UCFR(1)                     Debian GNU/Linux manual                    UCFR(1)



NAME
       ucfr  -  Update  Configuration  File Registry:  associate packages with
       configuration files

SYNOPSIS
       ucfr [options] <Package> <Path to configuration file>

DESCRIPTION
       Where Package is the package associated  with  the  configuration  file
       (and,  in some sense, its owner), and Path to configuration file is the
       full path to the location (usually under /etc) where the  configuration
       file  lives,  and  is potentially modified by the end user. Please note
       that usually this means that we register actual files, and not symbolic
       links  to files.  ucfr will follow symbolic links and register the real
       file,  and not the symbolic link.

       This script maintains an association between  configuration  files  and
       packages,  and  is  meant to help provide facilities that dpkg provides
       conffiles for configuration files and not shipped in a Debian  package,
       but  handled by the postinst by ucf instead. This script is idempotent,
       associating a package to a file multiple times is not an error.  It  is
       normally  an  error to try to associate a file which is already associ-
       ated with another package, but this can be over  ridden  by  using  the
       --force option.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
              Print a short usage message

       -n, --no-action
              Dry  run. Print the actions that would be taken if the script is
              invoked, but take no action.

       -d [n], --debug [n]
              Set the debug level to the (optional) level n (n defaults to 1).
              This turns on copious debugging information.

       -p, --purge
              Removes  all vestiges of the association between the named pack-
              age and the configuration file from the registry.  The  associa-
              tion must already exist; if the configuration file is associated
              with some other package, an error  happens,  unless  the  option
              --force  is  also  given. In that case, the any associations for
              the configuration file are removed from the registry, whether or
              not  the package name matches. This action is idempotent, asking
              for an association to be purged multiple times does  not  result
              in an error, since attempting to remove an non-existent associa-
              tion is silently ignored unless the --verbose option is used (in
              which case it just issues a diagnostic).

       -v, --verbose
              Make  the  script  be  very verbose about setting internal vari-
              ables.

       -f, --force
              This option forces operations requested even if  the  configura-
              tion  file  in  consideration  is owned by another package. This
              allows a package to hijack a  configuration  file  from  another
              package,  or  to purge the association between the file and some
              other package in the registry.

       --state-dir /path/to/dir
              Set the state directory to /path/to/dir instead of  the  default
              /var/lib/ucf.  Used mostly for testing.

USAGE
       The  most  common case usage is pretty simple: a single line invocation
       in the postinst on configure, and another single line in the postrm  to
       tell  ucfr  to forget about the association with the configuration file
       on purge (using the  --purge option) is all that  is  needed  (assuming
       ucfr is still on the system).

FILES
       /var/lib/ucf/registry,  and /var/lib/ucf/registry.X, where X is a small
       integer, where previous versions of the registry are stored.

       /etc/ucf.conf

EXAMPLES
       If the package foo wants to use ucfr to associate itself with a config-
       uration file foo.conf, a simple invocation of ucfr in the postinst file
       is all that is needed:

       ucfr foo /etc/foo.conf

       On purge, one should tell ucf to forget about the  file  (see  detailed
       examples in /usr/share/doc/examples):

       ucfr --purge foo /etc/foo.conf

SEE ALSO
       ucf(1), ucf.conf(5).

AUTHOR
       This  manual  page  was written Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>,
       for the Debian GNU/Linux system.



Debian                            Apr 11 2006                          UCFR(1)
