mtree man page on 4.4BSD

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   1065 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
4.4BSD logo
[printable version]

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

NAME
     mtree — map a directory hierarchy

SYNOPSIS
     mtree [-cderux] [-f spec] [-K keywords] [-k keywords] [-p path] [-s seed]

DESCRIPTION
     The utility mtree compares 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 specifications, or which are missing from either the file
     hierarchy or the specification.

     The options are as follows:

     -c	   Print a specification for the file hierarchy to the standard out‐
	   put.

     -d	   Ignore everything except directory type files.

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

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

     -K	   Add the specified (whitespace or comma separated) keywords to the
	   current set of keywords.

     -k	   Use the ``type'' keyword plus the specified (whitespace or comma
	   separated) keywords instead of the current set of keywords.

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

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

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

     -u	   Modify the owner, group, and permissions of existing files to match
	   the specification and create any missing directories.  User, group,
	   and permissions must all be specified for missing directories to be
	   created.

     -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 speci‐
		 fied by the cksum(1) utility.

     ignore	 Ignore any file hierarchy below this file.

     gid	 The file group as a numeric value.

     gname	 The file group as a symbolic name.

     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.

     uid	 The file owner as a numeric value.

     uname	 The file group 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.

     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

     The default set of keywords are gid, mode, nlink, size, slink, time, and
     uid.

     There are four types of lines in a specification.

     The first type of line sets a global value for a keyword, and consists of
     the string ``/set'' followed by whitespace, followed by sets of key‐
     word/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.

     The second type of line unsets keywords and consists of the string
     ``/unset'', followed by whitespace, followed by one or more keywords,
     separated by whitespace.

     The third type of line is a file specification and consists of a file
     name, followed by whitespace, followed by zero or more whitespace sepa‐
     rated keyword/value pairs.	 The file name may be preceded by whitespace
     characters.  The file name may contain any of the standard file name
     matching characters (``['', ``]'', ``?'' or ``*''), in which case files
     in the hierarchy will be associated with the first pattern that they
     match.

     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.

     All paths are relative.  Specifying a directory will cause subsequent
     files to be searched for in that directory hierarchy.  Which brings us to
     the last type of line in a specification: a line containing only the
     string “..” causes the current directory path 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.

EXAMPLES
     To detect system binaries that have been ``trojan horsed'', it is recom‐
     mended 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, periodi‐
     cally, 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 and -u options can be used in combination to create directory
     hierarchies for distributions and other such things.

FILES
     /etc/mtree	 system specification directory

SEE ALSO
     chmod(1), chown(1), chgrp(1), cksum(1), stat(2), fts(3),

HISTORY
     The mtree utility appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

BSD			       December 11, 1993			   BSD
[top]

List of man pages available for 4.4BSD

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net