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 in this context is often used interchangeably with the term "user space". 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 file system 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, this space typically resides in the home directory.

See also

• User space