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.