Letztes Update am Mi., 16 Sep. 2026 16:44:03 +0200 von Andreas Potthoff
Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die typische Verzeichnisstruktur für Linux-Systeme, welche auf Debian basieren. Dazu gehören z.B.: Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS, Raspbian, Linux Mint, Kali Linux, Kubuntu, Proxmox u.v.m. Eine umfangreiche Liste von Debian based-Linux-Distributionen findet ihr hier: Distrowatch.com – Debian based
Alle elementaren Programme und Konfigurationsdateien liegen in verschiedenen Systemverzeichnissen. Anhand des Filesystem Hierarchie Standard (FHS) wird die Eingliederung der verschiedenen Dateiarten in die Verzeichnisstruktur gezeigt. Der FHS ist eine Richtlinie für die Verzeichnisstruktur unter Unix-ähnlichen Betriebssystemen.
Sie können den folgenden Informationen entnehmen, wo Sie Konfigurationsdateien finden, welche Verzeichnisse Programme enthalten und wo Dokumentationen zu finden sind.
Die folgende tabellarische Übersicht der Verzeichnisstruktur berücksichtigt nicht eine Installation mit gesonderten Partionen (z.B. boot, home, etc.). Außerdem wird Beschreibung der Dateisystem-Hierachie durch den Konsolenbefehl man (manual) gezeigt.
Tabelle Verzeichnisstruktur
Die wichtigsten Verzeichnisse haben folgende Bedeutungen bzw. Inhalte:
| Verzeichnis | Beschreibung |
|---|---|
| / | Wurzelverzeichnis: Das Wurzelverzeichnis und oberste Verzeichnis der Hierachie. |
| /bin | Systemprogramme: Die wichtigsten Systemkommandos. Dieses Verzeichnis darf keine Unterverzeichnisse enthalten. |
| /boot | Bootloader: Die statischen Dateien des Bootloaders und die Kernel. |
| /dev | Gerätedateien: Schnittstellen zur Ansteuerung der gesamten Hardware. |
| /etc | Systemkonfiguration: Die Konfigurationsdateien. |
| /etc/init.d | Start- und Stopscripte. |
| /etc/network | Konfigurationsdateien des Netzwerkes. z.B. interfaces |
| /etc/opt | Konfigurationsdateien für Programme im Verzeichnis /opt |
| /home/Benutzername | Heimatverzeichnis: Die eigenen Dateien. Für jeden Benutzer finden Sie einen eigenes Verzeichnis mit dem Benutzernamen. |
| /lib | Bibliotheken: Dynamische Bibliotheken und Kernelmodule die für den Systemstart notwendig sind. |
| /lib/modules | Kernelmodule |
| /lost+found | Verloren+Gefunden: Dateien und Dateifragmente die bei der Reparatur eines defekten Dateissystems übrig geblieben sind. |
| /media | Wechselmedien: Einhängepunkt und Unterverzeichnisse für transportable Medienspeicher (z.B. USB-Stick, externe Festplatte, Floppy, CD-ROM, DVD, u.a). |
| /mnt | Mountpunkt: Einhängepunkt für ein temporär eingehängtes Dateisystem. |
| /opt | Optional: Für die manuelle Installation von Programmen die ihre eigenen Bibliotheken mitbringen und nicht zum Standard der Distribution gehören. Unterverzeichnisse sind z.B. mincraft-pi, sonic-pi, vs, Wolfram |
| /proc | Prozess- und Systeminformationen: Schnittstellen zum aktuell geladenen Kernel und seinen Prozeduren. Dateien lassen sich mittel cat auslesen z.B. „cat proc/version“ gibt die aktuelle Kernelversion aus. |
| /root | Root Heimatverzeichnis: Das Heimatverzeichnis des Superusers (root). Das root-Verzeichnis liegt im Wurzelvereichnis, falls das home-Verzeichis auf eine andere Partiton ausgelagert wurde oder ein Zugriff auf home aus irgendeinem Grund nicht möglich ist. |
| /run | Prozesse: Dateien für laufende Prozesse. Hier befinden sich auch die meisten PID-Dateien (Process Identifier). |
