Provided by: metastore_1.1.2-2_amd64 
NAME
metastore - stores and restores filesystem metadata
SYNOPSIS
metastore ACTION [OPTION...] [PATH...]
DESCRIPTION
Stores or restores metadata (owner, group, permissions, xattrs and optionally mtime) for a filesystem
tree. This can be used to preserve the metadata in situations where it is usually not stored (git and tar
for example) or as a tripwire like mechanism to detect any changes to metadata. Note that e.g. SELinux
stores its labels in xattrs so care should be taken when applying stored metadata to make sure that
system security is not compromised.
ACTIONS
-c, --compare
Shows the difference between the stored and real metadata.
-s, --save
Saves the current metadata to ./.metadata or to the specified file (see --file option below).
-a, --apply
Attempts to apply the stored metadata to the file system.
-d, --dump
Dumps stored (if no PATH is given) or real metadata (if PATH is present, e.g. ./) in human-
readable form.
This action is meant only as a helpful debugging facility or merge conflict helper. Do not ever
compare its output generated using different metastore version. Do not rely on current output
format (especially in batch scripts), because it may change in future without prior notice.
-h, --help
Prints a help message and exits.
OPTIONS
-v, --verbose
Causes metastore to print more verbose messages. Can be repeated more than once for even more
verbosity.
-q, --quiet
Causes metastore to print less verbose messages. Can be repeated more than once for even less
verbosity.
-m, --mtime
Causes metastore to also take mtime into account for the compare or apply actions.
-e, --empty-dirs
Also attempts to recreate missing empty directories. May be useful where empty directories are not
tracked (e.g. by git or cvs). Only works in combination with the apply option.
-E, --remove-empty-dirs
Also attempts to remove empty directories missing from the metadata. May be useful where empty
directories are not tracked (e.g. by git or cvs). Only works in combination with the apply
option.
-g, --git
Prevents metastore from omitting .git directories.
-f <file>, --file <file>
Causes the metadata to be saved, read from the specified file rather than ./.metadata.
PATHS
If no path is specified, metastore will use the current directory as the basis for the actions. This is
the recommended way of executing metastore. Alternatively, one or more paths can be specified and they
will each be examined. Later invocations should be made using the exact same paths to ensure that the
stored metadata is interpreted correctly.
AUTHORS
metastore was created by David Härdeman in 2007-2008. Now it is maintained by Przemysław Pawełczyk. All
source code contributors are listed in the AUTHORS file.
January 2016 metastore(1)