NAME

       ucfr - Update Configuration File Registry:  associate packages with configuration files

SYNOPSIS

       ucfr [options] <Package> <Path to configuration file>

DESCRIPTION

       Where  Package is the package associated with the configuration file (and, in some sense, its owner), and
       Path to configuration file is the full path to the location (usually under /etc) where the  configuration
       file  lives,  and  is  potentially  modified by the end user. Please note that usually this means that we
       register actual files, and not symbolic links to files.  ucfr will follow symbolic links and register the
       real file,  and not the symbolic link.

       This script maintains an association between configuration files and  packages,  and  is  meant  to  help
       provide  facilities  that  dpkg  provides  conffiles  for configuration files and not shipped in a Debian
       package, but handled by the postinst by ucf instead. This script is idempotent, associating a package  to
       a  file  multiple  times  is  not  an error.  It is normally an error to try to associate a file which is
       already associated with another package, but this can be over ridden by using the --force option.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print a short usage message

       -n, --no-action
              Dry run. Print the actions that would be taken if the script is invoked, but take no action.

       -d [n], --debug [n]
              Set the debug level to the (optional) level n (n defaults to 1). This turns on  copious  debugging
              information.

       -p, --purge
              Removes  all vestiges of the association between the named package and the configuration file from
              the registry. The association must already exist; if the configuration  file  is  associated  with
              some  other  package, an error happens, unless the option --force is also given. In that case, the
              any associations for the configuration file are removed from the  registry,  whether  or  not  the
              package  name  matches. This action is idempotent, asking for an association to be purged multiple
              times does not result in an error, since attempting  to  remove  an  non-existent  association  is
              silently ignored unless the --verbose option is used (in which case it just issues a diagnostic).

       -v, --verbose
              Make the script be very verbose about setting internal variables.

       -f, --force
              This  option  forces operations requested even if the configuration file in consideration is owned
              by another package. This allows a package to hijack a configuration file from another package,  or
              to purge the association between the file and some other package in the registry.

       --state-dir /path/to/dir
              Set  the  state  directory  to  /path/to/dir instead of the default /var/lib/ucf.  Used mostly for
              testing.

USAGE

       The most common case usage is pretty simple: a single line invocation in the postinst on  configure,  and
       another  single  line  in  the postrm to tell ucfr to forget about the association with the configuration
       file on purge (using the  --purge option) is all that is needed (assuming ucfr is still on the system).

FILES

       /var/lib/ucf/registry, and /var/lib/ucf/registry.X, where X is a small integer, where  previous  versions
       of the registry are stored.

       /etc/ucf.conf

EXAMPLES

       If  the  package  foo  wants to use ucfr to associate itself with a configuration file foo.conf, a simple
       invocation of ucfr in the postinst file is all that is needed:

       ucfr foo /etc/foo.conf

       On  purge,  one  should   tell   ucf   to   forget   about   the   file   (see   detailed   examples   in
       /usr/share/doc/examples):

       ucfr --purge foo /etc/foo.conf

SEE ALSO

       ucf(1), ucf.conf(5).

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.

Debian                                             Apr 11 2006                                           UCFR(1)