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MTREE(5)		      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 ig-
       nored.

       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
       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
		   relative  entry that	describes a directory changes the cur-
		   rent	directory.

       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
		   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 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
       specification.

   Special commands
       Two special commands are	currently defined:

       /set	   This	command	defines	default	values for one	or  more  key-
		   words.   It	is  followed  on  the same line	by one or more
		   whitespace-separated	keyword	 definitions.	These  defini-
		   tions  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 definitions con-
       sists 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	speci-
		   fied	by the cksum(1)	utility.

       contents	   The full pathname of	a file whose contents should  be  com-
		   pared to the	contents of this file.

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

       ignore	   Ignore any file hierarchy below this	file.

       gid	   The file group as a numeric value.

       gname	   The file group as a symbolic	name.

       md5	   The MD5 message digest of the file.

       md5digest   A synonym for md5.

       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.

       ripemd160digest
		   The RIPEMD160 message digest	of the file.

       rmd160	   A synonym for ripemd160digest.

       rmd160digest
		   A synonym for ripemd160digest.

       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 ig-
		   nore	all attributes.

       uid	   The file owner as a numeric value.

       uname	   The file owner as a symbolic	name.

       size	   The size, in	bytes, of the file.

       link	   The file the	symbolic link is expected to reference.

       time	   The last modification time of  the  file,  in  seconds  and
		   nanoseconds.	  The  value should include a period character
		   and exactly nine digits after the period.

       type	   The type of the file; may be	set to any one of the  follow-
		   ing:

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

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" en-
       try format was added by NetBSD.

BUGS
       The requirement for a "#mtree" signature	line is	new and	not yet	widely
       implemented.

FreeBSD	14.3		       December	31, 2007		      MTREE(5)

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