NAME

       doc_help_kdb-introduction_mdkdb-introduction.md
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kdb-introduction(1) -- introduction to kdb

       Elektra solves the task of accessing the configuration storage. Additionally, a tooling
       gathered around Elektra helps with minor problems that appear every day. Maybe the
       administrator needs a cron job that periodically changes the settings of a service. Maybe
       the user wants to have an overview of the whole configuration to learn what can be
       tweaked. Maybe the developer needs to fully export the configuration the program had when
       a failure occurred. These tasks have in common that they become trivial once a
       programmatic access to a global key database exists.

       In this subsection we give an overview of the command-line tool kdb. It is part of
       Elektra's environment and performs the mentioned tasks. kdb consists of individual
       subprograms. The programs are independent, but can access a shared part that provides
       functionality too specific to be in the library -- for example, pretty printing of error
       messages and warnings. Most parts of this suite are short programs which basically call
       kdbGet(), do something with the data structure and eventually write it back using
       kdbSet(). Note that the command-line tool kdb should not be confused with the class KDB.

       kdb was rewritten as part of this thesis with a new architecture. Now every part of the
       application suite will be able to accept its own command line arguments and will have its
       own documentation. Also a completely new feature mount arose.

       Only a few commands are enough for daily use. We can retrieve a key by:

           > kdb get user/keyname

       We store a key permanently with a value given by:

           > kdb set user/keyname value

       We list all available keys arranged below a key by:

           > kdb ls user/keyname

       Many other tools beside kdb are possible. They may be more convenient depending on the
       situation. Preference dialogues, graphical editors, web-interfaces and web services can
       all provide access to the global key database.