## Directory Structure The DragonFly directory hierarchy is fundamental to obtaining an overall understanding of the system. The most important concept to grasp is that of the root directory, ***/***. This directory is the first one mounted at boot time and it contains the base system necessary to prepare the operating system for multi-user operation. The root directory also contains mount points for every other file system that you may want to mount. A mount point is a directory where additional file systems can be grafted onto the root file system. This is further described in [ this Section](disk-organization.html). Standard mount points include `/usr`, `/var`, `/tmp`, `/mnt`, and `/cdrom`. These directories are usually referenced to entries in the file `/etc/fstab`. `/etc/fstab` is a table of various file systems and mount points for reference by the system. Most of the file systems in `/etc/fstab` are mounted automatically at boot time from the script [rc(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#rc§ion8) unless they contain the `noauto` option. Details can be found in [ this section](mount-unmount.html#DISKS-FSTAB). A complete description of the file system hierarchy is available in [hier(7)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#hier§ion7). For now, a brief overview of the most common directories will suffice. [[!table data=""" | Directory | Description `/` | Root directory of the file system. `/bin/` | User utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments. `/boot/` | Programs and configuration files used during operating system bootstrap. `/boot/defaults/` | Default bootstrapping configuration files; see [loader.conf(5)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#loader.conf§ion5). `/dev/` | Device nodes; see [intro(4)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#intro§ion4). `/etc/` | System configuration files and scripts. `/etc/defaults/` | Default system configuration files; see [rc(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#rc§ion8). `/etc/mail/` | Configuration files for mail transport agents such as [sendmail(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#sendmail§ion8). `/etc/namedb/` | `named` configuration files; see [named(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#named§ion8). `/etc/periodic/` | Scripts that are run daily, weekly, and monthly, via [cron(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#cron§ion8); see [periodic(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=periodic§ion=8). `/etc/ppp/` | `ppp` configuration files; see [ppp(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#ppp§ion8). `/mnt/` | Empty directory commonly used by system administrators as a temporary mount point. `/proc/` | Process file system; see [procfs(5)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#procfs§ion5), [mount_procfs(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=mount_procfs§ion=8). `/root/` | Home directory for the `root` account. `/sbin/` | System programs and administration utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments. `/tmp/` | Temporary files. The contents of `/tmp` are usually NOT preserved across a system reboot. A memory-based file system is often mounted at `/tmp`. This can be automated with an entry in `/etc/fstab`; see [mfs(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#mfs§ion8). `/usr/` | The majority of user utilities and applications. `/usr/bin/` | Common utilities, programming tools, and applications. `/usr/include/` | Standard C include files. `/usr/lib/` | Archive libraries. `/usr/libdata/` | Miscellaneous utility data files. `/usr/libexec/` | System daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs). `/usr/local/` | Local executables, libraries, etc. Within `/usr/local`, the general layout sketched out by [hier(7)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#hier§ion7) for `/usr` should be used. An exceptions is the man directory, which is directly under `/usr/local` rather than under `/usr/local/share`. `/usr/obj/` | Architecture-specific target tree produced by building the `/usr/src` tree. `/usr/pkg` | Used as the default destination for the files installed via the pkgsrc® tree or pkgsrc packages (optional). The configuration directory is tunable, but the default location is `/usr/pkg/etc`. `/usr/pkg/xorg/` | X11R6 distribution executables, libraries, etc (optional). `/usr/pkgsrc` | The pkgsrc tree for installing packages (optional). `/usr/sbin/` | System daemons & system utilities (executed by users). `/usr/share/` | Architecture-independent files. `/usr/src/` | BSD and/or local source files. `/var/` | Multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files. A memory-based file system is sometimes mounted at `/var`. This can be automated with an entry in `/etc/fstab`; see [mfs(8)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command#mfs§ion8). `/var/log/` | Miscellaneous system log files. `/var/mail/` | User mailbox files. `/var/spool/` | Miscellaneous printer and mail system spooling directories. `/var/tmp/` | Temporary files. The files are usually preserved across a system reboot, unless `/var` is a memory-based file system. `/var/yp` | NIS maps. | """]] CategoryHandbook CategoryHandbook-basics