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
Directory Description
<editor> Editor backup les and state (optional)
<pkgtool> Packaging support les (optional)
<package> State data for packages and subsystems (optional)
hwclock State directory for hwclock (optional)
xdm X display manager variable data (optional)
5.8.4. /var/lib/<editor> : Editor backup les and state (optional)
5.8.4.1. Purpose
These directories contain saved les generated by any unexpected termination of an editor (e.g., elvis, jove, nvi).
Other editors may not require a directory for crash-recovery les, but may require a well-dened place to store
other information while the editor is running. This information should be stored in a subdirectory under
/var/lib (for example, GNU Emacs would place lock les in /var/lib/emacs/lock).
Future editors may require additional state information beyond crash-recovery les and lock les this
information should also be placed under /var/lib/<editor>.
Rationale
Previous Linux releases, as well as all commercial vendors, use /var/preserve for vi or its clones.
However, each editor uses its own format for these crash-recovery les, so a separate directory is needed
for each editor.
34
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
Editor-specic lock les are usually quite different from the device or resource lock les that are stored in
/var/lock and, hence, are stored under /var/lib.
5.8.5. /var/lib/hwclock : State directory for hwclock (optional)
5.8.5.1. Purpose
This directory contains the le /var/lib/hwclock/adjtime.
Rationale
In FHS 2.1, this le was /etc/adjtime, but as hwclock updates it, that was obviously incorrect.
5.8.6. /var/lib/misc : Miscellaneous variable data
5.8.6.1. Purpose
This directory contains variable data not placed in a subdirectory in /var/lib. An attempt should be made to
use relatively unique names in this directory to avoid namespace conicts.
4
5.9. /var/lock : Lock les
5.9.1. Purpose
Lock les should be stored within the /var/lock directory structure.
Lock les for devices and other resources shared by multiple applications, such as the serial device lock les that
were originally found in either /usr/spool/locks or /usr/spool/uucp, must now be stored in /var/lock.
The naming convention which must be used is "LCK.." followed by the base name of the device. For example, to
lock /dev/ttyS0 the le "LCK..ttyS0" would be created.
5
The format used for the contents of such lock les must be the HDB UUCP lock le format. The HDB format is
to store the process identier (PID) as a ten byte ASCII decimal number, with a trailing newline. For example, if
process 1230 holds a lock le, it would contain the eleven characters: space, space, space, space, space, space,
one, two, three, zero, and newline.
35
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
5.10. /var/log : Log les and directories
5.10.1. Purpose
This directory contains miscellaneous log les. Most logs must be written to this directory or an appropriate
subdirectory.
5.10.2. Specic Options
The following les, or symbolic links to les, must be in /var/log, if the corresponding subsystem is installed:
File Description
lastlog record of last login of each user
messages system messages from syslogd
wtmp record of all logins and logouts
5.11. /var/mail : User mailbox les (optional)
5.11.1. Purpose
The mail spool must be accessible through /var/mail and the mail spool les must take the form
<username>.
6
User mailbox les in this location must be stored in the standard UNIX mailbox format.
Rationale
The logical location for this directory was changed from /var/spool/mail in order to bring FHS in-line with
nearly every UNIX implementation. This change is important for inter-operability since a single /var/mail is
often shared between multiple hosts and multiple UNIX implementations (despite NFS locking issues).
It is important to note that there is no requirement to physically move the mail spool to this location.
However, programs and header les must be changed to use /var/mail.
5.12. /var/opt : Variable data for /opt
5.12.1. Purpose
Variable data of the packages in /opt must be installed in /var/opt/<subdir>, where <subdir> is the name
of the subtree in /opt where the static data from an add-on software package is stored, except where superseded
by another le in /etc. No structure is imposed on the internal arrangement of /var/opt/<subdir>.
36
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
Rationale
Refer to the rationale for /opt.
5.13. /var/run : Run-time variable data
5.13.1. Purpose
This directory contains system information data describing the system since it was booted. Files under this
directory must be cleared (removed or truncated as appropriate) at the beginning of the boot process. Programs
may have a subdirectory of /var/run; this is encouraged for programs that use more than one run-time le.
7
Process identier (PID) les, which were originally placed in /etc, must be placed in /var/run. The naming
convention for PID les is <program-name>.pid. For example, the crond PID le is named
/var/run/crond.pid.
5.13.2. Requirements
The internal format of PID les remains unchanged. The le must consist of the process identier in
ASCII-encoded decimal, followed by a newline character. For example, if crond was process number 25,
/var/run/crond.pid would contain three characters: two, ve, and newline.
