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In macOS, there are some standard directories, which can be in one of the user, local, system, or network domains. There are also some standard unix/posix directories.
This article will start by explaining what is the user, local, system, and network domain. After that, it will explain the standard directories, that belongs to these domains. Next it will explain the unix/posix directories. Finally it will elucidate, the other macos directories.
In macOs, there are some standard folders, these standard folders can be in one or multiple domains. The domains that a folder can be in are the:
The
user domain,
is the user directory,
it contains files and applications
and resources,
which are related to a given user.
This folder is located under the
/Users/username,
and it contains multiple folders, such as
the Applications folder, the
Library folder,
the Movies folder.
A user can make changes to his files.
The user directory can also be placed on the network.
The local domain is the domain which is related to the current computer, as such it contains applications, files, and resources, related to to the current computer, and shared among the users. The local domain contains multiple folders, and an administrator, can make changes to these folders and files.
# examples of folders in # the local domain. /Applications /Library ..
The
system domain,
contains resource files, and
applications, which are related to the system ,
and which are installed by apple.
The
/System
directory, placed under
the root directory
/,
is part of the system domain.
The network domain, are the applications, files and resources, which are located on a network, and shared by the users of a network.
There are multiple Applications folders, and they can be located under multiple domains.
The
Applications folder that belongs to the
local domain,
is placed under the root directory
/Applications.
It contains the applications that will be used by all
the users. These applications can be installed by
using apple store, or by dragging and dropping an
application into the application folder.
Applications under the
/Applications
folder, will appear under the launchpad.
An example of an application in the local domain is:
pages…
The
Applications
folder, that belong to the
user domain,
is placed under
/Users/username/Applications,
and it contains applications related to the user .
The
Applications folder,
that belong to the
system domain,
is placed under
/System/Applications, and it contains applications
installed by Apple. Applications under the
/System/Applications
folder, will appear under the launchpad. Examples
of such applications, are the App Store,
or Automator…
macBook:/System/Applications$ ls # Applications under the /System/Applications folder App Store.app Image Capture.app Preview.app Automator.app Launchpad.app QuickTime Player.app Books.app Mail.app Reminders.app Calculator.app Maps.app Siri.app Calendar.app Messages.app Stickies.app Chess.app Mission Control.app Stocks.app Contacts.app Music.app System Preferences.app Dictionary.app News.app TV.app FaceTime.app Notes.app TextEdit.app FindMy.app Photo Booth.app Time Machine.app Font Book.app Photos.app Utilities Home.app Podcasts.app VoiceMemos.app
A library is a collection of information, which is kept to be used. In macOs there are multiple library folders, and each of them belong to a different domain. A Library folder can contain cache files, resources, configurations, preferences… related to an application.
In
the user domain, the
Library
folder is used to store informations, about
the applications related to the current user.
It is located under the user directory:
/Users/username/Library .
macBook:/Users/username/Library$ ls # Library folder in the user domain # /Users/username/Library Accounts Keychains Application Scripts LaunchAgents Application Support Logs ColorPickers PersonalizationPortrait Colors Personas Containers PreferencePanes Fonts Sounds FrontBoard Spelling ... ... .
In
the local domain,
the
Library
folder is located under
the root directory
/Library,
and it contains informations related to an
application(s), and shared by all the users of
this application(s).
macBook:/Library$ ls # Library folder in the local domain # /Library ColorPickers Java Ruby Components Keychains Fonts Frameworks Preferences Python ... .... .
In
the
system domain,
the
Library
folder is
located under
/System/Library.
This
folder is used by macOS, and it will contains
files and resources, related to system applications.
macBook:/System$ ls Library/ # Library folder under the system domain # /System/Library AWD Filesystems PreferencePanes Accessibility Filters Preferences .. .
The Library folder, contains some subfolders, that can be used by all the installed applications, and they are:
Home Library/Application Support
Library/Caches
Library/Frameworks
Library/Preferences
The Application Support folder, contains files to support the application. Applications can place inside this folder, their data and configuration files, in multiple domains.
