>development for NetBSD/vax. (Are you confused yet? I am...) A utility to go
>through and set ownership/modes correctly for at least the files that are
>part of the OS would be a helpful thing.

Not sure if mtree can do it or not.
However you can grab ftp://ftp.quick.com.au/pub/unix/config-sh.cpio.gz
which among other things includes a tool for setting permissions
on files and directories.  So you could go to a properly installed
NetBSD box and run:

cd /
find . -ls | /configs/build_install_list.pl -hs > /tmp/netbsd.list

that actually produces an install_files list which you can trim
down to be a set_perms.list (first 5 fields are common except that
set_perms allows wildcards in the path spec).

I use this toolset for building machines (esp firewalls) on various
platforms.  See http://www.quick.com.au/FreeWare/configs.html
for pointers to all the doco etc, note that
http://www.quick.com.au/cgi-bin/rtfm?topic=configs
will provide the most up to date doco.

--sjg