
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
     appearance 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
		 directory.

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

     Full	 If the first whitespace‐delimited word has a / character
		 after 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
     describing the same file occur consecutively.  It is not permitted for
     the same file to be mentioned using both a relative and a full file spec‐
     ification.

   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				  May 6, 2008				   BSD
