1KDB(1) KDB(1)
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6 kdb - Elektra key database command line administration tool
7
9 kdb get [-dlr] key/name
10 kdb set [-t type] [-d] [-c "A comment about this key"] [-m mode]
12 [-u uid] [-g gid] key/name "the value"
13 kdb set [-t type] [-m mode] [-c "A comment"] key/name -- "the value"
15 kdb set [-t type] [-b file] key/name
17 kdb ls [-lRfvs] [key/dir | key/name]
19 kdb ls [-lRfvx] [key/dir | key/name] > keys.xml
21 kdb edit [-R] [key/dir | key/name]
23 kdb rm key/name
25 kdb mv key/src key/dest
27 kdb ln key/src key/dest
29 kdb export [-f] system/some/tree.root > [file.xml]
31 kdb import < file.xml
33 kdb import file.xml
35 kdb monitor some/key/name Description.PP The kdb command provide ways
37 to manipulate the Elektra keys database.
38 The subcommands implemented are very similar to regular UNIX commands
40 like ls, and rm, specially in their output and options. Subcommands.TP
41 get Get the value from the specified key. Accepts options: -d, -l, -f,
42 -s
43 set Set the value to the specified key. Accepts options: -c, -t, -d,
45 -m, -b
46 ls As the ls(1) command, list key names for the specified key, or
48 children keys, if specified a folder key. The -v argument will
49 make it show also the values of each key. The -d (descriptive)
50 will make it show the comment, key name and its value, as you
51 are watching a plain text file. Accepts options: -x, -d, -l, -f,
52 -v, -R, -s
53 ln Creates a key that is a symbolic links to another key.
55 mv Move, or renames a key. Currently it can't move keys across
57 different filesystems.
58 rm As the rm(1) command, removes the key specified.
60 edit A very powerfull subcommand that lets you edit an XML
62 representation of the keys. The parameters it accepts is usually
63 a parent key, so its child keys will be gathered. Can be used
64 with the -R flag to work recursively. The editor used is the one
65 set in the $EDITOR environment variable, or vi. After editing
66 the keys, kdb edit will analyze them and commit only the changed
67 keys, remove the keys removed, and add the keys added. This
68 command is only available when /usr/lib/libelektratools.so is
69 available.
70 export, save
72 Export a subtree of keys to XML. If no subtree is defined right
73 after the export command, system and current user trees will be
74 exported. Output is written to standard output. The output
75 encoding will allways be UTF-8, regardeless of your system
76 encoding. UTF-8 is the most universal charset you can get when
77 exchanging data between multiple systems. Accepts -f.
78 import, load
80 Import an XML representation of keys and save it to the keys
81 database. If no filename is passed right after the import
82 command, standard input is used. This command is only available
83 when /usr/lib/libelektratools.so is available.
84 monitor, mon
86 Monitor a key for some value change. It will block your command
87 line until a change in the key value is detected, then return
88 its new value. Options.TP -R Causes to work recursively. In ls,
89 will list recursively.
90 -x Makes ls output an XML representation of the keys, instead of an
92 ls-compatible output.
93 -l Causes to display long results. With ls, will generate lists
95 similar to ls -l. With get, will show also the key name.
96 -a Causes ls to display also inactive keys. Generate lists similar
98 to ls -a. Inactive keys are keys which basename begins with a
99 '.' (dot). An example of inactive key:
100 system/sw/XFree/current/Monitor/.Monitor1
101 -f Causes to work with full key names. A full key name makes sense
103 only on user/* keys, and differentiate from the regular key
104 names in specifying the owner user. If the current user is
105 someuser, the user/some/key full name is user:someuser/some/key.
106 Makes effect in ls, export and get subcommands.
107 -d Causes get to work descriptivelly. When requesting a key it will
109 show the comment, key name and its value in a fancy format.
