NAME

       changetrack - track changes to files

SYNOPSIS

       changetrack  [-h]  [-c  configfile] [-d directory] [-e] [-r] [-q] [-m message] [-M message] [-v] [-u] [-o
       toaddress] [-f fromaddress]

DESCRIPTION

       changetrack is a program to monitor changes to a bunch of files. If files are modified one day,  and  the
       machine  starts  working  incorrectly some days later, changetrack can provide information on which files
       were modified, and help locate the problem.

       Normally changetrack uses ed to keep track of various revisions of the files by maintaining an .ed script
       with the change history for each file.

       Alternatively,  changetrack  can  use  rcs  to keep track of various revisions of the files. Each file is
       "installed" in the rcs system the first time that changetrack is run after that  file  is  added  to  the
       config  file.  Whenever  changetrack is run after that, a copy of the file is made, which is 'checked in'
       and implicitly 'checked out' of the rcs system. See the man page of co for information on  retrieving  an
       old version of the file.

       Backup files (ending in tilde ~) are ignored, unless explicitly included.

       After  each  pattern  in the file list, adding white space, a colon (:) then more whitespace, followed by
       email addresses, separated by more whitespace, will result in the changes to that file being  emailed  to
       that  address.  All  changes  from  each run are expressed in one email. Using the email feature requires
       Mail::SendMail to be installed; if it does not work correctly,  an  error  message  will  be  printed  to
       standard error.

OPTIONS

       -h     Display a short help message then exit.

       -cconfigfile
              Get   the   list   of   files   to   track   from  configfile  instead  of  from  ~/.changetrackrc
              (/etc/changetrack.conf for the super-user)

       -doutputdirectory
              Store output in outputdirectory instead  of  in  ~/.changetrack/  (/var/lib/changetrack/  for  the
              super-user)

       -e     Keep a copy of the file from when it was first added to the changetrack configuration, and keep ed
              styled changes to rebuild the file.  This option is recommended only if rcs does not work  on  the
              machine.  To recover using this means, the .ed file should have the last several commands removed,
              to allow the file to be rebuilt to the appropriate state. A  command  like  'cat  myfile.ed  |  ed
              myfile.original' should be executed.

       -r     Disable the rcs facility.

       -q     Quiet mode; only print critical messages. Good for scripts.

       -mmessage
              Print  message  on each file, after checking for any changes. Good for indicating reboots or other
              system events.

       -Mmessage
              Like -m, but message is only printed on modified files.

       -v     Print version and exit.

       -u     Use unified diffs (this only works with some implementations of diff.

       -oemailaddress
              Mail output to emailaddress. This is supplementary to emails specified in the config file.

       -femailaddress
              Set "From" header to emailaddress, which must be fully qualified.

REQUIREMENTS

       This program requires diff.  Unless the -r switch is used, this program requires rcs to be installed.  If
       the -e switch is used, ed is required.

FILES

       ~/.changetrackrc
              List  of  files to monitor. Each line may start with '#' indicating a comment.  If a line is not a
              comment, it contains a file/pattern to monitor, and  optionally  "  :  "  followed  by  any  email
              addresses  to  send changes to. The filename may be a pattern described in the same way as for ls.
              Note: the default is /etc/changetrack.conf for root.

       ~/.changetrack/
              Default directory in which to store output information. The default is  /var/lib/changetrack/  for
              root.  All  rcs  files  are  stored in this directory, unless a subdirectory called RCS exists, in
              which case the rcs files are stored in that directory.

       /etc/cron.daily/changetrack
              Script that creates the list of all files monitor.

       /etc/cron.hourly/changetrack
              Script that invocates changetrack.

       /etc/default/changetrack
              Configuration for the above two scripts.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Each filename is written to standard output.  rcs will print errors if certain things go wrong.  It  will
       also print a few lines each time changetrack is run after a new file is added to the configuration.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Cameron J. Morland.
       Manual Page Revision: 2.1 Release Date: 2001-03-06.
       Copyright © 2001-2005 Cameron J. Morland.
       Changed by Jens Peter Secher to reflect the Debian modifications.

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), rcsintro(1), co(1)

TODO

       Automate removal of out-of-date changes, to save disk space and clarify the important changes.

BUGS

       None known.

                                                                                                  CHANGETRACK(1)