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NAME

       changetrack - track changes to files

SYNOPSIS

       changetrack  [-h]  [-c  configfile]  [-d  directory] [-e] [-r] [-q] [-m
       message] [-M message] [-v] [-u] [-o toaddress] [-f fromaddress]

DESCRIPTION

       changetrack is a program to monitor changes to a  bunch  of  files.  If
       files  are modified one day, and the machine starts working incorrectly
       some days later, changetrack can provide  information  on  which  files
       were modified, and help locate the problem.

       Normally  changetrack uses ed to keep track of various revisions of the
       files by maintaining an .ed script with the  change  history  for  each
       file.

       Alternatively,  changetrack  can  use  rcs  to  keep  track  of various
       revisions of the files. Each file is "installed" in the rcs system  the
       first  time  that  changetrack  is  run after that file is added to the
       config file. Whenever changetrack is run after that, a copy of the file
       is  made, which is ’checked in’ and implicitly ’checked out’ of the rcs
       system. See the man page of co for information  on  retrieving  an  old
       version of the file.

       Backup  files  (ending  in  tilde  ~)  are  ignored, unless explicitely
       included.

       After each pattern in the file list, adding white space,  a  colon  (:)
       then  more  whitespace,  followed by email addresses, separated by more
       whitespace, will result in the changes to that file  being  emailed  to
       that  address.  All  changes  from each run are expressed in one email.
       Using the email feature requires Mail::SendMail to be installed; if  it
       does  not  work correctly, an error message will be printed to standard
       error.

OPTIONS

       -h     Display a short help message then exit.

       -cconfigfile
              Get the list of files to track from configfile instead  of  from
              ~/.changetrackrc (/etc/changetrack.conf for the super-user)

       -doutputdirectory
              Store  output  in  outputdirectory instead of in ~/.changetrack/
              (/var/lib/changetrack/ for the super-user)

       -e     Keep a copy of the file from when it  was  first  added  to  the
              changetrack  configuration,  and  keep  ed  -styled  changes  to
              rebuild the file.  This option is recommended only if  rcs  does
              not  work  on the machine.  To recover using this means, the .ed
              file should have the last several commands removed, to allow the
              file to be rebuilt to the appropriate state. A command like ’cat
              myfile.ed | ed myfile.original’ should be executed.

       -r     Disable the rcs facility.

       -q     Quiet mode; only print critical messages. Good for scripts.

       -mmessage
              Print message on each file, after checking for any changes. Good
              for indicating reboots or other system events.

       -Mmessage
              Like -m, but message is only printed on modified files.

       -v     Print version and exit.

       -u     Use  unified diffs (this only works with some implementations of
              diff.

       -oemailaddress
              Mail output to emailaddress. This  is  supplementary  to  emails
              specified in the config file.

       -femailaddress
              Set   "From"   header  to  emailaddress,  which  must  be  fully
              qualified.

REQUIREMENTS

       This program requires diff.  Unless the -r switch is used, this program
       requires rcs to be installed. If the -e switch is used, ed is required.

FILES

       ~/.changetrackrc
              List  of  files  to  monitor.  Each  line  may  start  with  ’#’
              indicating a comment.  If a line is not a comment, it contains a
              file/pattern to monitor, and optionally " : "  followed  by  any
              email  addresses  to  send  changes  to.  The  filename may be a
              pattern described in the same way as for ls.  Note: the  default
              is /etc/changetrack.conf for root.

       ~/.changetrack/
              Default  directory  in  which  to  store output information. The
              default is /var/lib/changetrack/ for root.  All  rcs  files  are
              stored  in  this  directory,  unless  a  subdirectory called RCS
              exists,  in  which  case  the  rcs  files  are  stored  in  that
              directory.

       /etc/cron.daily/changetrack
              Script that creates the list of all files monitor.

       /etc/cron.hourly/changetrack
              Script that invocates changetrack.

       /etc/default/changetrack
              Configuration for the above two scripts.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Each  filename is written to standard output.  rcs will print errors if
       certain things go wrong. It will also  print  a  few  lines  each  time
       changetrack is run after a new file is added to the configuration.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Cameron J. Morland.
       Manual Page Revision: 2.1 Release Date: 2001-03-06.
       Copyright © 2001-2005 Cameron J. Morland.
       Changed by Jens Peter Secher to reflect the Debian modifications.

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), rcsintro(1), co(1)

TODO

       Automate removal of out-of-date changes, to save disk space and clarify
       the important changes.

BUGS

       None known.