KDB(1)

NAME

kdb - Elektra key database command line administration tool

SYNOPSIS

kdb get [-dlr] key/name

kdb set [-t type] [-d] [-c "A comment about this key"] [-m mode]
        [-u uid] [-g gid] key/name "the value"

kdb set [-t type] [-m mode] [-c "A comment"] key/name -- "the value"

kdb set [-t type] [-b file] key/name

kdb ls [-lRfvs] [key/dir | key/name]

kdb ls [-lRfvx] [key/dir | key/name] > keys.xml

kdb edit [-R] [key/dir | key/name]

kdb rm key/name

kdb mv key/src key/dest

kdb ln key/src key/dest

kdb export [-f] system/some/tree.root > [file.xml]

kdb import < file.xml

kdb import file.xml

kdb monitor some/key/name Description.PP The kdb command provide ways
            to manipulate the Elektra keys database.

The subcommands implemented are very similar to regular UNIX commands
like ls, and rm, specially in their output and options.  Subcommands.PP
get
    Get the value from the specified key. Accepts options: -d, -l, -f,
    -s

set
    Set the value to the specified key. Accepts options: -c, -t, -d,
    -m, -b

ls
    As the ls(1) command, list key names for the specified key, or
    children keys, if specified a folder key. The -v argument will make
    it show also the values of each key. The -d (descriptive) will make
    it show the comment, key name and its value, as you are watching a
    plain text file. Accepts options: -x, -d, -l, -f, -v, -R, -s

ln
    Creates a key that is a symbolic links to another key.

mv
    Move, or renames a key. Currently it can't move keys across
    different filesystems.

rm
    As the rm(1) command, removes the key specified.

edit
    A very powerfull subcommand that lets you edit an XML
    representation of the keys. The parameters it accepts is usually a
    parent key, so its child keys will be gathered. Can be used with
    the -R flag to work recursively. The editor used is the one set in
    the $EDITOR environment variable, or vi. After editing the keys,
    kdb edit will analyze them and commit only the changed keys, remove
    the keys removed, and add the keys added. This command is only
    available when /usr/lib/libelektratools.so is available.

export, save
    Export a subtree of keys to XML. If no subtree is defined right
    after the export command, system and current user trees will be
    exported. Output is written to standard output. The output encoding
    will allways be UTF-8, regardeless of your system encoding. UTF-8
    is the most universal charset you can get when exchanging data
    between multiple systems. Accepts -f.

import, load
    Import an XML representation of keys and save it to the keys
    database. If no filename is passed right after the import command,
    standard input is used. This command is only available when
    /usr/lib/libelektratools.so is available.

monitor, mon
    Monitor a key for some value change. It will block your command
    line until a change in the key value is detected, then return its
    new value.
Options.PP -R
    Causes to work recursively. In ls, will list recursively.

-x
    Makes ls output an XML representation of the keys, instead of an
    ls-compatible output.

-l
    Causes to display long results. With ls, will generate lists
    similar to ls -l. With get, will show also the key name.

-a
    Causes ls to display also inactive keys. Generate lists similar to
    ls -a. Inactive keys are keys which basename begins with a '.'
    (dot). An example of inactive key:
    system/sw/XFree/current/Monitor/.Monitor1

-f
    Causes to work with full key names. A full key name makes sense
    only on user/* keys, and differentiate from the regular key names
    in specifying the owner user. If the current user is someuser, the
    user/some/key full name is user:someuser/some/key. Makes effect in
    ls, export and get subcommands.

-d
    Causes get to work descriptivelly. When requesting a key it will
    show the comment, key name and its value in a fancy format.  Causes
    set to mark the key as a directory key.

-s
    Causes get and ls to be more friendly to Shell scripts. For
    example, when requesting user/env/env2/PATH, the output will be
    PATH="the value", that is, only the basename of the key will be
    showed and the value will be surrounded by ' " '.

-t type
    When setting a key's value, you can specify the type with this
    switch. Currently accepted types are string for plain text, bin for
    binary as-is values, dir to create folder keys and link to create
    symbolic links between keys. Plain text are always stored as
    UTF-8(7) in Elektra, regardeless of your current encoding ($LANG).
    If you want to force a value to be stored without the UTF-8(7)
    encoding (a bad idea), you can set it as binary. Binary values
    should be avoided, because they are black boxes for system
    administrators.

-b filename
    Set the key value as the content of file filename. This option is
    more usefull when setting binary keys.

-m mode
    For the set command. Will set the key access permission to mode,
    which must be an octal number as for chmod(1).

-u uid
    Create the key with uid user ID. It can be a user name or a uid
    number.

-g gid
    Create the key with gid group ID. It can be a group name or a gid
    number

-c comment
    When setting keys, you can use this argument to set a descriptive
    comment for it. This comment is exactly as a comment in a plain
    text configuration file. The comment is stored as UTF-8(7)
    regardeless of your current encoding ($LANG).

-v
    With the ls subcommand, will make it show also the value stored in
    the key.

--
    With the set subcommand, everything after it will be considered the
    value, even text with dashes (-).
Best Practices When Creating Keys.PP When using Elektra to store your
application's configuration and state, please keep in mind the
following rules:

o   You are not allowed to create keys right under system or user.

o   You are not allowed to create folder keys right under system or
    user. They are reserved for very essential OS subsystems.

o   The keys for your application, called say MyApp, should be created
    under system/sw/MyApp and/or user/sw/MyApp.

ENVIRONMENT

KDB_ROOT if defined, prepends it to key names.

KDB_BACKEND defines the name of another backend plugin library to use ExamplesSetting Keys.PP bash$kdb set -c "My first key" user/example/key "Some nice value"

bash$kdb set user:luciana/example/key -- "Some - nice - value with dashes"

bash#KDB_ROOT=user:http/sw/httpd kdb set -u nobody -g http key "Some value"

bash$kdb set -b image.png -t bin user/example/binaryKey

bash$kdb set -b file.txt user/example/regularKey

bash#kdb set -t link system/sw/XFree/current system/sw/XFree/handmade Getting Keys.PP bash$KDB_ROOT=user/example kdb get some/key/name

bash$eval `kdb get -s user/env/env1/PS1`

bash$KDB_BACKEND=gconf kdb get user/sw/gnome-terminal/global/active_encodings Listing.PP bash$kdb ls -laR user:valeria

bash$kdb ls -lR system/sw/xorg/current

bash$KDB_ROOT=system/sw kdb ls -lR xorg

bash$KDB_BACKEND=fstab kdb ls -Rv system/filesystems

bash$eval `kdb ls -Rvs user/env/env2` Miscelaneous.PP bash#kdb ln system/sw/xorg/handmade system/sw/xorg/current

bash#kdb mv system/sw/xorg/current system/sw/xorg/old

bash#kdb rm system/inittab/rc4

bash$KDB_BACKEND=gconf kdb rm user/gconfKey XML Import and Export.PP bash#kdb export user/sw/app | sed -e 's|/app/|/app2/|g' | kdb import

bash#KDB_ROOT=system/sw kdb export myapp > myappconf.xml

bash#kdb import myappconf.xml

bash$KDB_BACKEND=gconf kdb export user/sw

SEE ALSO

elektra(7), elektra(5)

AUTHOR

Avi Alkalay <avi at unix.sh>
Linux Market Developer, Senior IT and Software Architect, IBM Linux
Impact Team :: ibm.com/linux

Author.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2004 Avi Alkalay

Elektra Initiative March 2004 KDB(1)