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etckeeper is a collection of tools to let /etc be stored in a git
repository. It hooks into apt to automatically commit changes made to /etc
during package upgrades. It uses `metastore` to track 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 git.
## security warning
First, a big warning: By checking /etc into revision control, you are
creating a copy of files like /etc/shadow that must remain secret. Anytime
you have a copy of a secret file, it becomes more likely that the file
contents won't remain secret. etckeeper is careful about file permissions,
and will make sure that repositories it sets up don't allow anyone but root
to read their contents. However, you *also* must take care when cloning
or copying these repositories, not to allow anyone else to see the data.
Since git mushes all the files into packs under the .git directory, the
whole .git directory needs to be kept secret. Also, since git doesn't keep
track of the mode of files like the shadow file, it will check it out world
readable, before etckeeper fixes the permissions. The tutorial has some
examples of safe ways to avoid these problems when cloning an /etc
repository.
## what etckeeper does
etckeeper has special support to handle changes to /etc caused by
installing and upgrading packages. Before apt installs packages,
`etckeeper-pre-apt` will check that /etc is clean, and if it's not, prompt
you about whether or not to continue. (This check can be disabled.) After
apt installs packages, `etckeeper-post-apt` will add any new interesting
files to the repository, and commit the changes.
git is designed as a way to manage source code, not as a way to manage
arbitrary directories like /etc. This means it has a few limitations that
etckeeper has to work around. These include file metadata storage,
empty directories, and special files.
git has 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`. Amoung other chores, `etckeeper-init`
sets up a git hook that use `metastore` to store metadata about file
owners, permissions, modification times, and even extended attributes. This
metadata is stored in git along with everything else, and can be applied if
the repo should need to be checked back out.
git cannot track empty directories. So `etckeeper-init` also sets up a git
hook to run `etckeeper-pre-commit`, which checks for empty directories
before committing, and warn about them. You can then either ignore the
empty directory, if it's not significant, or put a file (such as
`.gitignore`) in the directory to enable git to track it.
git doesn't support several special files that you _probably_ won't have in
/etc, such as unix sockets, named pipes, hardlinked files (but softlinks
are fine), and device files. Again a git hooks are used to warn if your /etc
contains such untrackable special files.
## tutorial
A quick walkthrough of using etckeeper.
cd /etc
etckeeper-init
This `etckeeper-init` command initialises an /etc/.git/ repository. This
command is careful to never overwrite existing files or directories in
/etc. It will create a `.gitignore` if one doesn't already exist, sets up
git hooks if they don't already exist, and so on. It does *not* commit any
files into to git, but does `git-add` all interesting files for an initial
commit. So you might want to use git status to check that it includes all
the right files, and none of the wrong files. And you can edit the
.gitignore and so forth. Once you're ready:
git commit -m "initial checkin"
After this first checkin, you can use regular git commands to check in
further changes:
passwd someuser
git status
git commit -a -m "changed a password"
Rinse, lather, repeat.
etckeeper hooks into apt so changed or new files caused by installing or
upgrading packages will automatically be added and committed.
(`etckeeper-post-apt` uses `git-add .`, so any new files in /etc that arn't
gitignored will be added.)
If a package *removes* a file from /etc, etckeeper does not automatically
commit this removal, though it will let you know that the file was removed.
You can manually remove it with commands like these;
git rm init.d/somedaemon rc*.d/*somedaemon
git commit -a "removed somedaemon"
You can use any git commands you like, but do keep in mind that, if you
check out a different branch or an old version, git is operating directly
on your system's /etc. Often it's better to clone /etc to elsewhere and do
potentially dangerous stuff in a staging directory. You can clone the
repository using git-clone, but be careful that the directory it's cloned
into starts out mode 700, to prevent anyone else from seeing files like
shadow, before `etckeeper-init` fixes their permissions:
mkdir /my/clone
cd /my/clone
chmod 700 .
git clone /etc
etckeeper-init
chmod 755 .
Another common reason to clone the repository is to make a backup to a
server. When using git-push to create a new remote clone, make sure the new
remote clone is mode 700! (And, obviously, only push over a secure
transport like ssh.)
ssh server 'mkdir /etc-clone; cd /etc-clone; chmod 700 .; git init'
git push ssh://server/etc-clone master
Of course, it's also possible to push from a server onto client machines,
to deploy changes to /etc. You might even set up branches for each machine
and merge changes between them. Once /etc is under version control, the
sky's the limit..
## configuration
Each etckeeper-foo command uses `run-parts` to run the executable files in
/etc/etckeeper/foo.d/. By default these directories contain a bunch of
symlinks to the actual files; you can remove or reorder the symlinks,
or add your own custom files.
Note that the etckeeper-foo commands are careful to not hardcode anything about
git. If you want to use some other revision control system, that's
theoretically possible to accomplish by just changing the files in
/etc/etckeeper/. If you do this, please let me know.
## inspiration
Two blog posts provided inspiration for techniques used by etckeeper:
* http://www.jukie.net/~bart/blog/20070312134706
* http://bryan-murdock.blogspot.com/2007/07/put-etc-under-revision-control-with-git.html
isisetup (http://www.isisetup.ch/) has some of the same aims as etckeeper,
however, unlike it, etckeeper does not aim to be a git porcelain with its
own set of commands for manipulating the /etc repository. Instead,
etckeeper provides a couple of simple tools and hooks for setting up an /etc
repsository, and then gets out of your way; you manage the repository using
regular git commands.
## author
Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>
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