NAME
metche - reducing root bus factor
SYNOPSIS
metche [-h vserver]
{[report [ {[stable] | [testing] | [unstable]}-YYYYMMDDHHMM ]] |
[list] | [stabilize [testing-YYYYMMDDHHMM]]}
DESCRIPTION
metche is a tool meant to ease collective system administration by
monitoring changes in the system configuration.
metche basic usage is to monitor changes in a directory, usually /etc ;
optionally, metche can also monitor:
· one or more user maintained changelog files,
· the state of Debian packages and versions.
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:
· unstable states are saved as soon as a change is detected. They are
kept until a new testing state appears.
· testing states is created from the last unstable state that has not
been changed after a short amount of time (by default, one hour).
Old unstable states are deleted afterwards.
· stable states are created from the last testing state, either
manually, or after a long amount of time (by default, 3 days). Old
testing states are deleted afterwards.
When a new testing state is saved, an email is sent to a configurable
address, giving an overwiew of the differences with the previous
testing. A notification is also sent when a new stable state is saved.
metche's configuration is read from /etc/metche.conf. Various settings
like changelog monitoring or time between system state switches are
described there.
OPTIONS
If -h VSERVER is specified, the VServer VSERVER is operated on instead
of the host system. This, along with the VSNAMES option, allows to
monitor several VServers running on the system.
One of the following commands must be specified on the command line:
report
When run with the report 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.
list
When run with the list command, metche displays a list of all the
saved states.
stabilize
When run with the stabilize 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.
cron
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 -h option.
FILES
/etc/metche.conf contains metche configuration.
When configured to monitor one changelog, CHANGELOG_FILE (default:
/root/Changelog).
When configured to monitor multiple changelogs,
CHANGELOG_DIR/*/Changelog (default: /root/changelogs).
System states are saved in BACKUP_DIR (default: /var/lib/metche).
SECURITY
metche is able to use GnuPG to encrypt the email it sends, but does not
by default; just enable the ENCRYPT_EMAIL configuration option, and
make sure EMAIL_ADDRESS' public key is in root's keyring, trusted
enough to be used blindly by metche. If EMAIL_ADDRESS is an email alias
or mailing-list's address, you probably want to use the group 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).
When DO_DETAILS is enabled and ENCRYPT_EMAIL is disabled, metche sends
in clear text email the changes made to the watched directory... either
make sure that the EXCLUDES 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 EMAIL_ADDRESS
configuration variable to a local mailbox. Please note that
EMAIL_ADDRESS is not used for VServers: a VServer's report messages are
sent to its root email address.
metche stores, in BACKUP_DIR (default : /var/lib/metche), various
backups of WATCHED_DIR. Make sure that this backup place is at least as
secured as the source.
BUGS
See metche's ticket system[1] for known bugs, missing features, and the
development road-map.
AUTHOR
metche and this manual page were written by the boum.org collective
metche@lists.riseup.net.
NOTES
1. metche’s ticket system
https://dev.potager.org/metche/
[FIXME: source] 12/16/2009