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MTREE(8)                  BSD System Manager's Manual                 MTREE(8)

NAME
     mtree -- map a directory hierarchy

SYNOPSIS
     mtree [-bCcDdejLlMnPqrStUuWx] [-i | -m] [-E tags] [-F flavor] [-f spec]
           [-I tags] [-K keywords] [-k keywords] [-N dbdir] [-O onlyfile]
           [-p path] [-R keywords] [-s seed] [-X exclude-file]

DESCRIPTION
     The mtree utility compares a file hierarchy against a specification,
     creates a specification for a file hierarchy, or modifies a
     specification.

     The default action, if not overridden by command line options, is to
     compare the file hierarchy rooted in the current directory against a
     specification read from the standard input.  Messages are written to the
     standard output for any files whose characteristics do not match the
     specification, or which are missing from either the file hierarchy or the
     specification.

     The options are as follows:

     -b                 Suppress blank lines before entering and after exiting
                        directories.

     -C                 Convert a specification into a format that's easier to
                        parse with various tools.  The input specification is
                        read from standard input or from the file given by -f
                        spec.  In the output, each file or directory is
                        represented using a single line (which might be very
                        long).  The full path name (beginning with "./") is
                        always printed as the first field; -K, -k, and -R can
                        be used to control which other keywords are printed;
                        -E and -I can be used to control which files are
                        printed; and the -S option can be used to sort the
                        output.

     -c                 Print a specification for the file hierarchy
                        originating at the current working directory (or the
                        directory provided by -p path) to the standard output.
                        The output is in a style using relative path names.

     -D                 As per -C, except that the path name is always printed
                        as the last field instead of the first.

     -d                 Ignore everything except directory type files.

     -E tags            Add the comma separated tags to the "exclusion" list.
                        Non-directories with tags which are in the exclusion
                        list are not printed with -C and -D.

     -e                 Don't complain about files that are in the file
                        hierarchy, but not in the specification.

     -F flavor          Set the compatibility flavor of the mtree utility.
                        The flavor can be one of mtree, freebsd9, or netbsd6.
                        The default is mtree.  The freebsd9 and netbsd6
                        flavors attempt to preserve output compatiblity and
                        command line option backward compatibility with
                        FreeBSD 9.0 and NetBSD 6.0 respectively.

     -f spec            Read the specification from file, instead of from the
                        standard input.

                        If this option is specified twice, the two
                        specifications are compared to each other rather than
                        to the file hierarchy.  The specifications will be
                        sorted like output generated using -c.  The output
                        format in this case is somewhat reminiscent of
                        comm(1), having "in first spec only", "in second spec
                        only", and "different" columns, prefixed by zero, one
                        and two TAB characters respectively.  Each entry in
                        the "different" column occupies two lines, one from
                        each specification.

     -I tags            Add the comma separated tags to the "inclusion" list.
                        Non-directories with tags which are in the inclusion
                        list are printed with -C and -D.  If no inclusion list
                        is provided, the default is to display all files.

     -i                 If specified, set the schg and/or sappnd flags.

     -j                 Indent the output 4 spaces each time a directory level
                        is descended when creating a specification with the -c
                        option.  This does not affect either the /set
                        statements or the comment before each directory.  It
                        does however affect the comment before the close of
                        each directory.  This is the equivalent of the -i
                        option in the FreeBSD version of mtree.

     -K keywords        Add the specified (whitespace or comma separated)
                        keywords to the current set of keywords.  If 'all' is
                        specified, add all of the other keywords.

     -k keywords        Use the type keyword plus the specified (whitespace or
                        comma separated) keywords instead of the current set
                        of keywords.  If 'all' is specified, use all of the
                        other keywords.  If the type keyword is not desired,
                        suppress it with -R type.

     -L                 Follow all symbolic links in the file hierarchy.

     -l                 Do "loose" permissions checks, in which more stringent
                        permissions will match less stringent ones.  For
                        example, a file marked mode 0444 will pass a check for
                        mode 0644.  "Loose" checks apply only to read, write
                        and execute permissions -- in particular, if other
                        bits like the sticky bit or suid/sgid bits are set
                        either in the specification or the file, exact
                        checking will be performed.  This option may not be
                        set at the same time as the -U or -u option.

     -M                 Permit merging of specification entries with different
                        types, with the last entry taking precedence.

     -m                 If the schg and/or sappnd flags are specified, reset
                        these flags.  Note that this is only possible with
                        securelevel less than 1 (i.e., in single user mode or
                        while the system is running in insecure mode).  See
                        init(8) for information on security levels.

     -n                 Do not emit pathname comments when creating a
                        specification.  Normally a comment is emitted before
                        each directory and before the close of that directory
                        when using the -c option.