| /sbin | Systemprogramme (root): Die Systemkommandos zur Systemverwaltung für die Rootrechte benötigt werden. Dieses Verzeichnis darf keine Unterverzeichnisse enthalten. |
| /srv | Systemdienste: Daten für Systemdienste (in der Regel leer). Dieses Verzeichnis ist noch nicht genau spezifiziert. |
| /sys | System: Systemweites Geräteverzeichnis welches Informationen und Statistiken über das System und die Komponenten enthält. |
| /tmp | Temporär: Temporäre Dateien von Programmen und Benutzern. Dieses Verzeichis wird nach jedem Neustart automatisch geleert. |
| /usr | UNIX Systemressourcen: Die meisten Systemprogramme, Bibliotheken und installierten Programme. |
| /usr/bin | Die meisten Benutzerbefehle. Das primäre Verzeichnis für ausführbare Dateien des Systems. |
| /usr/games | Spiele |
| /usr/include | Header-Dateien für C-Programme. |
| /usr/lib | Allgemeine Bibliotheken |
| /usr/local | Distributionsunabhängige lokale Hierachie enthält noch einmal die gleiche Verzeichnisstruktur wie das /usr Verzeichnis. Für Programme und Daten gedacht, die von der entsprechenden Distribution des jeweiligen Systems unabhängig installiert worden sind, wie etwa selbstkompilierte oder unabhängig von der Distribution heruntergeladene Programme und Dateien. |
| /usr/sbin | Weniger wichtige Systemprogramme die im Gegensatz zu /sbin nicht während des Bootvorganges verwendet werden. |
| /usr/share | Statische architekturunabhänge Dateien z.B. Dokumentationen, Manpages und Wörterbücher. |
| /usr/src | Source Code zu den Paketen. |
| /var | Variable Daten: Diese Daten entstehen z.B. im Zuge einer Abarbeitung |
| /var/backups | Sicherungskopien der Liste der installierten Programme (dpkg). |
| /var/cache | Zwischenspeicher von Programmen |
| /var/lib | Variable Statusinformationen |
| /var/local | Variable Daten im Zusammenhang mit /usr/local |
| /var/lock | Lock-Dateien zur Prozesssynchronisation |
| /var/log | Protokolldateien |
| /var/mail | Mailboxen der Benutzer |
| /var/opt | Variable Daten der optionalen Programme |
| /var/run | Dateien zu laufenden Prozessen |
| /var/spool | Von Programmen gespoolte Daten z.B. Druckaufträge. |
| /var/tmp | Variable Daten die zwischen Reboots erhalten bleiben. |
| /var/www | Standardverzeichnis für Inhalte des Webservers. |
Verzeichnisstruktur mit dem Konsolenbefehl tree anzeigen
Um sich einen Überblick der Verzeichnisstruktur zu verschaffen kann man den Konsolenbefehl tree benutzen:
Als erstes wechseln wir in das Wurzelverzeichnis und dann lassen wir uns den Verzeichnisbaum mit einer Leveltiefe von 1 anzeigen. Die Leveltiefe kann natürlich auch erweitert werden, indem man die 1 durch die gewünschte Tiefe ersetzt.
andreas@NUC6CAYH:~$ cd / andreas@NUC6CAYH:/$ tree -L 1 . ├── bin -> usr/bin ├── boot ├── cdrom ├── dev ├── etc ├── home ├── lib -> usr/lib ├── lib64 -> usr/lib64 ├── lost+found ├── media ├── mnt ├── opt ├── proc ├── root ├── run ├── sbin -> usr/sbin ├── snap ├── srv ├── swap.img ├── sys ├── tmp ├── usr └── var 23 directories, 1 file
Beschreibung der Dateisystem-Hierachie mit dem Konsolenbefehl man (englisch)
Wenn Sie folgenden Konsolenbefehl eingeben:
man hier
erhalten Sie die Beschreibung der Dateisystem-Hierachie mit folgender Beispielausgabe:
hier(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual hier(7)
NAME
hier - description of the filesystem hierarchy
DESCRIPTION
A typical Linux system has, among others, the following directories:
/ This is the root directory. This is where the whole tree starts.
