NAME

       kdb-introduction - 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.

                                                  November 2015                              KDB-INTRODUCTION(1)