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Re: How do I trace changes in configuration files?



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David Wright wrote:
> On Wed 01 May 2019 at 18:43:47 (+0200), Erik Josefsson wrote:
>> Den 2019-05-01 kl. 13:29, skrev Dan Purgert:
>>> [...]
>> > Or you can use a revision tool. I ran across "rcs" a few years ago, and
>> > while it's not something I always use, when I remember, it's pretty
>> > good at what it does.
>> > 
>> > Either of these could be wrapped up in a little script --
>
> [snipped]
>
>> > Personally I like vi, but if you don't, replace it with whatever your
>> > editor of choice is.  The scripts probably have flaws that someone will
>> > point out soon (like calling it with no file, or multiple files, etc).
>
> This can more or less guarantee that you save changes made by editing
> the configuration files themselves, but …
> [...]
> … it fails to capture changes made on your behalf, like typing the
> SSID and passphrase into, say, wicd (which puts them into
> /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf). So it helps to have a dead simple
> method for collecting this information, less you put it off and
> then inevitably forget about doing it later.

I rarely use GUIs to do the work for me -- but yes, good point that
there are config files hidden behind graphical programs too. :)

I don't wifi very much -- just the one laptop leaves the house, but it
doesn't matter if/when it has different things, because none of the
other wireless devices will see those networks.

>
> As for finding where the information went, I sometimes use
> # find /boot /etc /home /lib /lib64 /var -type f -mmin -1440 -print |
> less # one day
> but changing 1440 to something more appropriate, like 10 (mins).

NICE!  I always forget about the 'time' options in find. 

>
> I also maintain a shell script that I run almost immediately after
> installing Debian, that performs a load of administrivia like
> adding me to groups, changing permissions, etc etc. It actually kicks
> off by installing etckeeper and configuring git. I add more items
> to it occasionally, and rerun it, so one or two items are protected
> by conditionals preventing their getting repeated unnecessarily.
> (But it's clunky and slow; for example there's a long list of
> .debs to install, so it spews out "already installed' messages.)

Haha, yeah, I have one of those myself.  Looking at picking up an
ansible or puppet reference and getting started with that "soon(tm)".


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