Darwin Directory Structure

From NeoWiki

A sketch of the filesystem hierarchy.

    /             root directory of the filesystem

    /bin/         user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments

    /dev/         block and character device files

                  fd/  file descriptor files

    /etc/         system configuration files and scripts

    /mach_kernel  kernel executable (the operating system loaded into memory at boot time).

    /sbin/        system programs and administration utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments

    /tmp/         temporary files

    /usr/         contains the majority of user utilities and applications
                  bin/      common utilities, programming tools, and applications
                  include/  standard C include files
                            arpa/       C include files for Internet service protocols
                            hfs/        C include files for HFS
                            machine/    machine specific C include files
                            net/        misc network C include files
                            netinet/    C include files for Internet standard protocols
                            nfs/        C include files for NFS (Network File System)
                            objc/       C include files for Objective-C
                            protocols/  C include files for Berkeley service protocols
                            sys/        system C include files (kernel data structures)
                            ufs/        C include files for UFS
                  lib/      archive libraries
                  libexec/  system daemons & system utilities (executed by other programs)
                  local/    executables, libraries, etc. not included by the basic operating system
                  sbin/     system daemons & system utilities (executed by users)
                  share/    architecture-independent data files
                            calendar/  a variety of pre-fab calendar files
                            dict/      word lists
                                       web2        words from Webster's 2nd International
                                       words       common words
                            man/       manual pages
                            misc/      misc system-wide ascii text files
                            mk/        templates for make
                            skel/      example . (dot) files for new accounts
                            tabset/    tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in the termcap file
                            zoneinfo/  timezone configuration information

    /var/         multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
                  at/        timed command scheduling files
                  backups/   misc. backup files
                  db/        misc. automatically generated system-specific database files
                  log/       misc. system log files
                             wtmp        login/logout log
                  mail/      user mailbox files
                  run/       system information files describing various info about system since it was booted
                             utmp        database of current users
                  rwho/      rwho data files
                  spool/     misc. printer and mail system spooling directories
                             mqueue/     undelivered mail queue
                  tmp/       temporary files that are kept between system reboots