Manpages - mtree.5

The

format is a textual format that describes a collection of filesystem objects. Such files are typically used to create or verify directory hierarchies.

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 lines are ignored.

Lines beginning with

are ignored.

Lines beginning with

are special commands that influence the interpretation of later lines.

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.

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.

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

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.

Two special commands are currently defined:

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.

This command removes any default value set by a previous

command. It is followed on the same line by one or more keywords separated by whitespace.

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:

The checksum of the file using the default algorithm specified by the

utility.

The device number for

file types. The value must be one of the following forms:

A device with

and optional

fields. Their meaning is specified by the operating’s system

See below for valid formats.

Opaque number (as stored on the file system).

The following values for

are recognized:

and

See

for more details.

The full pathname of a file that holds the contents of this file.

The file flags as a symbolic name. See

for information on these names. If no flags are to be set the string

may be used to override the current default.

The file group as a numeric value.

The file group as a symbolic name.

Ignore any file hierarchy below this file.

The inode number.

The target of the symbolic link when type=link.

The MD5 message digest of the file.

A synonym for

The current file’s permissions as a numeric (octal) or symbolic value.

The number of hard links the file is expected to have.

Make sure this file or directory exists but otherwise ignore all attributes.

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

The

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

The

message digest of the file.

A synonym for

The

160-1

message digest of the file.

A synonym for

The

180-2

message digest of the file.

A synonym for

The

180-2

message digest of the file.

A synonym for

The

180-2

message digest of the file.

A synonym for

The size, in bytes, of the file.

The last modification time of the file.

The type of the file; may be set to any one of the following:

block special device

character special device