mtree

MTREE(5)                    BSD File Formats Manual                   MTREE(5)

NAME
     mtree -- format of mtree dir hierarchy files

DESCRIPTION
     The mtree format is a textual format that describes a collection of
     filesystem objects.  Such files are typically used to create or verify
     directory hierarchies.

   General Format
     An mtree file consists of a series of lines, each providing information
     about a single filesystem object.  Leading whitespace is always ignored.

     When encoding file or pathnames, any backslash character or character
     outside of the 95 printable ASCII characters must be encoded as a a back-
     slash followed by three octal digits.  When reading mtree files, any ap-
     pearance of a backslash followed by three octal digits should be con-
     verted into the corresponding character.

     Each line is interpreted independently as one of the following types:

     Signature   The first line of any mtree file must begin with "#mtree".
                 If a file contains any full path entries, the first line
                 should begin with "#mtree v2.0", otherwise, the first line
                 should begin with "#mtree v1.0".

     Blank       Blank lines are ignored.

     Comment     Lines beginning with # are ignored.

     Special     Lines beginning with / are special commands that influence
                 the interpretation of later lines.

     Relative    If the first whitespace-delimited word has no / characters,
                 it is the name of a file in the current directory.  Any rela-
                 tive entry that describes a directory changes the current di-
                 rectory.

     dot-dot     As a special case, a relative entry with the filename ..
                 changes the current directory to the parent directory.  Op-
                 tions on dot-dot entries are always ignored.

     Full        If the first whitespace-delimited word has a / character af-
                 ter the first character, it is the pathname of a file rela-
                 tive to the starting directory.  There can be multiple full
                 entries describing the same file.

     Some tools that process mtree files may require that multiple lines de-
     scribing the same file occur consecutively.  It is not permitted for the
     same file to be mentioned using both a relative and a full file specifi-
     cation.

   Special commands
     Two special commands are currently defined:

     /set        This command defines default values for one or more keywords.
                 It is followed on the same line by one or more whitespace-
                 separated keyword definitions.  These definitions apply to
                 all following files that do not specify a value for that key-
                 word.

     /unset      This command removes any default value set by a previous /set
                 command.  It is followed on the same line by one or more key-
                 words separated by whitespace.

   Keywords
     After the filename, a full or relative entry consists of zero or more
     whitespace-separated keyword definitions.  Each such definition consists
     of a key from the following list immediately followed by an '=' sign and
     a value.  Software programs reading mtree files should warn about unrec-
     ognized keywords.

     Currently supported keywords are as follows:

     cksum       The checksum of the file using the default algorithm speci-
                 fied by the cksum(1) utility.

     contents    The full pathname of a file that holds the contents of this
                 file.

     flags       The file flags as a symbolic name.  See chflags(1) for infor-
                 mation on these names.  If no flags are to be set the string
                 "none" may be used to override the current default.

     gid         The file group as a numeric value.

     gname       The file group as a symbolic name.

     ignore      Ignore any file hierarchy below this file.

     link        The target of the symbolic link when type=link.

     md5         The MD5 message digest of the file.

     md5digest   A synonym for md5.

     mode        The current file's permissions as a numeric (octal) or sym-
                 bolic value.

     nlink       The number of hard links the file is expected to have.

     nochange    Make sure this file or directory exists but otherwise ignore
                 all attributes.

     ripemd160digest
                 The RIPEMD160 message digest of the file.

     rmd160      A synonym for ripemd160digest.

     rmd160digest
                 A synonym for ripemd160digest.

     sha1        The FIPS 160-1 ("SHA-1") message digest of the file.

     sha1digest  A synonym for sha1.

     sha256      The FIPS 180-2 ("SHA-256") message digest of the file.

     sha256digest
                 A synonym for sha256.

     size        The size, in bytes, of the file.

     time        The last modification time of the file.

     type        The type of the file; may be set to any one of the following:

                 block       block special device
                 char        character special device
                 dir         directory
                 fifo        fifo
                 file        regular file
                 link        symbolic link
                 socket      socket

     uid         The file owner as a numeric value.

     uname       The file owner as a symbolic name.

SEE ALSO
     cksum(1), find(1), mtree(8)

BUGS
     The FreeBSD implementation of mtree does not currently support the mtree
     2.0 format.  The requirement for a "#mtree" signature line is new and not
     yet widely implemented.

HISTORY
     The mtree utility appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.  The MD5 digest capability was
     added in FreeBSD 2.1, in response to the widespread use of programs which
     can spoof cksum(1).  The SHA-1 and RIPEMD160 digests were added in
     FreeBSD 4.0, as new attacks have demonstrated weaknesses in MD5.  The
     SHA-256 digest was added in FreeBSD 6.0.  Support for file flags was
     added in FreeBSD 4.0, and mostly comes from NetBSD.  The "full" entry
     format was added by NetBSD.

BSD                             August 20, 2007                            BSD