Userland (computing)

In operating systems, userland refers to an application space that is external to the kernel and is protected by privilege separation. More specifically, it can refer to the set of libraries provided by the operating system for performing input/output or otherwise interacting with the kernel and is often used interchangeably with user space in this context. It can also refer to non-kernel system components such as a shell or user utilities for manipulating filesystem objects that are collectively referred to as "the userland".

In the filesystem hierarchical sense, userland means storage space on the system disk that is not part of critical system storage, i.e., storage space used for storage of user files such as personal documents and other non system-critical data. On Unix-like systems alike this space typically resides in the Home directory.

See also

• User space