JIRA directory structure, startup/shutdown scripts, and log files

It's important for a JIRA administrator to know the JIRA directory structure really well because you will often need to take backups, make changes in the configuration files, and restore the system. All such activities need to be done on the server and have to be done through its respective directories.

The JIRA installation directory

The JIRA installation directory is the directory in which the JIRA application files and libraries are extracted. JIRA does not make changes nor does it save any data here.

If you have installed JIRA using automated Windows or Linux installers, then the JIRA installation directory is stored in the following locations:

• Windows: C:\Program Files\Atlassian\JIRA
• Linux: /opt/atlassian/jira

The startup and shutdown scripts are available in the bin directory under the JIRA installation directory:

• Startup script: bin/start-jira.bat or bin/start-jira.sh
• Shutdown script: bin/stop-jira.bat or bin/stop-jira.sh

The JIRA home directory

The JIRA home directory has important files that JIRA requires to work properly. Do not modify these files.

If you install JIRA using automated Windows or Linux installers, the default location of the JIRA home directory is stored in the following locations:

• Windows: C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Application Data\JIRA
• Linux: /var/atlassian/application-data/jira/

Subdirectories under the JIRA home directory

The following are the list of subdirectories under the JIRA home directory:

• data: The application data of the JIRA instance is stored here. Attachments and all its versions are stored under a subdirectory called attachments import. If you want to restore JIRA, the backfile needs to be placed in this directory.
• export: This directory is used to store automated backup files.
• log: The log files are stored here.
• cache: The cache files are stored here.
• tmp: During various runtime operations, such as import, export, and indexing, there are some temporary files that are generated. All such files are stored here.