dconf

Name: dconf
Summary: Collect a system's hardware and software configuration
Authority: dag
Upstream: Dag Wieers
Implementation: Python
Epoch: (none)
License: GPL
Group: System Environment/Base
URL: http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dconf/

dconf - create a system's hardware and software configuration snapshot

dconf [-q] [-v] [-c config] [-o output]

Dconf is a tool to collect a system's hardware and software configuration. It allows to take your system configuration with you on the road, compare identical systems (like nodes in a cluster) to troubleshoot HW or SW problems.

Dconf is also useful in projects where you have to manage changes as a team. Dconf can run periodically and send out system changes to a list of email addresses so that they can be revised and discussed in group.

You can customize your dconf configuration for specific needs, like making a profile of your laptop's hardware or copy specific software configuration files to send out or compare with other systems.

As a sysadmin, you won't become too paranoid if less experienced people have root-access. As a consultant, you won't feel isolated if you don't have remote access to your systems. As a support engineer, you won't become frustrated if a customer has fiddled around with some important config file and you have to find which. As a performance tuner, you can capture the state of the system configuration in between performance tests/benchmarks.

OPTIONS

-c, --config file

specify alternative configfile

-o, --output file

write output to given file

-q, --quiet

minimal output

-v, --verbose

increase verbosity

-vv, -vvv

increase verbosity more

ARGUMENTS

Man:

Ah. I'd like to have an argument, please.

Receptionist:

Certainly sir. Have you been here before?

Man:

No, I haven't, this is my first time.

Receptionist:

I see. Well, do you want to have just one argument, or were you thinking of taking a course?

Man:

Well, what is the cost?

Receptionist:

Well, It's one pound for a five minute argument, but only eight pounds for a course of ten.

Man:

Well, I think it would be best if I perhaps started off with just the one and then see how it goes.

For more arguments, see:

http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/argument.htm

USAGE

To create a snapshot of the current system:

 

dconf

To check the latest changes against the previous snapshot:

 

zdiff -u /var/log/dconf/dconf-$HOSTNAME-previous.log.gz /var/log/dconf/dconf-$HOSTNAME-latest.log.gz

You can add files and commands to /etc/dconf-custom.conf and include that from your /etc/dconf.conf, however I would appreciate if you send me any changes you make so that they can be include in the next version.

Dconf was design so that an excessive list of configuration files or commands would not harm the execution of the program or the content of the snapshot file.

Please send changes to: Dag Wieers [email protected]

See the TODO file for known bugs and future plans.

FILES

/etc/dconf.conf

the main Dconf configuration file (replaced on update)

/etc/dconf-custom.conf

the customized configuration file (customize this one)

/var/log/dconf/

the location of the snapshot files

SEE ALSO

snap(8)

AUTHOR

Written by Dag Wieers [email protected]

Homepage at http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dconf/

DAG Dconf System config collector

NEWS CONTENTS

Old News ;-)

Linux command to gather hardware and software snapshot for ...

When you work in tech support department and deal with inexperienced [ read as green ] clients debugging problems turns into nightmare.

Luckily, some nifty tools can create a system's hardware and software configuration snapshot. This kind of information is valuable asset while troubleshooting problems.

Dconf (System config collector) is one of such tool. It allows to take your system configuration with you on the road, compare identical systems (like nodes in a cluster) to troubleshoot HW or SW problems, indeed a lifesaver.

Dconf is also useful in projects where you have to manage changes as a team. Dconf can run periodically and send out system changes to a list of email addresses so that they can be revised and discussed in group.

You can customize your dconf configuration for specific needs, like making a profile of your web server's hardware or copy specific software configuration files to send out or compare with other systems.

As a sysadmin, you will not become too paranoid if less experienced people have root-access. As a consultant, you will not feel isolated if you do not have remote access to your systems. As a support engineer, you will not become frustrated if a customer has fiddled around with some important config file and you have to find which. As a performance tuner, you can capture the state of the system configuration in between performance tests/benchmarks.

Install dconf
If you are using Debian Linux then type command:

# apt-get install dconf

You can download Dconf for RedHat or Suse Linux here

Once installed you can simply create a snapshot using dconf command:

# dconf

It will write snapshot in /var/log/dconf/ directory.

See also:

• Linux display system hardware status information gathered from /proc filesystem in easy format
• FreeBSD : Display information about the system
• Read man page of dconf for more information
• Offical Dconf home page

If you get stuck on something or have a question, post your question to our excellent Linux tech support forum. You can subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed or Leave a reply/comment .

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On Wednesday 06 April 2005 23:36, Chris Lee wrote:
> Ah, and that's the fun part. See, it turns out, this is a solution in
> search of a problem.

Actually -- while I'm not going to get into the specifics of GConf vs. 
KConfig, it's most definitely a problem -- and in fact a problem that's more 
important than whether GConf or KConfig is cooler.

Here's the basic problem:

Configuring a Linux box is hard.

It's hard because it's damn near impossible to write a tool that can configure 
most of the stuff on it because everything is using its own configuration 
formats.  Let's just assume for the sake of argument that YaST is the best 
one out there for doing this -- it's still a huge hack that's incredibly 
difficult to maintain because of the huge domain of encapsulated information.

There are places that Linux on the desktop won't be able to go until we can 
get the number of configuration formats down to a very small number.  And 
really I don't mean just on the desktop, but I don't think we're going to 
have a sane case to pitch to other tool developers until we can get this 
sorted out just between a couple of desktop projects.

This is one of the Big Problems (tm).  We've got some smart people on this 
list and it's certainly not beyond them to solve problems when them come up 
if they start working on something like this.  At some point we'll just have 
to get everyone in a room with enough beer, pizza and stimulants and knock 
this out once and for all.  Until then iterative approaches, even if they're 
not likely to a lot of buy in certainly don't hurt.  I think your point about 
the naming is rather appropriate, but with a slightly different 
interpretation -- if some iteration of the above won't work for KDE it's not 
we're going to be tricked into using it, so why fuss about the name?

Sorry, normally I ignore the N-th iteration of this thread on here (apply the 
standard excuse of "this is important, but I'm way too overcommitted 
already"), but I just felt like you were quite off here Chris.  ;-)

Cheers,

-Scott
-- 
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it 
is not utterly absurd. 
--Bertrand Russell

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