Programs that read PID les should be somewhat exible in what they accept; i.e., they should ignore extra
whitespace, leading zeroes, absence of the trailing newline, or additional lines in the PID le. Programs that
create PID les should use the simple specication located in the above paragraph.
The utmp le, which stores information about who is currently using the system, is located in this directory.
System programs that maintain transient UNIX-domain sockets must place them in this directory.
5.14. /var/spool : Application spool data
5.14.1. Purpose
/var/spool contains data which is awaiting some kind of later processing. Data in /var/spool represents
work to be done in the future (by a program, user, or administrator); often data is deleted after it has been
processed.
8
5.14.2. Specic Options
The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /var/spool, if the corresponding
subsystem is installed:
37
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
Directory Description
lpd Printer spool directory (optional)
mqueue Outgoing mail queue (optional)
news News spool directory (optional)
rwho Rwhod les (optional)
uucp Spool directory for UUCP (optional)
5.14.3. /var/spool/lpd : Line-printer daemon print queues (optional)
5.14.3.1. Purpose
The lock le for lpd, lpd.lock, must be placed in /var/spool/lpd. It is suggested that the lock le for each
printer be placed in the spool directory for that specic printer and named lock.
5.14.3.2. Specic Options
Directory Description
printer Spools for a specic printer (optional)
5.14.4. /var/spool/rwho : Rwhod les (optional)
5.14.4.1. Purpose
This directory holds the rwhod information for other systems on the local net.
Rationale
Some BSD releases use /var/rwho for this data; given its historical location in /var/spool on other
systems and its approximate t to the denition of spooled data, this location was deemed more
appropriate.
5.15. /var/tmp : Temporary les preserved between system
reboots
5.15.1. Purpose
The /var/tmp directory is made available for programs that require temporary les or directories that are
38
Chapter 5. The /var Hierarchy
preserved between system reboots. Therefore, data stored in /var/tmp is more persistent than data in /tmp.
Files and directories located in /var/tmp must not be deleted when the system is booted. Although data stored
in /var/tmp is typically deleted in a site-specic manner, it is recommended that deletions occur at a less
frequent interval than /tmp.
5.16. /var/yp : Network Information Service (NIS) database
les (optional)
5.16.1. Purpose
Variable data for the Network Information Service (NIS), formerly known as the Sun Yellow Pages (YP), must
be placed in this directory.
Rationale
/var/yp is the standard directory for NIS (YP) data and is almost exclusively used in NIS documentation
and systems.
9
Notes
1. This standard does not currently incorporate the TeX Directory Structure (a document that describes the
layout TeX les and directories), but it may be useful reading. It is located at ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex/
2. For example, /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1 is formatted into /var/cache/man/cat1/ls.1, and
/usr/X11R6/man/<locale>/man3/XtClass.3x into
/var/cache/man/X11R6/<locale>/cat3/XtClass.3x.
3. An important difference between this version of this standard and previous ones is that applications are now
required to use a subdirectory of /var/lib.
4. This hierarchy should contain les stored in /var/db in current BSD releases. These include
locate.database and mountdtab, and the kernel symbol database(s).
5. Then, anything wishing to use /dev/ttyS0 can read the lock le and act accordingly (all locks in
/var/lock should be world-readable).
6. Note that /var/mail may be a symbolic link to another directory.
7. /var/run should be unwritable for unprivileged users (root or users running daemons); it is a major
security problem if any user can write in this directory.
8. UUCP lock les must be placed in /var/lock. See the above section on /var/lock.
9. NIS should not be confused with Sun NIS+, which uses a different directory, /var/nis.
39
Chapter 6. Operating System Specic Annex
This section is for additional requirements and recommendations that only apply to a specic operating system.
The material in this section should never conict with the base standard.
6.1. Linux
This is the annex for the Linux operating system.
6.1.1. / : Root directory
On Linux systems, if the kernel is located in /, we recommend using the names vmlinux or vmlinuz, which
have been used in recent Linux kernel source packages.
6.1.2. /bin : Essential user command binaries (for use by all users)
Linux systems which require them place these additional les into /bin:
setserial
6.1.3. /dev : Devices and special les
The following devices must exist under /dev.
/dev/null
All data written to this device is discarded. A read from this device will return an EOF condition.
/dev/zero
This device is a source of zeroed out data. All data written to this device is discarded. A read from this
device will return as many bytes containing the value zero as was requested.
/dev/tty
This device is a synonym for the controlling terminal of a process. Once this device is opened, all reads and
writes will behave as if the actual controlling terminal device had been opened.