     -N dbdir           Use the user database text file master.passwd and
                        group database text file group from dbdir, rather than
                        using the results from the system's getpwnam(3) and
                        getgrnam(3) (and related) library calls.

     -O onlypaths       Only include files included in this list of pathnames.

     -P                 Don't follow symbolic links in the file hierarchy,
                        instead consider the symbolic link itself in any
                        comparisons.  This is the default.

     -p path            Use the file hierarchy rooted in path, instead of the
                        current directory.

     -q                 Quiet mode.  Do not complain when a "missing"
                        directory cannot be created because it already exists.
                        This occurs when the directory is a symbolic link.

     -R keywords        Remove the specified (whitespace or comma separated)
                        keywords from the current set of keywords.  If 'all'
                        is specified, remove all of the other keywords.

     -r                 Remove any files in the file hierarchy that are not
                        described in the specification.

     -S                 When reading a specification into an internal data
                        structure, sort the entries.  Sorting will affect the
                        order of the output produced by the -C or -D options,
                        and will also affect the order in which missing
                        entries are created or reported when a directory tree
                        is checked against a specification.

                        The sort order is the same as that used by the -c
                        option, which is that entries within the same
                        directory are sorted in the order used by strcmp(3),
                        except that entries for subdirectories sort after
                        other entries.  By default, if the -S option is not
                        used, entries within the same directory are collected
                        together (separated from entries for other
                        directories), but not sorted.

     -s seed            Display a single checksum to the standard error output
                        that represents all of the files for which the keyword
                        cksum was specified.  The checksum is seeded with the
                        specified value.

     -t                 Modify the modified time of existing files, the device
                        type of devices, and symbolic link targets, to match
                        the specification.

     -U                 Same as -u except that a mismatch is not considered to
                        be an error if it was corrected.

     -u                 Modify the owner, group, permissions, and flags of
                        existing files, the device type of devices, and
                        symbolic link targets, to match the specification.
                        Create any missing directories, devices or symbolic
                        links.  User, group, and permissions must all be
                        specified for missing directories to be created.  Note
                        that unless the -i option is given, the schg and
                        sappnd flags will not be set, even if specified.  If
                        -m is given, these flags will be reset.  Exit with a
                        status of 0 on success, 2 if the file hierarchy did
                        not match the specification, and 1 if any other error
                        occurred.

     -W                 Don't attempt to set various file attributes such as
                        the ownership, mode, flags, or time when creating new
                        directories or changing existing entries.  This option
                        will be most useful when used in conjunction with -U
                        or -u.

     -X exclude-file    The specified file contains fnmatch(3) patterns
                        matching files to be excluded from the specification,
                        one to a line.  If the pattern contains a '/'
                        character, it will be matched against entire pathnames
                        (relative to the starting directory); otherwise, it
                        will be matched against basenames only.  Comments are
                        permitted in the exclude-list file.

     -x                 Don't descend below mount points in the file
                        hierarchy.

     Specifications are mostly composed of "keywords", i.e. strings that that
     specify values relating to files.  No keywords have default values, and
     if a keyword has no value set, no checks based on it are performed.

     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 to use for block or char file types.
                     The argument must be one of the following forms:

                     format,major,minor
                           A device with major and minor fields, for an
                           operating system specified with format.  See below
                           for valid formats.

                     format,major,unit,subunit
                           A device with major, unit, and subunit fields, for
                           an operating system specified with format.
                           (Currently this is only supported by the bsdos
                           format.)

                     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.

     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.  Note that the schg and sappnd flags are treated
                     specially (see the -i and -m options).

     ignore          Ignore any file hierarchy below this file.

     gid             The file group as a numeric value.

     gname           The file group as a symbolic name.

     link            The file the symbolic link is expected to reference.

     md5             The MD5 cryptographic message digest of the file.

     md5digest       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; don't complain about the file if
                     it's not in the file hierarchy.

     ripemd160digest
                     Synonym for rmd160.

     rmd160          The RMD-160 cryptographic message digest of the file.

     rmd160digest    Synonym for rmd160.

     sha1            The SHA-1 cryptographic message digest of the file.

     sha1digest      Synonym for sha1.

     sha256          The 256-bits SHA-2 cryptographic message digest of the
                     file.

     sha256digest    Synonym for sha256.

     sha384          The 384-bits SHA-2 cryptographic message digest of the
                     file.

     sha384digest    Synonym for sha384.

     sha512          The 512-bits SHA-2 cryptographic message digest of the
                     file.

     sha512digest    Synonym for sha512.

     size            The size, in bytes, of the file.

     tags            Comma delimited tags to be matched with -E and -I.  These
                     may be specified without leading or trailing commas, but
                     will be stored internally with them.

     time            The last modification time of the file, in second 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
                     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.

     The default set of keywords are flags, gid, link, mode, nlink, size,
     time, type, and uid.

