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 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:

     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.

     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 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.

     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 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.

     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.

BSD			       September 4, 2013			   BSD
