Thu, 03 Feb 2005
dpkg-statoverride -- Debian Delvings (1)
While I've spent a fair amount of time running around on Linux it's
typically been in a mixed Unix environment (Linux, Solaris and HPUX
mostly) so my tool-set was comprised of portable applications and
scripts. In my current job I'm working with an almost entirely Debian
server environment, the few Redhat machines are living on
borrowed time as the bosses want them gone.
While this may put a crimp on my cross-platform skills it does give me the chance to delve deeper into the "Debian way", and to be fair it looks like it's got a lot of neat tools.
The first of these is dpkg-statoverride, this simple little script allows you to modify the permissions and ownership of files as they are installed via the package system. At the back-end the /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride file contains a set of mappings, each one has <user> <group> <mode> and <file>. When the given file is installed the permissions are changed as per the line. You can add and remove the entries either through the dpkg-statoverride command or by editing the file by hand (not recommended).
To get the maximum benefits from this you'd want to keep a centralised list of files you want changed and then distribute it to all the machines, I'll be covering some of the details on the hows and whys to do this in future posts about cfengine and pkgsync. All I need to do now is work out how to run the command against already existing files that don't live in the packaging system...
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Posted: 2005/02/03 22:57 | /operatingsystems/linux/debian | Permanent link to this entry | This entry + same date
Wanting vs Having -- Being Debugged
"Sometimes it's better to want something that to have it."
Some of my friends are slightly too observant for my liking and have been mocking some of my phrases of choice. It's been pointed out to me recently that I use the above as an excuse phrase, think of a shoulder shrug, in order to let myself off things I'm either not sure I can attain or I'm not willing to invest the required time and effort into.
I've done some thinking about this and, unfortunately for me, they're right; damn them. I occasionally use this as an easy way out. Now I know this the question becomes what to do about it...
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Posted: 2005/02/03 22:54 | /nottech | Permanent link to this entry | This entry + same date
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