If
the
Application Support
folder, is located under the
local domain
/Library/Application Support,
it will contain files related
to all the users.
If it is within the
user domain
/Users/username/Library/Application Support,
it will only contain files related to the current user.
For example, the App Store application, contains support
files in the local domain ,
and in the user domain .
macBook:/Library/Application Support/App Store$ ls # /Library/Application Support/App Store # files in the local domain, adoption.plist macBook:/Users/username/Library/Application Support/App Store$ ls # /Users/username/Library/Application Support/App Store # files in the user domain. StoreKit.db updatejournal.plist
Used for caching by an application. An application can recreate the content which is stored inside this folder, and this folder can belong to multiple domains. For example, an application can use the Caches folder, to download its update files.
macBook:~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iTunes$ ls # ~ stands for the user home directory # # /Users/username/Library/Caches/com.apple.iTunes # files under user domain. CommerceRequestCache
A framework, is the frame under which an application can work. As such the Frameworks directory, contains the libraries that are used, or needed, to create an application. The Frameworks directory, can belong to multiple domain. Under the system domain, the Frameworks directory contains the frameworks, needed to create an application.
macBook:/System/Library/Frameworks$ ls # Frameworks folder under the system # domain AVFoundation.framework ImageIO.framework AVKit.framework InputMethodKit.framework Cocoa.framework MetalKit.framework ColorSync.framework ModelIO.framework Contacts.framework MultipeerConnectivity.framework ContactsUI.framework NaturalLanguage.framework CoreAudio.framework NetFS.framework CoreAudioKit.framework Network.framework CoreML.framework PhotosUI.framework ...
Under the local domain , the Frameworks directory, contains frameworks needed to interact with a local application.
macBook:/Library/Frameworks$ ls # Frameworks folder under the local # domain iTunesLibrary.framework ... ..
The Preferences folder contains the application preferences, it can belong to multiple domains. If it is in the local domain, it is the preferences of the application for all users. If it is in the user domain, it is the user preferences for a given application. If it is in the system domain, it contains preferences for applications in the system domain.
macBook:/Library/Preferences$ ls # Preferences folder in the local # domain com.apple.PowerManagement.plist com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist com.apple.TimeMachine.plist com.apple.commerce.plist com.apple.dock.plist com.apple.driver.AppleIRController.plist com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist com.apple.security.plist macBook:/System/Library/Preferences$ ls # Preferences folder in the system # domain Calendar Logging ProtectedCloudStorage
The
/Network
folder, contains
files and resources, which belong to the
network domain.
As such it can contain a list of computers,
that are on the local network,
and which files and ressources can
be accessed.
The
/System
folder, contains files and
resources, which belong to the
system domain,
these files are
installed by apple,
and they shouldn't be modified.
macBook:/System$ tree -L 1 # List only the top level # directories in the /System # folder . |-- Applications |-- DriverKit |-- Library |-- Volumes |-- iOSSupport
The
/Users
folder,
belongs to the
user domain,
as such it contains user
related applications, files and
resources.
Each user has
its own user folder, which is located
under
/Users/username, and the user
user folder, is formed of many standard
subfolders, which are:
/Users/username/Applications:
contains user installed applications.
A user can install applications under the
user domain
~/Applications folder,
or under the
local domain
/Applications folder.
Those that are installed under the
local domain
/Applications
folder,
are shared between the users,
and those that are installed in the
user directory ~/Applications folder,
are user related
applications.
/Users/username/Desktop:
contains items located on the user's
Desktop. The desktop is the first
screen that the user sees,
when he logs into his computer.
/Users/username/Documents:
contains files created by the user.
Users/username/Downloads:
contains user files, that are downloaded from the internet.
/Users/username/Library :
The Library folder contains information to
be used by an application, such as its
data files, its configurations,
its ressources and preferences.
A Library folder can be in the
user domain,
or
in the
local domain,
or in the system domain.
