UNI(8)							      System Manager's Manual							    UNI(8)

NAME

       uni - a program to interface with the UniConf configuration system

SYNOPSIS

       uni get KEY [DEFAULT]

       uni set KEY [VALUE]
       uni xset KEY [VALUE]

       uni keys KEY
       uni hkeys KEY
       uni xkeys KEY

       uni dump KEY
       uni hdump KEY
       uni xdump KEY

DESCRIPTION

       UniConf	is  the  One  True  Configuration  system  that  includes  all	the  others because it has plugin backends and frontends. Or, less
       grandiosely, it's a lightweight, distributed, cacheable tree of strings.

       uni is used to interface directly with the UniConf system.  It's primary use is for diagnostic purposes, but it can be used to add  UniConf
       support to shell scripts.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE

       UNICONF
	      Before using uni, you must tell it which UniConf moinker you wish to query by setting this environment variable.

       Monikers are used to contact UniConf back-ends, be they a uniconfd server, or a local file.  For example, they could be:
	   o a filename (ini:/var/lib/app/config.ini),
	   o or a network address, (tcp:open.nit.ca:4111).

COMMANDS

       get    Retreive the VALUE associated with the provided KEY within the UniConf database.	If a DEFAULT is provided, this will be returned if
	      the KEY has no associated VALUE.

       set    Assign the provided VALUE the the provided KEY.  UniConf provides no guarentee that the entry  committed	throughout  the  database.
	      The  next  "get"	command  for this KEY may not return the most recently "set" value due to caching, or the existance of a read-only
	      generator.

       xset   Assign, to the provided KEY, the contents of the standard-input stream.  Use this command to pipe information into the UniConf data-
	      base.

       keys   List all the sub-keys contained within the provided KEY.

       hkeys  List  all  the  sub-keys,  recursively,  contained within the provided KEY.  Since any KEY may contain sub-keys, UniConf provides no
	      guarentee that there are no circular references.

       xkeys  List all the sub-keys contained within the provided KEY, which can contain wildcards.  See the WILDCARDS section.

       dump   List all the sub-keys and their values, contained within the provided KEY.

       hdump  List all the sub-keys and their values, recursively, contained within the provided KEY.

       xdump  List all the sub-keys and their values, contained within the provided KEY, which can contain wildcards.

WILDCARDS

       A KEY looks just like a normal slash-delimited path.  The root of the UniConf tree has a KEY named "/".	Sub-keys can be accessed by  names
       such as "/software/myapp/version".

       With wildcards, you can access more than one key at a time.

       *      To  access a sub-key within any one level of keys, use the asterix like so: "/software/*/version".  This retrieves all keys of "ver-
	      sion" that are one level beneath "/software".

       ...    To access a sub-key anywhere beneath a key, use the ellipsis like so: "/.../version".  This retrieves all keys of "version" that are
	      zero or more levels beneath the root (i.e.  any appearance of "version" within the database.

SEE ALSO

       uniconfd(8)

AUTHORS

       This software was written by the hackers at Net Integration Technologies.  Contact us at <wvstreams-dev@lists.nit.ca>

Uni 4.4.1							  September 2004							    UNI(8)