h1. Directory structure

The directory layout of a Karaf installation is as follows:
* {{/bin}}: startup scripts
* {{/etc}}: configuration files
* {{/data}}: working directory 
** {{/cache}}: OSGi framework bundle cache
** {{/generated-bundles}}: temporary folder used by the deployer
** {{/log}}: log files
* {{/deploy}}: hot deploy directory
* {{/instances}}: directory containing [child instances|child-instances]
* {{/lib}}: contains the bootstrap libraries
** {{/lib/ext}}: directory for JRE extensions
** {{/lib/endorsed}}: directory for endorsed libraries
* {{/system}}: OSGi bundles repository, laid out as a Maven 2 repository

{tip}
The {{data}} folder contains all the working and temporary files for Karaf.  If you want to restart from a clean state, you can wipe out this directory, which has the same effect as [using the clean option|start-stop#Starting Karaf from clean].
{tip}

	
