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# Welcome to installwatch 0.7.0beta7 #
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The short story:
Installwatch is Copyright 1998 by Pancrazio `Ezio' de Mauro
<p@demauro.net>
* Installwatch is no longer mantained by Pancrazio, you should now contact
me with any issues relating to it:
Felipe Eduardo Sanchez Diaz Duran <izto at asic-linux.com.mx>
http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto
This package is distributed under the GPL license. Have a look at
COPYING if you don't know what it means.
To use it, just type:
installwatch <command>
This monitors <command> and logs using the syslog(3) facility every created
or modified file.
installwatch -o <filename> <command>
does the same thing, but writing data in <filename>, which is truncated
if it already exixts.
The typical use is:
installwatch -o ~/install/foobar-x.y make install
Extra options are displayed by running:
installwatch --help
===============
The long story:
Installwatch is an extremely simple utility I wrote to keep track of
created and modified files during the installation of a new program.
It's fast and easy to use. It doesn't require a ``pre-install'' phase
because it monitors processes while they run.
Installwatch works with every dynamically linked ELF program,
overriding system calls that cause file system alterations. Some of
such system calls are open(2) and unlink(2).
Installwatch is especially useful on RedHat, Debian and similar
distributions, where you can use a package system to keep track
of installed software. (See specific package details below).
Of course a simple `make install' does not update the package database,
making your installation ``dirty'' -- well, kind of.
If your room is a mess but you make RPMS even for your home directory,
then installwatch is for you. (See RPMS below).
Here's a typical installwatch use. After compiling your brand new
package, just type
installwatch make install
instead of a simple make install. Then have a look at your logs.
Installwatch logs by default using syslog(3), with a
``LOG_USER | LOG_INFO'' priority.
Usually the log file is /var/log/messages, but if may vary.
If you want to log on a particular file (my preferred method) just
type:
installwatch -o filename make install
The log format may look ugly at first glance, but it is designed to
be easily processed by programs.
Every record ends with a newline, every field is delimited with a TAB
character (it is ``^I'' when you use syslog.)
The fields of a record are, in order:
<return-value> <syscall-name> <arguments> #<comment>
So made lines are really easy to process, if arguments don't contain
TABs or pound signs.
=====
RPMS:
Ok, so you've done a "installwatch -o logfile make install", but how do
you tell the RPM database about this? You use CheckInstall.
http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall
The inst2rpm script that used to be distributed along with installwatch
is not supported by me, it has been superseeded by CheckInstall.
If you still want it, you can get an older version of installwatch (0.5.6),
where you will find it inside the contrib directory. Installwatch's versions
starting from 0.5.5 are available at
http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/installwatch.html
===============
$Id: README,v 0.7.0.2 2006/11/01 07:34:36 izto Exp $