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 nor be known to dpkg 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» if DPKG_ADMINDIR has not been set.

       --instdir directory
           Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory where packages get
           installed (since dpkg 1.19.2).  Defaults to «/» if DPKG_ROOT has not been set.

       --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) if DPKG_ROOT has not been set.

       --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.

           not-root:
               Try to (de)install things even when not root (since dpkg 1.21.8).

       --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_DEBUG
           Sets the debug mask (since dpkg 1.21.10) from an octal value.  The currently accepted
           flags are described in the dpkg --debug option, but not all these flags might have an
           effect on this program.

       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.

SEE ALSO

       dpkg(1).