Ubuntu Manpage: dpkg-statoverride - override ownership and mode of files

NAME

       dpkg-statoverride - override ownership and mode of files

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-statoverride [option...] command

DESCRIPTION

       “stat  overrides” are a way to tell dpkg(1) to use a different owner or mode for a path when a package is
       installed (this applies to any filesystem object  that  dpkg  handles,  including  directories,  devices,
       etc.).  This  can be used to force programs that are normally setuid to be install without a setuid flag,
       or only executable by a certain group.

       dpkg-statoverride is a utility to manage the list of  stat  overrides.  It  has  three  basic  functions:
       adding, removing and listing overrides.

COMMANDS

       --add user group mode path
              Add an override for path. path does not need to exist when this command is used; the override will
              be  stored  and  used later.  Users and groups can be specified by their name (for example root or
              nobody), or by their number by prepending the number with a ‘#’ (for example #0 or  #65534).   The
              mode needs to be specified in octal.

              If --update is specified and path exists, it is immediately set to the new owner and mode.

       --remove path
              Remove an override for path, the status of path is left unchanged by this command.

       --list [glob-pattern]
              List  all  overrides.  If a glob pattern is specified restrict the output to overrides which match
              the glob.

       --help Show the usage message and exit.

       --force-help
              Give help about the --force-thing options (since dpkg 1.19.5).

       --version
              Show the version and exit.

OPTIONS

--admindir directory
Set the administrative directory to directory. This is where the statoverride file is stored.
Defaults to «/var/lib/dpkg».

--instdir directory
Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory where packages get installed (since
dpkg 1.19.2). Defaults to «/».

--root directory
Set the root directory to directory, which sets the installation directory to «directory» and the
administrative directory to «directory/var/lib/dpkg» (since dpkg 1.19.2).

--force-things
--no-force-things, --refuse-things
Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to do some things (since dpkg 1.19.5).
things is a comma separated list of things specified below. --force-help displays a message
describing them. Things marked with (*) are forced by default.

Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts only. Using them without fully
understanding their effects may break your whole system.

all: Turns on (or off) all force options.

statoverride-add: Overwrite an existing stat override when adding it (since dpkg 1.19.5).

statoverride-remove: Ignore a missing stat override when removing it (since dpkg 1.19.5).

security-mac(*): Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) based security when
installing files into the filesystem (since dpkg 1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation
uses SELinux.

--force
Force an action, even if a sanity check would otherwise prohibit it. This is necessary to
override an existing override. This option is deprecated (since dpkg 1.19.5), it is replaced by
--force-all.

--update
Immediately try to change the path to the new owner and mode if it exists.

--quiet
Be less verbose about what we do.

EXIT STATUS

       0      The requested action was successfully performed.

       1      For --list, if there are no overrides or none match the supplied glob.

       2      Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage, or interactions with  the  system,
              such as accesses to the database, memory allocations, etc.

ENVIRONMENT

       DPKG_ROOT
              If  set  and  the  --instdir  or  --root  options  have not been specified, it will be used as the
              filesystem root directory (since dpkg 1.19.2).

       DPKG_ADMINDIR
              If set and the --admindir or --root options have not been specified, it will be used as  the  dpkg
              data directory.

       DPKG_FORCE
              If  set  and  none  of  the  --force-... options have been specified, it will be used as the force
              options to use (since dpkg 1.19.5).

       DPKG_COLORS
              Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The  currently  accepted  values  are:  auto  (default),
              always and never.

FILES

       /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride
              File  which  contains  the current list of stat overrides of the system. It is located in the dpkg
              administration directory, along with other files important to dpkg, such as status or available.
              Note: dpkg-statoverride preserves the old  copy  of  this  file,  with  extension  “-old”,  before
              replacing it with the new one.