---
name: "captree"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "libcap"
version: "2.78-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/captree"
---

# captree(8)

display tree of process capabilities

## NAME

captree - display tree of process capabilities

## SYNOPSIS

**captree** \[OPTIONS\]  \[(*pid*\|*glob-name*) ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

**captree** displays the capabilities on the mentioned processes indicated by *pid* or *glob-name* value(s) given on the command line. If no *pid* etc values are supplied, *pid*=1 is implied. A *pid* value of 0 displays all the processes known to the kernel.

The POSIX.1e capabilities are displayed in double quotes in the [**cap\_from\_text**(3)](/cap_from_text/3.md) format. The IAB tuple of capabilities is displayed between square brackets in the text format described in [**cap\_iab**(3)](/cap_iab/3.md). Both of these text formats are described in [**cap\_text\_formats**(7)](/cap_text_formats/7.md). Note, the IAB tuple text is omitted if it contains empty A and B components. This is because the regular POSIX.1e text contains information about the Inheritable flag already. This behavior can be overridden with the **--verbose** command line argument.

Optional arguments (which must precede the list of pid\|glob-name values):

- **--help**

  Displays usage information and exits. Note, modern Go runtimes exit with status 0 in this case, but older runtimes exit with status 2.

- **--verbose**

  Displays capability sets and IAB tuples even when they are empty, or redundant.

- **--depth***=n*

  Displays the process tree to a depth of *n*. Note, the default value for this parameter is 0, which implies infinite depth.

- **--colo\[u\]r***=false*

  Colo\[u\]rs the targeted PIDs, if stdout is a TTY, in red. This option defaults to true when running via a TTY. The **--color***=false* argument will suppress this color. Piping the output into some other program will also suppress the use of colo\[u\]r.

## EXIT STATUS

If the supplied target cannot be found the exit status is 1. Should an unrecognized option be provided, the exit status is 2. Otherwise, **captree** exits with status 0.

## REPORTING BUGS

Please report bugs via:

- https://bugzilla.kernel.org/buglist.cgi?component=libcap&list\_id=1090757

  ## SEE ALSO

[**cap\_from\_text**(3)](/cap_from_text/3.md), [**cap\_text\_formats**(7)](/cap_text_formats/7.md), [**capabilities**(7)](/capabilities/7.md), and [**cap\_iab**(3)](/cap_iab/3.md).

There is a longer article about **captree**, which includes some examples, here:

   https://sites.google.com/site/fullycapable/captree

## AUTHOR

Andrew G. Morgan \<morgan@kernel.org\>