Rationale
Previous versions of the FHS had stricter requirements for /dev. Other devices may also exist in /dev.
Device names may exist as symbolic links to other device nodes located in /dev or subdirectories of /dev.
There is no requirement concerning major/minor number values.
40
Chapter 6. Operating System Specic Annex
6.1.4. /etc : Host-specic system conguration
Linux systems which require them place these additional les into /etc.
lilo.conf
6.1.5. /lib64 and /lib32 : 64/32-bit libraries (architecture dependent)
The 64-bit architectures PPC64, s390x, sparc64 and AMD64 must place 64-bit libraries in /lib64, and 32-bit
(or 31-bit on s390) libraries in /lib.
The 64-bit architecture IA64 must place 64-bit libraries in /lib.
Rationale
This is a renement of the general rules for /lib<qual> and /usr/lib<qual>. The architectures PPC64,
s390x, sparc64 and AMD64 support support both 32-bit (for s390 more precise 31-bit) and 64-bit programs.
Using lib for 32-bit binaries allows existing binaries from the 32-bit systems to work without any changes:
such binaries are expected to be numerous. IA-64 uses a different scheme, reecting the deprecation of
32-bit binaries (and hence libraries) on that architecture.
6.1.6. /proc : Kernel and process information virtual lesystem
The proc lesystem is the de-facto standard Linux method for handling process and system information, rather
than /dev/kmem and other similar methods. We strongly encourage this for the storage and retrieval of process
information as well as other kernel and memory information.
6.1.7. /sbin : Essential system binaries
Linux systems place these additional les into /sbin.
Second extended lesystem commands (optional):
badblocks
dumpe2fs
e2fsck
mke2fs
mklost+found
tune2fs
Boot-loader map installer (optional):
lilo
41
Chapter 6. Operating System Specic Annex
Optional les for /sbin:
Static binaries:
ldcong
sln
ssync
Static ln (sln) and static sync (ssync) are useful when things go wrong. The primary use of sln (to repair
incorrect symlinks in /lib after a poorly orchestrated upgrade) is no longer a major concern now that the
ldcong program (usually located in /usr/sbin) exists and can act as a guiding hand in upgrading the
dynamic libraries. Static sync is useful in some emergency situations. Note that these need not be statically
linked versions of the standard ln and sync, but may be.
The ldcong binary is optional for /sbin since a site may choose to run ldcong at boot time, rather than
only when upgrading the shared libraries. (Its not clear whether or not it is advantageous to run ldcong on
each boot.) Even so, some people like ldcong around for the following (all too common) situation:
1. Ive just removed /lib/<file>.
2. I cant nd out the name of the library because ls is dynamically linked, Im using a shell that doesnt
have ls built-in, and I dont know about using "echo *" as a replacement.
3. I have a static sln, but I dont know what to call the link.
Miscellaneous:
ctrlaltdel
kbdrate
So as to cope with the fact that some keyboards come up with such a high repeat rate as to be unusable,
kbdrate may be installed in /sbin on some systems.
Since the default action in the kernel for the Ctrl-Alt-Del key combination is an instant hard reboot, it is
generally advisable to disable the behavior before mounting the root lesystem in read-write mode. Some init
suites are able to disable Ctrl-Alt-Del, but others may require the ctrlaltdel program, which may be installed
in /sbin on those systems.
6.1.8. /usr/include : Header les included by C programs
These symbolic links are required if a C or C++ compiler is installed and only for systems not based on glibc.
/usr/include/asm -> /usr/src/linux/include/asm-<arch>
/usr/include/linux -> /usr/src/linux/include/linux
6.1.9. /usr/src : Source code
For systems based on glibc, there are no specic guidelines for this directory. For systems based on Linux libc
revisions prior to glibc, the following guidelines and rationale apply:
The only source code that should be placed in a specic location is the Linux kernel source code. It is located in
/usr/src/linux.
42
Chapter 6. Operating System Specic Annex
If a C or C++ compiler is installed, but the complete Linux kernel source code is not installed, then the include
les from the kernel source code must be located in these directories:
/usr/src/linux/include/asm-<arch>
/usr/src/linux/include/linux
<arch> is the name of the system architecture.
Note
/usr/src/linux may be a symbolic link to a kernel source code tree.
Rationale
It is important that the kernel include les be located in /usr/src/linux and not in /usr/include so there
are no problems when system administrators upgrade their kernel version for the rst time.
6.1.10. /var/spool/cron : cron and at jobs
This directory contains the variable data for the cron and at programs.
