JMeter - Folder Structure | Purpose of bin, lib folders in JMeter |

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After simply unzipping the downloaded file of Apache JMeter you can see some folders in the main directory of apache-jmeter-<version> which are:

/backups:
/bin: Contains JMeter script file for starting JMeter
/docs: JMeter documentation files
/extras: ant related extra files
/lib/: Contains the required Java library for JMeter
- /lib/ext: contains the core jar files for JMeter and the protocols
- /lib/junit: JUnit library used for JMeter
/licenses:
/printable_docs:
LICENSE
NOTICE
README.md

Note: The above folder structure is related to Apache JMeter version 5.3. If the JMeter version is different then there could be a change in the folder structure.

While learning the basics of Apache JMeter, it is good to understand the folder structure of JMeter so that you get to know which are the important files or folders and where they are located.

Above is the folder structure of JMeter. Each folder contains sub-folders or files. Starting with the root folder.

Root Folder:

‘apache-jmeter-<jmeter version number> is the root folder which contains all the JMeter-related folders and files. In the above example, apache-jmeter-5.3 is the root folder.

/backup Folder:

Under this root folder, the first folder which you will get is ‘/backup’ folder. If you haven’t done scripting yet then you may not get this folder. Because this folder is created by JMeter when you start scripting. At the time of the first script, JMeter automatically creates this folder and saves the script in it after a certain interval. These backup files are in .jmx format. There is a limit to the number of backups taken by JMeter for a particular script. This limit can be changed by modifying the respective value in the jmeter.properties file.

/bin folder:

The next folder is the ‘bin’ folder. This is an import folder where all the binary files are located. All the executable files of JMeter are in the bin folder just like jmeter.bat, jmeter.sh, heapdump.sh etc. You can use jmeter.bat file to launch the JMeter in GUI mode. Apart from the executable file, JMeter log file, Security Certificate, config file, groovy file and properties files (like jmeter.properties, user.properties etc.) are also available in the bin folder. There are 3 sub-folders i.e. examples, report templates and templates are also present in the bin folder. The examples sub-folder contain some simple example of CSV file and script. The ‘report templates’ and ‘templates’ subfolder contains the template for the JMeter report and test plan respectively.

/doc Folder:

The docs folder contains image, CSS and API subfolder. The stuff in this folder is helpful for JMeter documentation and presentation. The image subfolder contains the JMeter logo, the CSS subfolder contains the related style.css file etc.

/extras Folder:

This folder contains XML, XSL, BSH, and sh files which are supporting files for JMeter GUI.

/lib Folder:

The lib folder contains all the executable jar files which are required for JMeter functioning. These files are as same as jar file of java. /lib folder contains two subfolders /ext and /JUnit. The /ext or extension sub-folders are useful when you add an external plugin in the JMeter.

/license Folder:

The next folder is named as Licenses folder. As a legal process, Apache and other companies produce the licenses, terms and conditions, notices, copyrights etc. to use and distribute the executable jar files which are in the lib folder. All the licenses and notices are located in this folder.

/printable_docs Folder:

The last folder is printable_docs, in which you can see JMeter-related documents, demos, and JMeter tutorials in PDF format which are under extending sub-folder and user manuals in HTML format. If you want to open any file just double-click on it and the related topic will be opened.

Along with the folders which we have discussed above, you will also get three files which are License, Notice and Readme.md. These files belong to the overall Apache JMeter license, terms and conditions and copyrights notice.