CONTENT
The xstow.ini file contains some static informations about your system.
It's possible setting most necessary values by setting the required
command line option, but in some cases this won't make sense if you are
using xstow quite often.
SYNTAX
The syntax of the configuration file is simple. It's the same as it is
used by KDE and GNOME.
The data is splitted into keys values and sections. The '#' sign marks
a comment. Here is an example:
[traserve-links]
keep-targets = true
link = /usr/tmp # comment
[traserve-links]
is a section with the name "traserve-links"
keep-targets = true
is a key - value pair, where 'keep-targets' is the key and
'true' is the value.
PROCESSING
XStow processes the config files one after another. Static configura-
tion options like the [debug]=>module option can be overwritten by the
next config file. List keys like [traverse-links]=>link will be
appended to the list.
If you wan't more informations about the current stow setup call XStow
like this:
xstow -s -dl 1 dummy-package | less
For getting information about which config files were processed you
will have to set some environment values (see xstow(1) for details).
Eg.:
XSTOW_DEBUG_LEVEL=1 xstow -s -dl 1 dummy-package | less
DESCRIPTION
SECTION traserve-links
In this section a number of links are listed, which xstow will identify
as links that are not part of an xstow managed package. Eg.: For con-
forming to the FHS it is common setting a link from /usr/share/man to
/usr/man. This will cause old applications installing theire manpages
in /usr/share/man, rather than in /usr/man.
Allowed values are 'true' and '1' (incasesensitive). Anything
else will be interpreted as false. If keep-targets is set to
true the target of the links in this section will automatically
added to the keep-dirs section. This avoids that these targets
will be removed and the links will become dead links.
add-if-target = PATTERN
Automatic add all links which targets match the pattern to the
link list. XStow will use this as the last chance for solving
dependencies. Only if all other tests failed the application
will try appling this test. This means that it is no problem
setting [links]=>absolute-links to true and using a pattern like
/* here. If keep-targets is set to true the applied links will
added to the keep-dirs list too.
add-if-target-regex = REGEX
Does the same as add-if-target, but support regular expressions.
XStow will always try matching the regular expressions before
the normal shell patterns, cause a regex can be much more exact
than a shell pattern.
SECTION keep-dirs
In this section directories are listed that should not be remove. When
xstow removes a package and a directory becomes emty the directory will
be removed too.
dir = DIR
The value of this key must contain an absolute path to the
directory that should be kept. It is allowed that there are
more than one dir keys in this section. The value should not end
with a '/'!!
SECTION matches
XStow will try matching this pattern to all file names that were found
in packages. Only the file names. So you do not have to care about the
slashes.
ignore = PATTERN
Ignore files matching this pattern. It is allowed that there
are more than one ignore keys in this section.
ignore-regex = PATTERN
Does the same as ignore, but support regular expressions. XStow
will always try matching the regular expressions before the nor-
mal shell patterns, cause a regex can be much more exact than a
shell pattern.
copy = PATTERN
Copy files or directories matching this pattern instead of link-
ing it. This makes sense in case of some global files that will
mal shell patterns, cause a regex can be much more exact than a
shell pattern.
nignore = NIGNORE_RULE
Ignore everything except file and directories matching this
expression. eg: "systree/bintree". For using nignore support
fnmatch and configration file support has to be enabled. A rule
(eg.: "systree/headertree" ) has a set of subrules (eg.: "sys-
tree" and "headertree" ). These subrules are defined in a sepa-
rate section which is named as the subrule. Eg, the subrule for
"systree":
[systree]
dir = /usr
dir = /usr/local
follow = false
There is an example config file "nignore.ini" in the doc directory of
this package.
SECTION NIGNORE-SUB-RULE
Description of a nignore subrule. This section is called like the nig-
nore subrule, eg: "systree".
dir = DIR
Directories where a file of the package should be installed. You
can use shell pattern's too (eg.: "/man/man*"), but use this
feature only if this subrule is the last one in an nignore rule.
follow = BOOL
Follow subdirs.
SECTION stow-dirs
dir = DIR
The value of this key must contain an absolute path to the
directory that can be handled as it would be part of the own
stow directory. This means xstow is allowed to make changes in
packages that are related to this directory. It is allowed that
there are more than one dir keys in this section. The value
should not end with a '/'!!
auto-add-dirs = PATTERN
Automatically add a directory if it matches this pattern. In
Stow directories, which were detected with this pattern, never
will be searched for configuration files. It is allowed that
there are more than one auto-add-dirs keys in this section.
auto-add-dirs-regex = REGEX
Does the same as auto-add-dirs, but support regular expressions.
'/usr/local'. The following keys withing this section allowing to
restrict the installation access within the valid target directory.
dir = DIR
The value of this key must contain an absolute path to the
directory that has not be changed. XStow is not allowed
installing a package there and withing the subdirectories, and
will report an error, if it would. It is allowed that there are
more than one dir keys in this section. The value should not end
with a '/'!!
auto-add-dirs = PATTERN
Automatically add a directory if it matches this pattern. It is
allowed that there are more than one auto-add-dirs keys in this
section.
auto-add-dirs-regex = REGEX
Does the same as auto-add-dirs, but support regular expressions.
XStow will always try matching the regular expressions before
the normal shell patterns, cause a regex can be much more exact
than a shell pattern.
target = DIR
The value of this key must contain an absolute path to the
directory that is allowed to be changed. If this value is set,
XStow will report an error if it would touch any other, or upper
directory within the tree. It is allowed that there are more
than one target keys in this section. The value should not end
with a '/'!!
target-add-traversable-links = BOOL
Automatically add the targets of traversable links to the tar-
gets list. This can be useful if you do not add manually all
possible targets of traversable links to the target list. By
default this value is set to false.
SECTION debug
These values will be ignored if one of these values is set by command
line option.
module = MODULE
Set the default debug module.
level = INTEGER
Set the debug level.
SECTION config-files
in-home BOOL
Search in home directory for a config file named "xstow.ini" or
SECTION links
absolute-paths = BOOL
Create links with absolute path names.
EXAMPLE xstow.ini
EXAMPLE 1
Here is an example xstow.ini which is common for a system where xstow
is managing the /usr/local tree.
[traverse-links]
keep-targets = true
link = /usr/local/tmp
link = /usr/local/var
link = /usr/local/man
link = /usr/local/doc
link = /usr/local/info
[keep-dirs]
dir = /usr/local/bin
dir = /usr/local/sbin
dir = /usr/local/lib
dir = /usr/local/include
[matches]
ignore = *~
ignore = core
ignore = core.*
ignore = CVS
[stow-dirs]
dir = /usr/local/stow
dir = /usr/local/stow2
EXAMPLE 2
This is an example xstow.ini for a system where xstow is managing the
'/usr/local' tree, but the stow directory is '/stow'.
[matches]
ignore = *~
ignore = CVS
ignore = core*
[stow-dirs]
dir = /stow
[protect-dirs]
target = /usr/local
Man(1) output converted with
man2html