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 backslash followed by three octal digits.  When reading mtree files, any
       appearance of a backslash followed by three octal digits  should  be  converted  into  the  corresponding
       character.

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

       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 relative  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 relative 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 specification.

   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 keyword.

       /unset      This command removes any default value set by a previous /set command.  It is followed on the
                   same line by one or more keywords 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 unrecognized keywords.

       Currently supported keywords are as follows:

       cksum       The checksum of the file using the default algorithm specified by the cksum(1) utility.

       device      The  device  number  for  block  or  char file types.  The value must be one of the following
                   forms:

                   format,major,minor[,subunit]
                         A device with major, minor and optional subunit fields.  Their meaning is specified  by
                         the operating's system format.  See below for valid formats.

                   number
                         Opaque number (as stored on the file system).

                   The  following  values for format are recognized: native, 386bsd, 4bsd, bsdos, freebsd, hpux,
                   isc, linux, netbsd, osf1, sco, solaris, sunos, svr3, svr4, and ultrix.

                   See mknod(8) for more details.

       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 information 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.

       inode       The inode number.

       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 symbolic 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.

       optional    The file is optional; do not complain about the file if it is not in the file hierarchy.

       resdevice   The  “resident”  device number of the file, e.g. the ID of the device that contains the file.
                   Its format is the same as the one for device.

       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.

       sha384      The FIPS 180-2 (“SHA-384”) message digest of the file.

       sha384digest
                   A synonym for sha384.

       sha512      The FIPS 180-2 (“SHA-512”) message digest of the file.

       sha512digest
                   A synonym for sha512.

       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)

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.

Debian                                          September 4, 2013                                       MTREE(5)