ETCKEEPER(8) ETCKEEPER(8)
NAME
etckeeper - store /etc in git, mercurial, bazaar, or darcs
SYNOPSIS
etckeeper command [-d directory]
DESCRIPTION
etckeeper manages /etc be stored in a git, mercurial, bazaar, or darcs repository. By default each of the commands operates on /etc, but a
different directory can be specified to operate on a clone of the /etc repository located elsewhere.
COMMANDS
init This initialises and sets up a git, mercurial, bazaar, or darcs repository (depending on the VCS setting in /etc/etckeeper/etck-
eeper.conf). Typically this is run in /etc once when starting to use etckeeper on a machine. It can also be used to initialise a
clone of the /etc repository located elsewhere.
commit [message]
Commits all changes in /etc to the repository. A commit message can be specified. You may also use the underlying VCS to commit man-
ually. (Note that etckeeper commit will notice if a user has used sudo or su to become root, and record the original username in
the commit.)
pre-commit
This is called as a pre-commit hook. It stores metadata and does sanity checks.
pre-install
This is called by apt's DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs hook, or by equivalent hooks of other package managers. It allows committing any
uncommitted changes before packages are installed, upgraded, etc.
post-install
This is called by apt's DPkg::Post-Invoke hook, or by equivalent hooks of other package managers. It commits changes made by pack-
ages into the repository. (You can also call this by hand after running dpkg by hand.)
unclean
This returns true if the directory contains uncommitted changes.
update-ignore [-a]
This updates the VCS ignore file. Content outside a "managed by etckeeper" block is not touched. This is generally run when upgrad-
ing to a new version of etckeeper. (The -a switch will add a "managed by etckeeper" block if one is not present.)
vcs subcommand [options ...]
You can use this to run any subcommand of the VCS that etckeeper is configured to run. It will be run in /etc. For example, "etck-
eeper vcs diff" will run "git diff", etc.
uninit [-f]
This command DESTROYS DATA! It is the inverse of the init command, removing VCS information and etckeeper's own bookkeeping informa-
tion from the directory. Use with caution. A typical use case would be to run etckeeper uninit, then modify etckeeper.conf to use a
different VCS, and then run etckeeper init. (The -f switch can be used to force uninit without prompting.)
FILES
/etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.conf is the configuration file.
/etc/etckeeper also contains directories containing the programs that are run for each of the above commands.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
ETCKEEPER_CONF_DIR path to configuration directory instead of default /etc/etckeeper.
SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/etckeeper/README.gz
AUTHOR
Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>
ETCKEEPER(8)