/bin This directory contains executable programs which are needed in single user mode and
to bring the system up or repair it.
/boot Contains static files for the boot loader. This directory holds only the files which
are needed during the boot process. The map installer and configuration files should
go to /sbin and /etc. The operating system kernel (initrd for example) must be lo‐
cated in either / or /boot.
/dev Special or device files, which refer to physical devices. See mknod(1).
/etc Contains configuration files which are local to the machine. Some larger software
packages, like X11, can have their own subdirectories below /etc. Site-wide configu‐
ration files may be placed here or in /usr/etc. Nevertheless, programs should always
look for these files in /etc and you may have links for these files to /usr/etc.
/etc/opt
Host-specific configuration files for add-on applications installed in /opt.
/etc/sgml
This directory contains the configuration files for SGML (optional).
/etc/skel
When a new user account is created, files from this directory are usually copied into
the user's home directory.
/etc/X11
Configuration files for the X11 window system (optional).
/etc/xml
This directory contains the configuration files for XML (optional).
/home On machines with home directories for users, these are usually beneath this direc‐
tory, directly or not. The structure of this directory depends on local administra‐
tion decisions (optional).
/lib This directory should hold those shared libraries that are necessary to boot the sys‐
tem and to run the commands in the root filesystem.
/lib<qual>
These directories are variants of /lib on system which support more than one binary
format requiring separate libraries (optional).
/lib/modules
Loadable kernel modules (optional).
/lost+found
This directory contains items lost in the filesystem. These items are usually chunks
of files mangled as a consequence of a faulty disk or a system crash.
/media This directory contains mount points for removable media, such as CD and DVD disks or
USB sticks. 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 unqualified name must also exist.
/media/floppy[1-9]
Floppy drive (optional).
/media/cdrom[1-9]
CD-ROM drive (optional).
/media/cdrecorder[1-9]
CD writer (optional).
/media/zip[1-9]
Zip drive (optional).
/media/usb[1-9]
USB drive (optional).
/mnt This directory is a mount point for a temporarily mounted filesystem. In some dis‐
tributions, /mnt contains subdirectories intended to be used as mount points for sev‐
eral temporary filesystems.
/opt This directory should contain add-on packages that contain static files.
/proc This is a mount point for the proc filesystem, which provides information about run‐
ning processes and the kernel. This pseudo-filesystem is described in more detail in
proc(5).
/root This directory is usually the home directory for the root user (optional).
/run This directory contains information which describes the system since it was booted.
Once this purpose was served by /var/run and programs may continue to use it.
/sbin Like /bin, this directory holds commands needed to boot the system, but which are
usually not executed by normal users.
/srv This directory contains site-specific data that is served by this system.
/sys This is a mount point for the sysfs filesystem, which provides information about the
kernel like /proc, but better structured, following the formalism of kobject infra‐
structure.
/tmp This directory contains temporary files which may be deleted with no notice, such as
by a regular job or at system boot up.
/usr This directory is usually mounted from a separate partition. It should hold only
shareable, read-only data, so that it can be mounted by various machines running
Linux.
/usr/X11R6
The X-Window system, version 11 release 6 (present in FHS 2.3, removed in FHS 3.0).
/usr/X11R6/bin
Binaries which belong to the X-Window system; often, there is a symbolic link from
the more traditional /usr/bin/X11 to here.
/usr/X11R6/lib
Data files associated with the X-Window system.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11
These contain miscellaneous files needed to run X. Often, there is a symbolic link
from /usr/lib/X11 to this directory.
/usr/X11R6/include/X11
Contains header files needed for compiling programs using the X11 window system. Of‐
ten, there is a symbolic link from /usr/include/X11 to this directory.
/usr/bin
This is the primary directory for executable programs. Most programs executed by
normal users which are not needed for booting or for repairing the system and which
are not installed locally should be placed in this directory.
/usr/bin/mh
Commands for the MH mail handling system (optional).
/usr/bin/X11
This is the traditional place to look for X11 executables; on Linux, it usually is a
symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/bin.
/usr/dict
Replaced by /usr/share/dict.
/usr/doc
Replaced by /usr/share/doc.
