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.TH "METCHE" 8 "" "" ""
.SH NAME
metche \- reducing root bus factor
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.ad l
.hy 0
.HP 7
\fBmetche\fR {\fBcron\fR | \fBreport\ [{\fBstable\fR\ |\ \fBtesting\fR\ |\ \fBunstable\fR}\-\fIYYYYMMDDHHMM\fR]\fR | \fBlist\fR | \fBstabilize\ [testing\-\fIYYYYMMDDHHMM\fR]\fR}
.ad
.hy

.SH "DESCRIPTION"

.PP
metche is a tool meant to facilitate collective sysadmin by monitoring changes in the system configuration\&.

.PP
metche basic usage is to monitor changes in a directory, usually \fI/etc\fR ; optionally, metche can also monitor:

.TP 3
\(bu
one or more user maintained changelog files,
.TP
\(bu
the state of Debian packages and versions\&.
.LP

.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:

.TP 3
\(bu
\fIunstable\fR states are saved as soon as a change is detected\&. They are kept until a new \fItesting\fR state appears\&.
.TP
\(bu
\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\&.
.TP
\(bu
\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\&.
.LP

.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's configuration is read from \fI/etc/metche\&.conf\fR\&. Various settings like changelog monitoring or time between system state switches are described there\&.

.SH "OPTIONS"

.PP
One of the following commands must be specified on the command line:

.TP
\fBreport\fR
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\&.

.TP
\fBlist\fR
When run with the \fBlist\fR command, metche displays a list of all the saved states\&.

.TP
\fBstabilize\fR
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\&.

.TP
\fBcron\fR
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\&.

.SH "FILES"

.PP
\fI/etc/metche\&.conf\fR contains metche configuration\&.

.PP
When configured to monitor one changelog, \fI\fBCHANGELOG_FILE\fR\fR (default \fI/root/Changelog\fR)\&.

.PP
When configured to monitor multiple changelogs, \fI\fBCHANGELOG_DIR\fR/*/Changelog\fR (default : \fI/root/changelogs\fR)\&.

.PP
System states are saved in \fI\fBBACKUP_DIR\fR\fR (default \fI/var/lib/metche)\fR\&.

.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' public key is in root's keyring, trusted enough to be used blindly by metche\&.

.PP
In its default setup (\fBENCRYPT_EMAIL\fR configuration option disabled) metche sends in \fIclear text email\fR the changes made to the watched directory\&.\&.\&. either make sure that the \fBTAR_OPTS\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\&.

.PP
metche stores, in \fBBACKUP_DIR\fR (default : \fI/var/lib/metche\fR), various backups of \fBWATCHED_DIR\fR\&. Make sure that this backup place is at least as secured as the source\&.

.SH "BUGS"

.PP
See metche's ticket system: \fIhttps://poivron.org/dev/metche/\fR for known bugs, missing features, and the development road\-map\&.

.SH "AUTHOR"

.PP
This manual page was written by the boum collective <boum@anargeek\&.net>\&.