CHANGETRACK(1)						      General Commands Manual						    CHANGETRACK(1)

NAME

       changetrack - track changes to files

SYNOPSIS

       changetrack [-h] [-c configfile] [-d directory] [-e] [-r] [-q] [-m message] [-M message] [-v] [-u] [-o toaddress] [-f fromaddress]

DESCRIPTION

       changetrack  is a program to monitor changes to a bunch of files. If files are modified one day, and the machine starts working incorrectly
       some days later, changetrack can provide information on which files were modified, and help locate the problem.

       Normally changetrack uses ed to keep track of various revisions of the files by maintaining an .ed script with the change history for  each
       file.

       Alternatively,  changetrack  can  use  rcs  to keep track of various revisions of the files. Each file is "installed" in the rcs system the
       first time that changetrack is run after that file is added to the config file. Whenever changetrack is run after that, a copy of the  file
       is  made, which is 'checked in' and implicitly 'checked out' of the rcs system. See the man page of co for information on retrieving an old
       version of the file.

       Backup files (ending in tilde ~) are ignored, unless explicitely included.

       After each pattern in the file list, adding white space, a colon (:) then more whitespace, followed by email addresses, separated  by  more
       whitespace,  will  result  in the changes to that file being emailed to that address. All changes from each run are expressed in one email.
       Using the email feature requires Mail::SendMail to be installed; if it does not work correctly, an error message will be printed  to  stan-
       dard error.

OPTIONS

       -h     Display a short help message then exit.

       -cconfigfile
	      Get the list of files to track from configfile instead of from ~/.changetrackrc (/etc/changetrack.conf for the super-user)

       -doutputdirectory
	      Store output in outputdirectory instead of in ~/.changetrack/ (/var/lib/changetrack/ for the super-user)

       -e     Keep  a  copy  of the file from when it was first added to the changetrack configuration, and keep ed -styled changes to rebuild the
	      file.  This option is recommended only if rcs does not work on the machine.  To recover using this means, the .ed file  should  have
	      the  last  several  commands  removed,  to allow the file to be rebuilt to the appropriate state. A command like 'cat myfile.ed | ed
	      myfile.original' should be executed.

       -r     Disable the rcs facility.

       -q     Quiet mode; only print critical messages. Good for scripts.

       -mmessage
	      Print message on each file, after checking for any changes. Good for indicating reboots or other system events.

       -Mmessage
	      Like -m, but message is only printed on modified files.

       -v     Print version and exit.

       -u     Use unified diffs (this only works with some implementations of diff.

       -oemailaddress
	      Mail output to emailaddress. This is supplementary to emails specified in the config file.

       -femailaddress
	      Set "From" header to emailaddress, which must be fully qualified.

REQUIREMENTS

       This program requires diff.  Unless the -r switch is used, this program requires rcs to be installed. If the  -e  switch  is  used,  ed	is
       required.

FILES

       ~/.changetrackrc
	      List of files to monitor. Each line may start with '#' indicating a comment.  If a line is not a comment, it contains a file/pattern
	      to monitor, and optionally " : " followed by any email addresses to send changes to. The filename may be a pattern described in  the
	      same way as for ls.  Note: the default is /etc/changetrack.conf for root.

       ~/.changetrack/
	      Default  directory  in which to store output information. The default is /var/lib/changetrack/ for root. All rcs files are stored in
	      this directory, unless a subdirectory called RCS exists, in which case the rcs files are stored in that directory.

       /etc/cron.daily/changetrack
	      Script that creates the list of all files monitor.

       /etc/cron.hourly/changetrack
	      Script that invocates changetrack.

       /etc/default/changetrack
	      Configuration for the above two scripts.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Each filename is written to standard output.  rcs will print errors if certain things go wrong. It will also print a few  lines	each  time
       changetrack is run after a new file is added to the configuration.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Cameron J. Morland.
       Manual Page Revision: 2.1 Release Date: 2001-03-06.
       Copyright (C) 2001-2005 Cameron J. Morland.
       Changed by Jens Peter Secher to reflect the Debian modifications.

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), rcsintro(1), co(1)

TODO

       Automate removal of out-of-date changes, to save disk space and clarify the important changes.

BUGS

       None known.

																    CHANGETRACK(1)