1MTREE(5)		    BSD File Formats Manual		      MTREE(5)
2
3NAME
4     mtree — format of mtree dir hierarchy files
5
6DESCRIPTION
7     The mtree format is a textual format that describes a collection of
8     filesystem objects.  Such files are typically used to create or verify
9     directory hierarchies.
10
11   General Format
12     An mtree file consists of a series of lines, each providing information
13     about a single filesystem object.	Leading whitespace is always ignored.
14
15     When encoding file or pathnames, any backslash character or character
16     outside of the 95 printable ASCII characters must be encoded as a back‐
17     slash followed by three octal digits.  When reading mtree files, any ap‐
18     pearance of a backslash followed by three octal digits should be con‐
19     verted into the corresponding character.
20
21     Each line is interpreted independently as one of the following types:
22
23     Blank	 Blank lines are ignored.
24
25     Comment	 Lines beginning with # are ignored.
26
27     Special	 Lines beginning with / are special commands that influence
28		 the interpretation of later lines.
29
30     Relative	 If the first whitespace-delimited word has no / characters,
31		 it is the name of a file in the current directory.  Any rela‐
32		 tive entry that describes a directory changes the current di‐
33		 rectory.
34
35     dot-dot	 As a special case, a relative entry with the filename ..
36		 changes the current directory to the parent directory.  Op‐
37		 tions on dot-dot entries are always ignored.
38
39     Full	 If the first whitespace-delimited word has a / character af‐
40		 ter the first character, it is the pathname of a file rela‐
41		 tive to the starting directory.  There can be multiple full
42		 entries describing the same file.
43
44     Some tools that process mtree files may require that multiple lines de‐
45     scribing the same file occur consecutively.  It is not permitted for the
46     same file to be mentioned using both a relative and a full file specifi‐
47     cation.
48
49   Special commands
50     Two special commands are currently defined:
51
52     /set	 This command defines default values for one or more keywords.
53		 It is followed on the same line by one or more whitespace-
54		 separated keyword definitions.  These definitions apply to
55		 all following files that do not specify a value for that key‐
56		 word.
57
58     /unset	 This command removes any default value set by a previous /set
59		 command.  It is followed on the same line by one or more key‐
60		 words separated by whitespace.
61
62   Keywords
63     After the filename, a full or relative entry consists of zero or more
64     whitespace-separated keyword definitions.	Each such definition consists
65     of a key from the following list immediately followed by an '=' sign and
66     a value.  Software programs reading mtree files should warn about unrec‐
67     ognized keywords.
68
69     Currently supported keywords are as follows:
70
71     cksum	 The checksum of the file using the default algorithm speci‐
72		 fied by the cksum(1) utility.
73
74     device	 The device number for block or char file types.  The value
75		 must be one of the following forms:
76
77		 format,major,minor[,subunit]
78		       A device with major, minor and optional subunit fields.
79		       Their meaning is specified by the operating's system
80		       format.	See below for valid formats.
81
82		 number
83		       Opaque number (as stored on the file system).
84
85		 The following values for format are recognized: native,
86		 386bsd, 4bsd, bsdos, freebsd, hpux, isc, linux, netbsd, osf1,
87		 sco, solaris, sunos, svr3, svr4, and ultrix.
88
89		 See mknod(8) for more details.
90
91     contents	 The full pathname of a file that holds the contents of this
92		 file.
93
94     flags	 The file flags as a symbolic name.  See chflags(1) for infor‐
95		 mation on these names.  If no flags are to be set the string
96		 “none” may be used to override the current default.
97
98     gid	 The file group as a numeric value.
99
100     gname	 The file group as a symbolic name.
101
102     ignore	 Ignore any file hierarchy below this file.
103
104     inode	 The inode number.
105
106     link	 The target of the symbolic link when type=link.
107
108     md5	 The MD5 message digest of the file.
109
110     md5digest	 A synonym for md5.
111
112     mode	 The current file's permissions as a numeric (octal) or sym‐
113		 bolic value.
114
115     nlink	 The number of hard links the file is expected to have.
116
117     nochange	 Make sure this file or directory exists but otherwise ignore
118		 all attributes.
119
120     optional	 The file is optional; do not complain about the file if it is
121		 not in the file hierarchy.
122
123     resdevice	 The “resident” device number of the file, e.g. the ID of the
124		 device that contains the file.  Its format is the same as the
125		 one for device.
126
127     ripemd160digest
128		 The RIPEMD160 message digest of the file.
129
130     rmd160	 A synonym for ripemd160digest.
131
132     rmd160digest
133		 A synonym for ripemd160digest.
134
135     sha1	 The FIPS 160-1 (“SHA-1”) message digest of the file.
136
137     sha1digest  A synonym for sha1.
138
139     sha256	 The FIPS 180-2 (“SHA-256”) message digest of the file.
140
141     sha256digest
142		 A synonym for sha256.
143
144     sha384	 The FIPS 180-2 (“SHA-384”) message digest of the file.
145
146     sha384digest
147		 A synonym for sha384.
148
149     sha512	 The FIPS 180-2 (“SHA-512”) message digest of the file.
150
151     sha512digest
152		 A synonym for sha512.
153
154     size	 The size, in bytes, of the file.
155
156     time	 The last modification time of the file.
157
158     type	 The type of the file; may be set to any one of the following:
159
160		 block	     block special device
161		 char	     character special device
162		 dir	     directory
163		 fifo	     fifo
164		 file	     regular file
165		 link	     symbolic link
166		 socket      socket
167
168     uid	 The file owner as a numeric value.
169
170     uname	 The file owner as a symbolic name.
171
172SEE ALSO
173     cksum(1), find(1), mtree(8)
174
175HISTORY
176     The mtree utility appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.  The MD5 digest capability was
177     added in FreeBSD 2.1, in response to the widespread use of programs which
178     can spoof cksum(1).  The SHA-1 and RIPEMD160 digests were added in
179     FreeBSD 4.0, as new attacks have demonstrated weaknesses in MD5.  The
180     SHA-256 digest was added in FreeBSD 6.0.  Support for file flags was
181     added in FreeBSD 4.0, and mostly comes from NetBSD.  The “full” entry
182     format was added by NetBSD.
183
184BSD			       September 4, 2013			   BSD
185