The Unix Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is a specification for standardizing where files and directories get installed on a Unix-like system. When you install CFEngine from source you can choose to build with FHS support, it places all files in their expected locations. In addition, you may choose to follow this standard in locating your master configuration and work areas.

CFEngine was introduced at about the same time as the FHS standard and since cfengine 2.x, CFEngine defaults to placing all components under /var/cfengine (similar to /var/cron):

Installing all components into the same sub-directory of /var is intended to increase the probability that all components are on a local file system. This agrees with the intention of the FHS as described in section 5.1 of the FHS-2.3. The location of this workspace is configurable, but the default is determined by backward compatibility. In other words, particular distributions may choose to use a different location, and some do.

References: - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-cfengine/2004-09/msg00181.html - https://groups.google.com/d/msg/help-cfengine/q9jVopHatXI/M8asmeAWTxQJ