43
Chapter 7. Appendix
7.1. The FHS mailing list
The FHS mailing list is located at <[email protected]>. You can subscribe to the
mailing list at this page http://sourceforge.net/projects/freestandards/.
Thanks to Network Operations at the University of California at San Diego who allowed us to use their excellent
mailing list server.
As noted in the introduction, please do not send mail to the mailing list without rst contacting the FHS editor or
a listed contributor.
7.2. Background of the FHS
The process of developing a standard lesystem hierarchy began in August 1993 with an effort to restructure the
le and directory structure of Linux. The FSSTND, a lesystem hierarchy standard specic to the Linux
operating system, was released on February 14, 1994. Subsequent revisions were released on October 9, 1994
and March 28, 1995.
In early 1995, the goal of developing a more comprehensive version of FSSTND to address not only Linux, but
other UNIX-like systems was adopted with the help of members of the BSD development community. As a
result, a concerted effort was made to focus on issues that were general to UNIX-like systems. In recognition of
this widening of scope, the name of the standard was changed to Filesystem Hierarchy Standard or FHS for short.
Volunteers who have contributed extensively to this standard are listed at the end of this document. This standard
represents a consensus view of those and other contributors.
7.3. General Guidelines
Here are some of the guidelines that have been used in the development of this standard:
Solve technical problems while limiting transitional difculties.
Make the specication reasonably stable.
Gain the approval of distributors, developers, and other decision-makers in relevant development groups and
encourage their participation.
Provide a standard that is attractive to the implementors of different UNIX-like systems.
7.4. Scope
This document species a standard lesystem hierarchy for FHS lesystems by specifying the location of les
and directories, and the contents of some system les.
This standard has been designed to be used by system integrators, package developers, and system
administrators in the construction and maintenance of FHS compliant lesystems. It is primarily intended to be a
reference and is not a tutorial on how to manage a conforming lesystem hierarchy.
44
Chapter 7. Appendix
The FHS grew out of earlier work on FSSTND, a lesystem organization standard for the Linux operating
system. It builds on FSSTND to address interoperability issues not just in the Linux community but in a wider
arena including 4.4BSD-based operating systems. It incorporates lessons learned in the BSD world and
elsewhere about multi-architecture support and the demands of heterogeneous networking.
Although this standard is more comprehensive than previous attempts at lesystem hierarchy standardization,
periodic updates may become necessary as requirements change in relation to emerging technology. It is also
possible that better solutions to the problems addressed here will be discovered so that our solutions will no
longer be the best possible solutions. Supplementary drafts may be released in addition to periodic updates to this
document. However, a specic goal is backwards compatibility from one release of this document to the next.
Comments related to this standard are welcome. Any comments or suggestions for changes may be directed to
the FHS editor (Daniel Quinlan <[email protected]>) or the FHS mailing list. Typographical or
grammatical comments should be directed to the FHS editor.
Before sending mail to the mailing list it is requested that you rst contact the FHS editor in order to avoid
excessive re-discussion of old topics.
Questions about how to interpret items in this document may occasionally arise. If you have need for a
clarication, please contact the FHS editor. Since this standard represents a consensus of many participants, it is
important to make certain that any interpretation also represents their collective opinion. For this reason it may
not be possible to provide an immediate response unless the inquiry has been the subject of previous discussion.
7.5. Acknowledgments
The developers of the FHS wish to thank the developers, system administrators, and users whose input was
essential to this standard. We wish to thank each of the contributors who helped to write, compile, and compose
this standard.
The FHS Group also wishes to thank those Linux developers who supported the FSSTND, the predecessor to
this standard. If they hadnt demonstrated that the FSSTND was benecial, the FHS could never have evolved.
7.6. Contributors
Brandon S. Allbery <[email protected]>
Keith Bostic <[email protected]>
Drew Eckhardt <[email protected]>
Rik Faith <[email protected]>
Stephen Harris <[email protected]>
Ian Jackson <[email protected]>
Andreas Jaeger <[email protected]>
John A. Martin <[email protected]>
Ian McCloghrie <[email protected]>
Chris Metcalf <[email protected]>
Ian Murdock <[email protected]>
David C. Niemi <[email protected]>
Daniel Quinlan <[email protected]>
Eric S. Raymond <[email protected]>
Rusty Russell <[email protected]>
45
Chapter 7. Appendix
Mike Sangrey <[email protected]>
David H. Silber <[email protected]>
Thomas Sippel-Dau <[email protected]>
Theodore Tso <[email protected]>
Stephen Tweedie <[email protected]>
Fred N. van Kempen <[email protected]>
Bernd Warken <[email protected]>
Christopher Yeoh <[email protected]>
46