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etckeeper is a collection of tools to let /etc be stored in a git,
mercurial, or bazaar repository. It hooks into apt to automatically
-commit changes made to /etc during package upgrades. It uses
-[metastore][1] to track file metadata that git does not normally
+commit changes made to /etc during package upgrades.
+It tracks file metadata that git does not normally
support, but that is important for /etc, such as the permissions of
`/etc/shadow`. It's quite modular and configurable, while also being
simple to use if you understand the basics of working with version
control.
- [1]: http://david.hardeman.nu/software.php
-
## security warnings
First, a big warning: By checking /etc into revision control, you are
@@ -47,10 +45,9 @@ storage, empty directories, and special files.
Most VCS, including git, mercurial and bazaar have only limited tracking of
file metadata, being able to track the executable bit, but not other
-permissions or owner info. So file metadata storage is handled by
-`metastore`. Among other chores, `etckeeper init` sets up a `pre-commit`
-hook that uses `metastore` to store metadata about file owners,
-permissions, and even extended attributes into a `/etc/.metadata` file.
+permissions or owner info. So file metadata storage is stored separately.
+Among other chores, `etckeeper init` sets up a `pre-commit` hook that stores
+metadata about file owners and permissions into a `/etc/.metadata` file.
This metadata is stored in version control along with everything else, and
can be applied if the repo should need to be checked back out.