/usr/etc
Site-wide configuration files to be shared between several machines may be stored in
this directory. However, commands should always reference those files using the /etc
directory. Links from files in /etc should point to the appropriate files in
/usr/etc.
/usr/games
Binaries for games and educational programs (optional).
/usr/include
Include files for the C compiler.
/usr/include/bsd
BSD compatibility include files (optional).
/usr/include/X11
Include files for the C compiler and the X-Window system. This is usually a symbolic
link to /usr/X11R6/include/X11.
/usr/include/asm
Include files which declare some assembler functions. This used to be a symbolic
link to /usr/src/linux/include/asm.
/usr/include/linux
This contains information which may change from system release to system release and
used to be a symbolic link to /usr/src/linux/include/linux to get at operating-sys‐
tem-specific information.
(Note that one should have include files there that work correctly with the current
libc and in user space. However, Linux kernel source is not designed to be used with
user programs and does not know anything about the libc you are using. It is very
likely that things will break if you let /usr/include/asm and /usr/include/linux
point at a random kernel tree. Debian systems don't do this and use headers from a
known good kernel version, provided in the libc*-dev package.)
/usr/include/g++
Include files to use with the GNU C++ compiler.
/usr/lib
Object libraries, including dynamic libraries, plus some executables which usually
are not invoked directly. More complicated programs may have whole subdirectories
there.
/usr/libexec
Directory contains binaries for internal use only and they are not meant to be exe‐
cuted directly by users shell or scripts.
/usr/lib<qual>
These directories are variants of /usr/lib on system which support more than one bi‐
nary format requiring separate libraries, except that the symbolic link
/usr/libqual/X11 is not required (optional).
/usr/lib/X11
The usual place for data files associated with X programs, and configuration files
for the X system itself. On Linux, it usually is a symbolic link to
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11.
/usr/lib/gcc-lib
contains executables and include files for the GNU C compiler, gcc(1).
/usr/lib/groff
Files for the GNU groff document formatting system.
/usr/lib/uucp
Files for uucp(1).
/usr/local
This is where programs which are local to the site typically go.
/usr/local/bin
Binaries for programs local to the site.
/usr/local/doc
Local documentation.
/usr/local/etc
Configuration files associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/games
Binaries for locally installed games.
/usr/local/lib
Files associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/lib<qual>
These directories are variants of /usr/local/lib on system which support more than
one binary format requiring separate libraries (optional).
/usr/local/include
Header files for the local C compiler.
/usr/local/info
Info pages associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/man
Man pages associated with locally installed programs.
/usr/local/sbin
Locally installed programs for system administration.
/usr/local/share
Local application data that can be shared among different architectures of the same
OS.
/usr/local/src
Source code for locally installed software.
/usr/man
Replaced by /usr/share/man.
/usr/sbin
This directory contains program binaries for system administration which are not es‐
sential for the boot process, for mounting /usr, or for system repair.
/usr/share
This directory contains subdirectories with specific application data, that can be
shared among different architectures of the same OS. Often one finds stuff here that
used to live in /usr/doc or /usr/lib or /usr/man.
/usr/share/color
Contains color management information, like International Color Consortium (ICC)
Color profiles (optional).
/usr/share/dict
Contains the word lists used by spell checkers (optional).
/usr/share/dict/words
List of English words (optional).
/usr/share/doc
Documentation about installed programs (optional).
/usr/share/games
Static data files for games in /usr/games (optional).
/usr/share/info
Info pages go here (optional).
/usr/share/locale
Locale information goes here (optional).
/usr/share/man
Manual pages go here in subdirectories according to the man page sections.
/usr/share/man/locale/man[1-9]
These directories contain manual pages for the specific locale in source code form.
Systems which use a unique language and code set for all manual pages may omit the
<locale> substring.
/usr/share/misc
Miscellaneous data that can be shared among different architectures of the same OS.
/usr/share/nls
The message catalogs for native language support go here (optional).
/usr/share/ppd
Postscript Printer Definition (PPD) files (optional).
/usr/share/sgml
Files for SGML (optional).
/usr/share/sgml/docbook
DocBook DTD (optional).
