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Diffstat (limited to 'README')
| -rw-r--r-- | README | 13 |
1 files changed, 5 insertions, 8 deletions
@@ -1,14 +1,12 @@ 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. |