file-hierarchy(7)

file-hierarchy7

Systemd file system hierarchy requirements

Overview

Operating systems using the systemd(1) system and service manager are organized based on a file system hierarchy inspired by UNIX, as described in UAPI.9 Linux File System Hierarchy[1]. Additional requirements on when given parts of the hierarchy must be available during boot are listed in Mount Requirements[2].

Many of the paths described here can be queried with the systemd-path(1) tool.

Notes

1.

UAPI.9 Linux File System Hierarchy

https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/linux_file_system_hierarchy/

2.

Mount Requirements

https://systemd.io/MOUNT_REQUIREMENTS/

3.

File System Hierarchy

http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs-3.0.html

4.

XDG Base Directory Specification

https://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html

5.

XDG User Directories

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs

Releases

7 releases since Debian 8 (Jessie); the text changed 6 times.

  1. 8
  2. 9
  3. 10
  4. 11
  5. 12
  6. 13
  7. Arch

From systemd 262.1-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.