etckeeper.8

.\" -*- nroff -*-
.TH ETCKEEPER 8 "" "" ""
.SH NAME
etckeeper \- store /etc in git, mercurial, bazaar, or darcs
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B etckeeper command [-d directory]
.SH 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.
.SH COMMANDS
.TP
.B init
This initialises and sets up a git, mercurial, bazaar, or darcs
repository (depending on the VCS setting in
/etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.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.
.TP
.B 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 manually.
(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.)
.TP
.B pre-commit
This is called as a pre-commit hook. It stores metadata and does sanity
checks.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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 packages into the
repository. (You can also call this by hand after running dpkg by hand.)
.TP
.B unclean
This returns true if the directory contains uncommitted changes.
.TP
.B update-ignore [-a]
This updates the VCS ignore file. Content outside a "managed by etckeeper"
block is not touched. This is generally run when upgrading to a new version
of etckeeper. (The -a switch will add a "managed by etckeeper" block if
one is not present.)
.TP
.B 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, "etckeeper vcs
diff" will run "git diff", etc.
.TP
.B uninit [-f]
This command DESTROYS DATA! It is the inverse of the init command, removing
VCS information and etckeeper's own bookkeeping information 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.)
.SH 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.
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
ETCKEEPER_CONF_DIR path to configuration directory instead of default /etc/etckeeper.
.SH SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/etckeeper/README.gz
.SH AUTHOR 
Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>