If it is in the
user domain,
it contains application information
related to the current user,
if it is in the
local domain,
it
contains application information
related to all users.
/Users/username/Movies:
contains video files, related to the current user.
/Users/username/Music:
contains music files, related to the current user.
Users/username/Pictures:
contains user picture files .
/Users/username/Public:
contains files and folders, that a user wants to share,
with other users on the same machine, or on the network.
MacOs also has some unix directories, these directories are:
/bin:
This directory contains unix like user commands or utilities,
such as
ls,
which is used to get the list of files and directories.
macBook:/bin$ ls # The /bin directory contains user commands [ date hostname ls rm tcsh bash dd kill mkdir rmdir test cat df ksh mv sh unlink chmod echo launchctl pax sleep wait4path cp ed link ps stty zsh csh expr ln pwd sync
/dev:
contains some unix like device files, which allow
a user, to interact with a device, like he is interacting with a file.
macBook:/dev$ ls # device files, also known # as special files. HAX disk1 rdisk0 afsc_type5 disk1s1 rdisk0s1 auditpipe disk1s2 rdisk0s2 auditsessions disk1s3 rdisk1 autofs disk1s4 rdisk1s1 autofs_control dtrace rdisk1s2 autofs_homedirmounter dtracehelper rdisk1s3 autofs_notrigger fbt rdisk1s4 autofs_nowait fsevents sdt bpf0 io8log stderr bpf1 io8logmt stdin bpf2 io8logtemp stdout bpf3 klog systrace bpf4 lockstat urandom console machtrace vboxdrv cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port null vboxdrvu disk0 oslog vboxnetctl disk0s1 oslog_stream xcpm disk0s2 random
/etc:
This folder contains configurations files, for
unix applications, for example passwd or groups…
macBook:/etc$ ls # configuration files for unix/posix application apache2 ntp.conf auto_home passwd auto_master paths autofs.conf paths.d bashrc periodic csh.cshrc php-fpm.conf.default csh.login php-fpm.d csh.logout php.ini.default hosts rpc mach_init.d ssl mach_init_per_login_session.d sudo_lecture mach_init_per_user.d sudoers mail.rc sudoers.d man.conf syslog.conf manpaths ttys manpaths.d vpns1.2.4.1 ... ..
/sbin:
contains unix utilities and commands, used by system
administrators, like for example commands used for
networking, or for the filesystem.
macBook:/sbin$ ls # The /sbin folder contains # system commands and utilities autodiskmount disklabel dmesg halt nologin mount_hfs ping fsck ping6 md5 reboot route shutdown umount ... ..
/tmp:
contains temporary files and folders,
created by applications and the system,
these temporary files can be deleted .
/usr:
this directory contains commands,
utilities, libraries and shared
resources, which are not essential for the system.
macBook:/usr$ ls # The /usr directory content bin libexec sbin standalone lib local share .. .
/var:
contains data, which content and size might change, such as log files.
@MacBook:/var$ ls # The /var directory content mail log msgs ... ..
/opt:
contains optional commands, binaries,
libraries and ressources, which are not part of a unix distribution.
/Volumes:
This is where all the volumes are mounted, for example
the hard drive is found in here.
macBook:/Volumes$ tree -dlL 2
# print directories tree in Volumes
# -d : show only the directories
# l : follow symbolic links
# L 2 : show only level one and
# level two directories
.
|-- Macintosh\ HD -> /
|-- Applications
|-- Library
|-- Network
|-- System
|-- Users
|-- Volumes
|-- bin
|-- cores
|-- dev
|-- etc -> private/etc
|-- home
|-- net
|-- opt
|-- private
|-- sbin
|-- tmp -> private/tmp
|-- usr
|-- var -> private/var
/cores:
contains core dumps, as in when an application has
crashed.
/private:
this is a folder which contains the
etc,
tmp and
var
folders, described earlier.
/etc,
/tmp
and
/var,
are symbolic links to folders inside this directory.