File locations

Default file locations

The following table lists the default location of the Neo4j files, per type and distribution.

Table 1. Default file locations
File type	Description	Linux / macOS / Docker	Windows	Debian / RPM	Neo4j Desktop ^[1]
Bin	The Neo4j running script and built-in tools, such as Cypher Shell and Neo4j Admin.	<neo4j-home>/bin	<neo4j-home>\bin	/usr/bin	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd bin`.
Certificates	The Neo4j TLS certificates.	<neo4j-home>/certificates	<neo4j-home>\certificates	/var/lib/neo4j/certificates	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd certificates`.
Configuration ^[2]	The Neo4j configuration settings, Log4j configuration settings, and the JMX access credentials.	<neo4j-home>/conf/neo4j.conf	<neo4j-home>\conf\neo4j.conf	/etc/neo4j/neo4j.conf	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd conf`.
Data ^[3]	All data-related content, such as databases, transactions, cluster-state (if applicable), dumps, and the cypher.script files (from the `neo4j-admin database restore` command).	<neo4j-home>/data	<neo4j-home>\data	/var/lib/neo4j/data	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd data`.
Import	All CSV files that the command `LOAD CSV` uses as sources to import data in Neo4j.	<neo4j-home>/import	<neo4j-home>\import	/var/lib/neo4j/import	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd import`.
Labs ^[4]	Contains APOC Core.	<neo4j-home>/labs	<neo4j-home>\labs	/var/lib/neo4j/labs	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd labs`.
Lib	All Neo4j dependencies.	<neo4j-home>/lib	<neo4j-home>\lib	/usr/share/neo4j/lib	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd lib`.
Licenses	For storing license files from Neo4j.	<neo4j-home>/licenses	<neo4j-home>\licenses	/var/lib/neo4j/licenses	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd licences`.
Logs	The Neo4j log files.	<neo4j-home>/logs ^[5]	<neo4j-home>\logs	/var/log/neo4j/ ^[6]	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd logs`.
Metrics	The Neo4j built-in metrics for monitoring the Neo4j DBMS and each individual database.	<neo4j-home>/metrics	<neo4j-home>\metrics	/var/lib/neo4j/metrics	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd metrics`.
Plugins	Custom code that extends Neo4j, for example, user-defined procedures, functions, and security plugins.	<neo4j-home>/plugins	<neo4j-home>\plugins	/var/lib/neo4j/plugins	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd plugins`.
Products	The jar files of the Neo4j products: Graph Data Science Library and Bloom. The folder also contains a README.txt file with information on enabling them.	<neo4j-home>/products	<neo4j-home>\products	/var/lib/neo4j/products	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd products`.
Run	The processes IDs.	<neo4j-home>/run	<neo4j-home>\run	/var/lib/neo4j/run	From the Open dropdown menu of your active Neo4j DBMS, select Terminal, and run `cd run`.
1. Applicable to all operating systems where Neo4j Desktop is supported. 2. For details about neo4j.conf, see The neo4j.conf file. 3. The data directory is internal to Neo4j and its structure is subject to change between versions without notice. 4. For more information, see APOC User Guide → Installation. 5. To view neo4j.log in Docker, use `docker logs <containerID/name>`. 6. To view the neo4j.log for Debian and RPM, use `journalctl --unit=neo4j`.

Customize your file locations

The file locations can also be customized by using environment variables and options.

The locations of <neo4j-home> and conf can be configured using environment variables:

Table 2. Configuration of *<neo4j-home>* and *conf*
Location	Default	Environment variable	Notes
<neo4j-home>	parent of bin	`NEO4J_HOME`	Must be set explicitly if bin is not a subdirectory.
conf	<neo4j-home>/conf	`NEO4J_CONF`	Must be set explicitly if it is not a subdirectory of <neo4j-home>.

The rest of the locations can be configured by uncommenting the respective setting in the conf/neo4j.conf file and changing the default value.

#dbms.directories.data=data
#dbms.directories.plugins=plugins
#dbms.directories.logs=logs
#dbms.directories.lib=lib
#dbms.directories.run=run
#dbms.directories.licenses=licenses
#dbms.directories.metrics=metrics
#dbms.directories.transaction.logs.root=data/transactions
#dbms.directories.dumps.root=data/dumps
#dbms.directories.import=import

File permissions

The operating system user that Neo4j server runs as must have the following minimal permissions:

Read only

bin
certificates
conf
import
labs
lib
licenses
plugins
products

Read and write

data
logs
metrics
run

Execute

all files in bin and tmp

If tmp is set to noexec, it is recommended to set dbms.jvm.additional=-Djava.io.tmpdir=/home/neo4j in conf/neo4j.conf. Additionally, replace /home/neo4j with a path that has exec permissions.

For /bin/cypher-shell, set this via an environment variable: export JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.io.tmpdir=/home/neo4j and replace /home/neo4j with a path that has exec permissions.