Etckeeper, Git checkout, and broken file permissions in /etc

etckeeperfile-permissionsgit

I wanted to figure out why, after a etckeeper commit, I had a problem with rebooting (already solved thanks to this great thing).

I played with etckeeper, did git checkout some_commit_sha for a quick look and then git checkout master.

And it seems my file permissions in /etc were broken after those manipulations. All files including ssh_host_rsa_key passwd-, shadow- were rw-r--r--. I didn't know Git does not save file permissions.

Now I fixed all of them (I hope I didn't miss anything).

What was the right way to get earlier states of /etc, look around, and go back to the master with the right file permissions?

Best Answer

According to the documentation (see below) you have to run

etckeeper init

after checking any files back out in order to restore permissions. git can't store file permissions directly so it's handled by etckeeper and you need to run the init again to restore them after a checkout.

Documentation section,

You can use any git commands you like, but do keep in mind that, if you check out a different branch or an old version, git is operating directly on your system's /etc. If you do decide to check out a branch or tag, make sure you run "etckeeper init" again, to get any metadata changes:

git checkout april_first_joke_etc

etckeeper init

Related Solutions

Git – Using Etckeeper with a Single Shared Git Repository

First, use install etckeeper, configured for git in /etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.conf. Follow etckeeper's install method for your distro or from source.

Soon, you'll have a /etc/.git

Now on on your server, make sure you have a (safe) repo to push to...

 # ssh faruser@farhost     
 # mkdir somedir cd somedir && git init && chmod 700 .git    
 # exit

Now on the initial host, push your local repo to the server via ssh:

# cd /etc && git push faruser@farhost:somedir

Somedir can of course be relative in this case (following ssh convention)

Do this any time you make a change that affects /etc (and is snarfed into /etc/.git by etckeeper) and you'll have both local and off-machine repos for your machine.

Or set up passwordless ssh and make a hook in /etc/etckeeper/commit.d/ so it happens automagically if the machine is always connected.

How to store etckeeper repositories on a central server via git

I can understand wanting a central place with all your config info, but you probably want them to still be their own separate repositories, just in a central location. To do so, lookup how to push to remote locations in git (using git push). Then you'll need to set up access to that location from all your servers, at which point you can push from all of them. At which point the suggestion you pointed to should work.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Git – Using Etckeeper with a Single Shared Git Repository

How to store etckeeper repositories on a central server via git

Related Topic