xref: /freebsd/etc/mtree/README (revision 41059135ce931c0f1014a999ffabc6bc470ce856)
1$FreeBSD$
2
3Note: If you modify these files, please keep hier(7) updated!
4
5These files are used to create empty file hierarchies for building the
6system into.  Some notes about working with them are placed here to try
7and keep them in good working order.
8
9    a)  The files use 4 space indentation, and other than in the header
10        comments, should not contain any tabs.  An indentation of 4 is
11        preferable to the standard indentation of 8 because the indentation
12        of levels in these files can become quite deep causing the line to
13        overflow 80 characters.
14
15        This also matches with the files generated when using the
16        mtree -c option, which was implemented that way for the same reason.
17
18    b)  Only directories should be listed here.
19
20    c)  The listing should be kept in filename sorted order.
21
22    d)  Sanity checking changes to these files can be done by following
23        this procedure (the sed -e is ugly, but fixing mtree -c to
24        not emit the trailing white space would be even uglier):
25
26            mkdir /tmp/MTREE
27            mtree -deU -f BSD.X.dist -p /tmp/MTREE
28            mtree -cdin -k uname,gname,mode -p /tmp/MTREE | \
29		sed -e 's/ *$//' >BSD.X.new
30            diff -u BSD.X.dist BSD.X.new
31            rm -r /tmp/MTREE
32
33        Note that you will get some differences about /set lines,
34        and uname= gname= on certain directory areas, mainly man page
35        sections.  This is caused by mtree not having a look ahead
36        mechanism for making better selections for these as it
37        traverses the hierarchy.
38
39        The BSD.X.new file should NOT be committed, as it will be missing
40        the correct header, and important keywords like ``nochange''.
41        Simply use the diff for a sanity check to make sure things are in
42        the correct order and correctly indented.
43
44    e)  Further sanity checking of the system builds with DESTDIR=/someplace
45        are more complicated, but can often catch missing entries in these
46        files.  I tend to run this more complete sanity check shortly after
47        the target date for a new release is announced.
48
49        If you want details on it bug me about it via email to
50        rgrimes@FreeBSD.org.
51