/var/

Welcome to /var/.

Introduction

/var stands for "variable" and is a standard sub-directory of the root directory in Unix-like operating systems that contains files to which the system writes data during the course of its operation.
A memory-based file system is sometimes mounted at /var. This can be automated using the varmfs-related variables in rc.conf(5) or with an entry in /etc/fstab; refer to mdmfs(8) for details.

Content

Directory	Description
/var/account	Process accounting is a security method in which an administrator may keep track of system resources used and their allocation among users, provide for system monitoring, and minimally track a user's commands. On GhostBSD no content
/var/agentx	On GhostBSD no content
/var/at	Two folder: /var/at/jobs; /var/at/spool; On GhostBSD no content
/var/audit	On GhostBSD no content
/var/authpf	On GhostBSD no content
/var/backups	On GhostBSD no content
/var/cache	Application cache data; /var/cache is intended for cached data from applications. Such data is locally generated as a result of time-consuming I/O or calculation. The application must be able to regenerate or restore the data. Unlike /var/spool, the cached files can be deleted without data loss. The data must remain valid between invocations of the application and rebooting the system. Files located under /var/cache may be expired in an application specific manner, by the system administrator, or both. The application must always be able to recover from manual deletion of these files (generally because of a disk space shortage). No other requirements are made on the data format of the cache directories.
/var/crash	System crash dumps; This directory holds system crash dumps. As of the date of this release of the standard, system crash dumps were not supported under Linux but may be supported by other systems which may comply with the FHS.
/var/cron
/var/db
/var/empty
/var/games	Variable game data; Any variable data relating to games in /usr should be placed here. /var/games should hold the variable data previously found in /usr; static data, such as help text, level descriptions, and so on, must remain elsewhere, such as /usr/share/games.
/var/heimdal
/var/lib	Variable state information; This hierarchy holds state information pertaining to an application or the system. State information is data that programs modify while they run, and that pertains to one specific host. Users must never need to modify files in /var/lib to configure a package's operation, and the specific file hierarchy used to store the data must not be exposed to regular users.
/var/log	Log files and directories; This directory contains miscellaneous log files. Most logs must be written to this directory or an appropriate subdirectory.
/var/mail	User mailbox files; The mail spool must be accessible through /var/mail and the mail spool files must take the form <username>. User mailbox files in this location must be stored in the standard UNIX mailbox format.
/var/msgs
/var/preserve
/var/run	Run-time variable data; This directory was once intended for system information data describing the system since it was booted. These functions have been moved to /run; this directory exists to ensure compatibility with systems and software using an older version of this specification.
/var/rwho
/var/spool	Application spool data; /var/spool contains data which are awaiting some kind of later processing. Data in /var/spool represents work to be done in the future (by a program, user, or administrator); often data is deleted after it has been processed.
/var/tmp	Temporary files preserved between system reboots; The /var/tmp directory is made available for programs that require temporary files or directories that are preserved between system reboots. Therefore, data stored in /var/tmp is more persistent than data in /tmp. Files and directories located in /var/tmp must not be deleted when the system is booted. Although data stored in /var/tmp is typically deleted in a site-specific manner, it is recommended that deletions occur at a less frequent interval than /tmp.
/var/unbound
/var/yp	Network Information Service (NIS) database files; Variable data for the Network Information Service (NIS), formerly known as the Sun Yellow Pages (YP), must be placed in this directory.
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