# Install truetree with Homebrew Cask

Command-line tool for pstree-like output. Version 0.8 via Homebrew Cask; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install cask:truetree
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew Cask (100%):

```sh
brew install --cask truetree
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew cask metadata

## Package facts

- **Package key:** cask:truetree
- **Package manager:** Homebrew Cask
- **Version:** 0.8
- **Source summary:** Command-line tool for pstree-like output
- **Homepage:** <https://themittenmac.com/the-truetree-concept/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- TrueTree (binary)
- TrueTree (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.8
## Project history and usage

TrueTree is a small macOS command-line process-tree utility aimed at incident responders and threat hunters who need a more useful process ancestry view than ordinary PID/PPID output.

### Project history

The project grew out of Jaron Bradley's February 2020 write-up of the 'TrueTree' concept: on macOS, launchd and XPC often make ordinary process trees look flat or misleading, so the tool uses additional operating-system process metadata to reconstruct more helpful ancestry.

Its README later documented platform drift: after macOS 11 introduced runningboardd behavior that changed parentage observations, TrueTree was updated to use Application Services for some true-parent discovery while accepting that some terminated parents can no longer be recovered.

### Adoption history

TrueTree appears to have remained a specialist macOS security tool rather than a broad Unix replacement for pstree. Its Homebrew cask packaging made a compiled release easy to install on analyst Macs, while the GitHub project stayed compact and focused.

### How it is used

The tool is used from a root shell to print an enhanced process tree, optionally showing timestamps, parent-data sources, network information, or a standard PID/PPID tree for comparison.

In package-manager culture it is the kind of niche binary that belongs in a forensic or IR workstation bootstrap list: install it with Homebrew, run it during macOS triage, and compare its output with ps, Activity Monitor, and launchctl procinfo.

### Why package nerds care

TrueTree matters to package nerds because it packages a very macOS-specific diagnostic idea as a single CLI. It is not a general-purpose process viewer; its value is that Homebrew users can install a purpose-built process-ancestry helper without compiling an Xcode project.

### Timeline

- 2020: The TrueTree concept is published for macOS threat hunting and incident response.
- 2024: GitHub shows TrueTree 0.8 as the latest release.

### Related projects

- pstree and ps provide the traditional Unix process-tree baseline that TrueTree compares itself against.
- launchctl procinfo is the macOS source of several parentage clues described in the project write-up.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/themittenmac/TrueTree>
- <https://themittenmac.com/the-truetree-concept/>


## Security Notes

No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for truetree. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.



## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/truetree.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/truetree.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph