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.

       -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.  This is currently
              an experimental feature.

       -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.

AUTHOR

       Written by David Härdeman <david@hardeman.nu>

                                                    May 2007                                        metastore(1)