/usr/share/sgml/tei
TEI DTD (optional).
/usr/share/sgml/html
HTML DTD (optional).
/usr/share/sgml/mathml
MathML DTD (optional).
/usr/share/terminfo
The database for terminfo (optional).
/usr/share/tmac
Troff macros that are not distributed with groff (optional).
/usr/share/xml
Files for XML (optional).
/usr/share/xml/docbook
DocBook DTD (optional).
/usr/share/xml/xhtml
XHTML DTD (optional).
/usr/share/xml/mathml
MathML DTD (optional).
/usr/share/zoneinfo
Files for timezone information (optional).
/usr/src
Source files for different parts of the system, included with some packages for ref‐
erence purposes. Don't work here with your own projects, as files below /usr should
be read-only except when installing software (optional).
/usr/src/linux
This was the traditional place for the kernel source. Some distributions put here
the source for the default kernel they ship. You should probably use another direc‐
tory when building your own kernel.
/usr/tmp
Obsolete. This should be a link to /var/tmp. This link is present only for compati‐
bility reasons and shouldn't be used.
/var This directory contains files which may change in size, such as spool and log files.
/var/account
Process accounting logs (optional)
/var/adm
This directory is superseded by /var/log and should be a symbolic link to /var/log.
/var/backups
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/cache
Data cached for programs.
/var/cache/fonts
Locally generated fonts (optional).
/var/cache/man
Locally formatted man pages (optional).
/var/cache/www
WWW proxy or cache data (optional).
/var/cache/<package>
Package specific cache data (optional).
/var/catman/cat[1-9] or /var/cache/man/cat[1-9]
These directories contain preformatted manual pages according to their man page sec‐
tion. (The use of preformatted manual pages is deprecated.)
/var/crash
System crash dumps (optional).
/var/cron
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/games
Variable game data (optional).
/var/lib
Variable state information for programs.
/var/lib/color
Variable files containing color management information (optional).
/var/lib/hwclock
State directory for hwclock (optional).
/var/lib/misc
Miscellaneous state data.
/var/lib/xdm
X display manager variable data (optional).
/var/lib/<editor>
Editor backup files and state (optional).
/var/lib/<name>
These directories must be used for all distribution packaging support.
/var/lib/<package>
State data for packages and subsystems (optional).
/var/lib/<pkgtool>
Packaging support files (optional).
/var/local
Variable data for /usr/local.
/var/lock
Lock files are placed in this directory. The naming convention for device lock files
is LCK..<device> where <device> is the device's name in the filesystem. The format
used is that of HDU UUCP lock files, that is, lock files contain a PID as a 10-byte
ASCII decimal number, followed by a newline character.
/var/log
Miscellaneous log files.
/var/opt
Variable data for /opt.
/var/mail
Users' mailboxes. Replaces /var/spool/mail.
/var/msgs
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/preserve
Reserved for historical reasons.
/var/run
Run-time variable files, like files holding process identifiers (PIDs) and logged
user information (utmp). Files in this directory are usually cleared when the system
boots.
/var/spool
Spooled (or queued) files for various programs.
/var/spool/at
Spooled jobs for at(1).
/var/spool/cron
Spooled jobs for cron(8).
/var/spool/lpd
Spooled files for printing (optional).
/var/spool/lpd/printer
Spools for a specific printer (optional).
/var/spool/mail
Replaced by /var/mail.
/var/spool/mqueue
Queued outgoing mail (optional).
/var/spool/news
Spool directory for news (optional).
/var/spool/rwho
Spooled files for rwhod(8) (optional).
/var/spool/smail
Spooled files for the smail(1) mail delivery program.
/var/spool/uucp
Spooled files for uucp(1) (optional).
/var/tmp
Like /tmp, this directory holds temporary files stored for an unspecified duration.
/var/yp
Database files for NIS, formerly known as the Sun Yellow Pages (YP).
STANDARDS
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), Version 3.0, published March 19, 2015
BUGS
This list is not exhaustive; different distributions and systems may be configured differ‐
ently.
SEE ALSO
find(1), ln(1), proc(5), file-hierarchy(7), mount(8)
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
