Attention

TYPO3 v8 has reached its end-of-life March 31st, 2020 and is not maintained by the community anymore. Looking for a stable version? Use the version switch on the top left.

You can order Extended Long Term Support (ELTS) here: TYPO3 ELTS.

The Package in Detail

TYPO3 Folders and Files

The following files and folders are part of the TYPO3 package. In case of a composer based installation, only the necessary files will be linked in the web root. You can find the full package in vendor/typo3/cms/.

typo3/

contains the TYPO3 source code, files, images and scripts distributed with TYPO3.

index.php

the main script for the website Frontend

_.htaccess

contains an example configuration for Apache web servers, which can improve performance. It is not used by default. To activate it, copy the file to .htaccess in your document root.

NEWS.md

describes what has changed in the TYPO3 Source since the last major version. Read this carefully if you are going to update your system!

INSTALL.md

contains system requirements and a short installation how-to.

All these files are part of the TYPO3 Core. You should never change them and you can make them write-protected, if you like! They are the ones you must upgrade when you install a new version of TYPO3.

Site specific Folders and Documents

The following files and folders will be created during the installation of TYPO3:

fileadmin/

contains your site assets and files, local to the website. You can e.g. put images, user uploads and other assets here. By default this folder is used to store files, which have been uploaded in the TYPO3 Backend (fileadmin/ is configured as the first default storage). fileadmin/ must be writable for the web server user. Files in fileadmin/ are for editors, you should not put any site configuration files here. Exclude the fileadmin/ folder from your version control to make sure not to mix development files and user files.

typo3conf/

contains configuration, extensions and translations for the local site.

typo3conf/ext/

will hold the local extensions available for this installation. Can be managed through the Extension Manager.

typo3conf/l10n/

will hold translations for the TYPO3 Backend of this installation.

typo3conf/LocalConfiguration.php

is the main configuration file of your installation and the one the customized values of all the Install Tool options get written to. It has to be writable and will be updated automatically by the Install Tool and the Extension Manager. You can edit this file manually, but make sure you keep the PHP syntax working.

typo3conf/PackageStates.php

contains information about the extensions, which are available in your system.

typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.php

is an additional configuration file, which is executed on every request after the LocalConfiguration.php has been loaded. It can be used to manipulate the configuration of $GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']. This file is not created automatically; create it, if you need it.

typo3temp/

will be empty at the beginning. But gradually temporary files will appear here. The directory must be writable for the web server user.

uploads/

(deprecated) contains folders used to store documents attached to database records, hence must be writable by the web server. This folder is used for compatibility reasons with older TYPO3 releases and extensions. Newer extensions and the TYPO3 core do not use this folder anymore; instead files should be managed by the File Abstraction Layer inside the default storage (fileadmin).

Custom folders?

Yes, just add whatever you like. Why not?