PROTO(6) PROTO(6)
NAME
proto - file system prototype
DESCRIPTION
A proto file defines a file system hierarchy, for programs
that create, copy or operate on them, such as fs(1) or
mkfs(8). The proto file defines the hierarchy as a set of
names relative to an existing hierarchy, for instance in an
existing file system or a list of path names in an archive.
Files in the existing hierarchy that are not specified in
the proto file are ignored. Fsproto(2) provides functions
to read a prototype file and enumerate the names it selects
in an existing hierarchy.
Each line of the proto file specifies a file (where the term
`file' includes directories). Indentation is significant,
with each level of indentation corresponding to a level in
the file tree. Each line contains up to five fields sepa-
rated by white space:
name perm uid gid source
Name is the last path element in the resulting file tree.
Perm specifies the permissions, as described below. Uid is
the owner of the file, and gid is the group owning the file.
Source is the name of a file in the current name space (not
the source file tree) from which to copy name's content.
All fields except name are optional. If a field such as
perm or uid is not given, or is given as `-', its value is
taken from the existing file.
A name starting with `$' is taken as a reference to an envi-
ronment variable (see sh(1) and env(3)) and replaced by the
value of that variable. If the first name in a directory is
`+', all of the files are represented, and all subdirecto-
ries recursively. If the first name is `*', all of the
names in the corresponding existing directory are repre-
sented, but only the names of subdirectories, not their con-
tent. If the first name is `%', only non-directory names
are represented excluding both the names and content of sub-
directories.
Perm has the form:
[d] [a] [l] oct
where the optional letters set file attributes (`d' direc-
tory, `a' append-only, and `l' exclusive-use), and oct is an
octal number giving the permissions for user, group and oth-
ers (see chmod(1)).
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)
PROTO(6) PROTO(6)
EXAMPLES
Denote all files in a given file system:
+
Denote all files in the current user's home directory:
usr
$user
Specify a subset of files in /dis:
dis
*
install
*
lib
arg.dis
names.dis
FILES
/lib/proto directory of prototype files
/lib/proto/all prototype for whole hierarchy (ie,
line containing `+')
/lib/proto/portproto generic prototype file
SEE ALSO
fs(1), fsproto(2), kfs(4), mkfs(8)
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)