5.7. The file_t and default_t Types

When using a file system that supports extended attributes (EA), the file_t type is the default type for files that have not been assigned an EA value. This type is only used for this purpose and does not exist on correctly labeled file systems, because all files on a system running SELinux should have a proper SELinux context, and the file_t type is never used in file-context configuration^[8].

The default_t type is used on files that do not match any pattern in file-context configuration, so that such files can be distinguished from files that do not have a context on disk, and generally are kept inaccessible to confined domains. For example, if you create a new top-level directory, such as /mydirectory/, this directory may be labeled with the default_t type. If services need access to this directory, you need to update the file-context configuration for this location. See Section 5.6.2, “Persistent Changes: semanage fcontext” for details on adding a context to the file-context configuration.