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hier(5)

HP-UX 11i Version 3: February 2007
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NAME

hier — file system hierarchy

DESCRIPTION

The HP-UX file system is a hierarchical tree organized for administrative convenience. Within the file-system tree structure, distinct areas are provided for files that are private to one machine, files that can be shared by machines, and home directories.

There are two types of files that are shared: those that can be shared by multiple machines of a common architecture, and those that can be shared by all machines. This organization allows sharable files to be stored on one machine (the server), but accessed by many machines (clients).

The following diagram illustrates the file system layout. Note that there are many directories that are not in this diagram, but are discussed below.

Diagram of Directory Layout

|---- dev | |---- bin |---- etc | |---- bin | |---- ccs ------ | |---- usr ------ | |---- lib / --- | |---- lib |---- sbin | | |---- sbin |---- var | | |---- lbin |---- home | | |---- include |---- dict |---- opt | | | |---- share ----- |---- lib |---- (export) | |---- man

The following listing discusses a representative HP-UX directory hierarchy. Some HP-UX applications may add additional directories, which are not shown.

/

Root directory.

/dev

Special files (block and character device files); see mknod(1M).

/etc

Host-specific configuration and administration databases.

/etc/opt

Directory for application-specific configuration files. (Configuration information for optional packages.)

/etc/rc.config.d

Startup configuration files.

/export

Default root of exported file systems. Server only.

/home

Default root for user directories.

/lost+found

Storage directory for connecting detached files; for use by fsck(1M).

/mnt

Mounting point for local file systems.

/net

Mounting point for remote file systems.

/opt

Root of subtree for optional application packages.

/sbin

Essential system commands. Essential commands are defined as executables that are needed to boot the system and mount the file systems. A full complement of utilities is available only after /usr is mounted.

/sbin/init.d

Startup and shutdown scripts.

/sbin/rc0.d

Link files to scripts in /sbin/init.d for entering or leaving run level 0.

/sbin/rc1.d

Link files to scripts in /sbin/init.d for entering or leaving run level 1.

/sbin/rc2.d

Link files to scripts in /sbin/init.d for entering or leaving run level 2.

/sbin/rc3.d

Link files to scripts in /sbin/init.d for entering or leaving run level 3.

/stand

Standalone binaries and kernel configuration files.

/tmp

System-generated temporary files; generally cleared during the boot operation.

/usr

Mount point for sharable user and system administration commands, libraries and documentation.

/usr/bin

Primary location for common utilities and user commands.

/usr/ccs

C compilation system. Tools and libraries used to generate C programs.

/usr/ccs/bin

Development binaries; includes cc, make, strings, etc.

/usr/ccs/lib

Development libraries.

/usr/ccs/lbin

Development backends.

/usr/conf

Kernel configuration files.

/usr/contrib

Directory for user-contributed (unsupported, internal) commands, files, etc. Files in this directory come from outside the local site or organization (for example, from users groups or HP service engineers).

/usr/contrib/bin

User-contributed commands.

/usr/contrib/include

User-contributed include files.

/usr/contrib/lib

User-contributed libraries.

/usr/contrib/man

User-contributed man pages.

/usr/include

Included header files, for C and other programs. Some subdirectories are listed below.

/usr/include/machine

Machine-specific C include files.

/usr/include/nfs

C include files for Network File System (NFS).

/usr/include/sys

Kernel related C-language header files.

/usr/lbin

Directory for backend executables to other commands. A backend executable is an executable that is generally not invoked directly by the user.

/usr/lib

Program libraries, object code and architecture-dependent databases.

/usr/lib/nls

Directory for Native Language Support.

/usr/local

Directory for site-local commands, files, etc. Files under this directory come from inside the local site or organization. See /usr/contrib for non-local unsupported commands and files.

/usr/local/bin

Site-local commands.

/usr/local/lib

Site-local libraries.

/usr/local/man

Site-local man pages.

/usr/newconfig

Default operating system configuration data files. This directory is a directory hierarchy mirroring /. New versions of customizable configuration files and databases are shipped here so as not to overwrite current versions. Files in this directory are copied to regular locations for newly installed systems. System administrators may wish to keep them for later reference.

/usr/old

Files and programs that are being phased out or are obsolete.

/usr/sbin

System administration commands.

/usr/share

Architecture-independent sharable files.

/usr/share/dict

Dictionaries for spell and ispell.

/usr/share/lib

Miscellaneous sharable libraries.

/usr/share/man

Online documentation.

/var

Root of subtree for "varying" files. These are files that are created at runtime and can grow to an arbitrary size. Some examples include log, temporary, transient, and spool files.

/var/adm

System administrative files, such as log files and accounting files. Some of the subdirectories are listed below.

/var/adm/crash

For saving kernel crash dumps.

/var/adm/cron

Directory for cron(1M) queuing.

/var/adm/sw

Default location for software distribution depot.

/var/adm/syslog

Log files generated by syslog. See syslog(3C) and syslogd(1M).

/var/mail

Incoming mail.

/var/news

Local-system news articles for news(1).

/var/opt

Root of subtree for varying files associated with optional software packages.

/var/preserve

Place where ex(1) and vi(1) save lost edit sessions until recovered.

/var/run

Files created when daemons are running. For example, the process ID (PID) file for syslogd, syslog.pid, is put here.

/var/spool

Miscellaneous directories for printer spooling, mail delivery, cron(1M), etc.

/var/spool/cron

cron(1M) and at(1) spooling files.

/var/spool/lp

Printer spool files.

/var/spool/mqueue

Outgoing mail and log files containing messages from the mail system.

/var/spool/uucp

UUCP spool directory.

/var/tmp

Application-generated temporary files. This directory generally is not cleared between system reboots.

/var/uucp

UUCP administration files.

DEPENDENCIES

Some directories include commands or files not supported on all HP-UX implementations.

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