110 Causes set to mark the key as a directory key.
111 -s Causes get and ls to be more friendly to Shell scripts. For
113 example, when requesting user/env/env2/PATH, the output will be
114 PATH="the value", that is, only the basename of the key will be
115 showed and the value will be surrounded by ' " '.
116 -t type
118 When setting a key's value, you can specify the type with this
119 switch. Currently accepted types are string for plain text, bin
120 for binary as-is values, dir to create folder keys and link to
121 create symbolic links between keys. Plain text are always stored
122 as UTF-8(7) in Elektra, regardeless of your current encoding
123 ($LANG). If you want to force a value to be stored without the
124 UTF-8(7) encoding (a bad idea), you can set it as binary. Binary
125 values should be avoided, because they are black boxes for
126 system administrators.
127 -b filename
129 Set the key value as the content of file filename. This option
130 is more usefull when setting binary keys.
131 -m mode
133 For the set command. Will set the key access permission to mode,
134 which must be an octal number as for chmod(1).
135 -u uid Create the key with uid user ID. It can be a user name or a uid
137 number.
138 -g gid Create the key with gid group ID. It can be a group name or a
140 gid number
141 -c comment
143 When setting keys, you can use this argument to set a
144 descriptive comment for it. This comment is exactly as a comment
145 in a plain text configuration file. The comment is stored as
146 UTF-8(7) regardeless of your current encoding ($LANG).
147 -v With the ls subcommand, will make it show also the value stored
149 in the key.
150 -- With the set subcommand, everything after it will be considered
152 the value, even text with dashes (-). Best Practices When
153 Creating Keys.PP When using Elektra to store your application's
154 configuration and state, please keep in mind the following
155 rules:
156 · You are not allowed to create keys right under system or user.
158 · You are not allowed to create folder keys right under system or
160 user. They are reserved for very essential OS subsystems.
161 · The keys for your application, called say MyApp, should be created
163 under system/sw/MyApp and/or user/sw/MyApp.
164
166 KDB_ROOT if defined, prepends it to key names.
167 KDB_BACKEND defines the name of another backend plugin library to use
169 ExamplesSetting Keys.PP bash$kdb set -c "My first key" user/example/key
170 "Some nice value"
171 bash$kdb set user:luciana/example/key -- "Some - nice - value with
173 dashes"
174 bash#KDB_ROOT=user:http/sw/httpd kdb set -u nobody -g http key "Some
176 value"
177 bash$kdb set -b image.png -t bin user/example/binaryKey
179 bash$kdb set -b file.txt user/example/regularKey
181 bash#kdb set -t link system/sw/XFree/current system/sw/XFree/handmade
183 Getting Keys.PP bash$KDB_ROOT=user/example kdb get some/key/name
184 bash$eval `kdb get -s user/env/env1/PS1`
186 bash$KDB_BACKEND=gconf kdb get
188 user/sw/gnome-terminal/global/active_encodings Listing.PP bash$kdb ls
189 -laR user:valeria
190 bash$kdb ls -lR system/sw/xorg/current
192 bash$KDB_ROOT=system/sw kdb ls -lR xorg
194 bash$KDB_BACKEND=fstab kdb ls -Rv system/filesystems
196 bash$eval `kdb ls -Rvs user/env/env2` Miscelaneous.PP bash#kdb ln
198 system/sw/xorg/handmade system/sw/xorg/current
199 bash#kdb mv system/sw/xorg/current system/sw/xorg/old
201 bash#kdb rm system/inittab/rc4
203 bash$KDB_BACKEND=gconf kdb rm user/gconfKey XML Import and Export.PP
205 bash#kdb export user/sw/app | sed -e 's|/app/|/app2/|g' | kdb import
206 bash#KDB_ROOT=system/sw kdb export myapp > myappconf.xml
208 bash#kdb import myappconf.xml
210 bash$KDB_BACKEND=gconf kdb export user/sw
212
214 elektra(7), elektra(5)
215
217 Avi Alkalay <avi at unix.sh>.
218Elektra Initiative March 2004 KDB(1)