     There are four types of lines in a specification:

     1.   Set global values for a keyword.  This consists of the string '/set'
          followed by whitespace, followed by sets of keyword/value pairs,
          separated by whitespace.  Keyword/value pairs consist of a keyword,
          followed by an equals sign ('='), followed by a value, without
          whitespace characters.  Once a keyword has been set, its value
          remains unchanged until either reset or unset.

     2.   Unset global values for a keyword.  This consists of the string
          '/unset', followed by whitespace, followed by one or more keywords,
          separated by whitespace.  If 'all' is specified, unset all of the
          keywords.

     3.   A file specification, consisting of a path name, followed by
          whitespace, followed by zero or more whitespace separated
          keyword/value pairs.

          The path name may be preceded by whitespace characters.  The path
          name may contain any of the standard path name matching characters
          ('[', ']', '?' or '*'), in which case files in the hierarchy will be
          associated with the first pattern that they match.  mtree uses
          strsvis(3) (in VIS_CSTYLE format) to encode path names containing
          non-printable characters.  Whitespace characters are encoded as '\s'
          (space), '\t' (tab), and '\n' (new line).  '#' characters in path
          names are escaped by a preceding backslash '\' to distinguish them
          from comments.

          Each of the keyword/value pairs consist of a keyword, followed by an
          equals sign ('='), followed by the keyword's value, without
          whitespace characters.  These values override, without changing, the
          global value of the corresponding keyword.

          The first path name entry listed must be a directory named '.', as
          this ensures that intermixing full and relative path names will work
          consistently and correctly.  Multiple entries for a directory named
          '.' are permitted; the settings for the last such entry override
          those of the existing entry.

          A path name that contains a slash ('/') that is not the first
          character will be treated as a full path (relative to the root of
          the tree).  All parent directories referenced in the path name must
          exist.  The current directory path used by relative path names will
          be updated appropriately.  Multiple entries for the same full path
          are permitted if the types are the same (unless -M is given, in
          which case the types may differ); in this case the settings for the
          last entry take precedence.

          A path name that does not contain a slash will be treated as a
          relative path.  Specifying a directory will cause subsequent files
          to be searched for in that directory hierarchy.

     4.   A line containing only the string '..' which causes the current
          directory path (used by relative paths) to ascend one level.

     Empty lines and lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash mark
     ('#') are ignored.

     The mtree utility exits with a status of 0 on success, 1 if any error
     occurred, and 2 if the file hierarchy did not match the specification.

FILES
     /etc/mtree  system specification directory

EXAMPLES
     To detect system binaries that have been "trojan horsed", it is
     recommended that mtree be run on the file systems, and a copy of the
     results stored on a different machine, or, at least, in encrypted form.
     The seed for the -s option should not be an obvious value and the final
     checksum should not be stored on-line under any circumstances!  Then,
     periodically, mtree should be run against the on-line specifications and
     the final checksum compared with the previous value.  While it is
     possible for the bad guys to change the on-line specifications to conform
     to their modified binaries, it shouldn't be possible for them to make it
     produce the same final checksum value.  If the final checksum value
     changes, the off-line copies of the specification can be used to detect
     which of the binaries have actually been modified.

     The -d option can be used in combination with -U or -u to create
     directory hierarchies for, for example, distributions.

COMPATIBILITY
     The compatibility shims provided by the -F option are incomplete by
     design.  Known limitations are described below.

     The freebsd9 flavor retains the default handling of lookup failures for
     the uname and group keywords by replacing them with appropriate uid and
     gid keywords rather than failing and reporting an error.  The related -w
     flag is a no-op rather than causing a warning to be printed and no
     keyword to be emitted.  The latter behavior is not emulated as it is
     potentially dangerous in the face of /set statements.

     The netbsd6 flavor does not replicate the historical bug that reported
     time as seconds.nanoseconds without zero padding nanosecond values less
     than 100000000.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(1), chgrp(1), chmod(1), cksum(1), stat(2), fnmatch(3), fts(3),
     strsvis(3), chown(8), mknod(8)

HISTORY
     The mtree utility appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.  The optional keyword appeared
     in NetBSD 1.2.  The -U option appeared in NetBSD 1.3.  The flags and md5
     keywords, and -i and -m options appeared in NetBSD 1.4.  The device,
     rmd160, sha1, tags, and all keywords, -D, -E, -I, -L, -l, -N, -P, -R, -W,
     and -X options, and support for full paths appeared in NetBSD 1.6.  The
     sha256, sha384, and sha512 keywords appeared in NetBSD 3.0.  The -S
     option appeared in NetBSD 6.0.

BSD                            February 3, 2013                            BSD

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | EXAMPLES | COMPATIBILITY | SEE ALSO | HISTORY