'\" t
.\"     Title: metche
.\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.75.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 12/16/2009
.\"    Manual: [FIXME: manual]
.\"    Source: [FIXME: source]
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "METCHE" "8" "12/16/2009" "[FIXME: source]" "[FIXME: manual]"
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.SH "NAME"
metche \- reducing root bus factor
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBmetche\fR\ 'u
\fBmetche\fR [\-h\ \fIvserver\fR] {[report\ [\ {[stable]\ |\ [testing]\ |\ [unstable]}\-\fIYYYYMMDDHHMM\fR\ ]] | [list] | [stabilize\ [testing\-\fIYYYYMMDDHHMM\fR]]}
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
metche is a tool meant to ease collective system administration by monitoring changes in the system configuration\&.
.PP
metche basic usage is to monitor changes in a directory, usually
/etc
; optionally, metche can also monitor:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
one or more user maintained changelog files,
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
the state of Debian packages and versions\&.
.RE
.PP
metche should be installed with a cronjob that regularly runs to automatically save the system state as needed\&. These states are saved in a way similar to the Debian development model:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
\fIunstable\fR
states are saved as soon as a change is detected\&. They are kept until a new
\fItesting\fR
state appears\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
\fItesting\fR
states is created from the last
\fIunstable\fR
state that has not been changed after a short amount of time (by default, one hour)\&. Old
\fIunstable\fR
states are deleted afterwards\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
\fIstable\fR
states are created from the last
\fItesting\fR
state, either manually, or after a long amount of time (by default, 3 days)\&. Old
\fItesting\fR
states are deleted afterwards\&.
.RE
.PP
When a new
\fItesting\fR
state is saved, an email is sent to a configurable address, giving an overwiew of the differences with the previous
\fItesting\fR\&. A notification is also sent when a new
\fIstable\fR
state is saved\&.
.PP
metche\*(Aqs configuration is read from
/etc/metche\&.conf\&. Various settings like changelog monitoring or time between system state switches are described there\&.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
If
\fB\-h\fR
\fIVSERVER\fR
is specified, the VServer
\fIVSERVER\fR
is operated on instead of the host system\&. This, along with the
\fBVSNAMES\fR
option, allows to monitor several VServers running on the system\&.
.PP
One of the following commands must be specified on the command line:
.PP
\fBreport\fR
.RS 4
When run with the
\fBreport\fR
command, metche displays a report against the specified saved state, or if unspecified, against the latest testing state\&. This is useful when you have broken your system and want to know which changes have been made since a given, known working, system state\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBlist\fR
.RS 4
When run with the
\fBlist\fR
command, metche displays a list of all the saved states\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBstabilize\fR
.RS 4
When run with the
\fBstabilize\fR
command, metche turns a "testing state" into a "stable state"\&. By default, it will use the last "testing state", but this can be overriden by giving a specific state as argument\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBcron\fR
.RS 4
This command should not be called manually, but used from a cronjob\&. When called, it can perform various operations like: saving "unstable", "testing" or "stable" states as needed and sending reports and notification if configured to do so\&. This command does not support the
\fB\-h\fR
option\&.
.RE
.SH "FILES"
.PP
/etc/metche\&.conf
contains metche configuration\&.
.PP
When configured to monitor one changelog,
\fBCHANGELOG_FILE\fR
(default:
/root/Changelog)\&.
.PP
When configured to monitor multiple changelogs,
CHANGELOG_DIR/*/Changelog
(default:
/root/changelogs)\&.
.PP
System states are saved in
\fBBACKUP_DIR\fR
(default:
/var/lib/metche)\&.
.SH "SECURITY"
.PP
metche is able to use GnuPG to encrypt the email it sends, but does not by default; just enable the
\fBENCRYPT_EMAIL\fR
configuration option, and make sure
\fBEMAIL_ADDRESS\fR\*(Aq public key is in root\*(Aqs keyring, trusted enough to be used blindly by metche\&. If
\fBEMAIL_ADDRESS\fR
is an email alias or mailing\-list\*(Aqs address, you probably want to use the
\fBgroup\fR
option in
/root/\&.gnupg/gpg\&.conf
so that metche reports are encrypted for every person subscribed to this alias or mailing\-list; for more information, see
gpg(1)\&.
.PP
When
\fBDO_DETAILS\fR
is enabled and
\fBENCRYPT_EMAIL\fR
is disabled, metche sends in
\fIclear text email\fR
the changes made to the watched directory\&.\&.\&. either make sure that the
\fBEXCLUDES\fR
configuration variable prevents it to send sensitive information, or triple check that secure connections will be used end\-to\-end on the email path\&. If unsure, set
\fBEMAIL_ADDRESS\fR
configuration variable to a local mailbox\&. Please note that
\fBEMAIL_ADDRESS\fR
is not used for VServers: a VServer\*(Aqs report messages are sent to its root email address\&.
.PP
metche stores, in
\fBBACKUP_DIR\fR
(default :
/var/lib/metche), various backups of
\fBWATCHED_DIR\fR\&. Make sure that this backup place is at least as secured as the source\&.
.SH "BUGS"
.PP
See
\m[blue]\fBmetche\*(Aqs ticket system\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2
for known bugs, missing features, and the development road\-map\&.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
metche and this manual page were written by the boum\&.org collective
metche@lists\&.riseup\&.net\&.
.SH "NOTES"
.IP " 1." 4
metche's ticket system
.RS 4
\%https://dev.potager.org/metche/
.RE