pakiti-client man page

pakiti-client [Options]

pakiti-client finds the list of installed packages (i.e. "rpm -qa" on an RPM-based system) and formats it in a report that it sends (using a POST request) to a collecting server (see the --url option) and/or writes to a file (see the --output option).

In addition to the list of installed packages, the report also contains information about the submitting machine:

• "arch": the current architecture
• "host": the host name (see the --host option)
• "kernel": the current kernel
• "packager": the packager ("rpm" or "dpkg")
• "site": the site name (see the --site option)
• "system": the operating system full name
• "tag": a tag used by the collecting server (see the --tag option)
• "version": the report format version (1)

If a certificate (see the --encrypt option) is given then the report will be S/MIME encrypted before transmission.

The recommended way to use this program is daily via "cron", for instance with (using bash):

  # echo "MAILTO=somebody@some.where" > /etc/cron.d/pakiti-client
  # echo "$((RANDOM % 60)) $((RANDOM % 24)) * * * nobody pakiti-client \
    --config /etc/pakiti-client.cfg" >> /etc/cron.d/pakiti-client

--config, --conf PATH

use this configuration file before processing the command line parameters

--curl PATH

set the path of the "curl" command to use

--dpkg-query PATH

set the path of the "dpkg-query" command to use

--encrypt PATH|STRING

use this certificate to encrypt the report; the value can either be the path of the file containing the certificate or the certificate itself as multi-line ASCII armored contents

--expect STRING

set the response string to expect from the server in case of success (default: "OK")

--help, -h, -?

show some help

--host STRING

set the host name to use in the report

--hostname PATH

set the path of the "hostname" command to use

--input, -i PATH

do not prepare a new report but, instead, read the report from the given file

--lsb_release PATH

set the path of the "lsb_release" command to use

--manual, -m

show this manual

--openssl PATH

set the path of the "openssl" command to use

--output, -o PATH

write the prepared report to the given file

--rndsleep, -r NUMBER

sleep for a random amount of seconds, up to the given number (useful when pakiti-client is invoked by "cron")

--rpm PATH

set the path of the "rpm" command to use

--site NAME

set the site name to use in the report

--tag STRING

set the tag used by the collecting server to group reports

--uname PATH

set the path of the "uname" command to use

--url URL

send the prepared report to the collecting server at the given URL

--wget PATH

set the path of the "wget" command to use

pakiti-client can read its options from a configuration file (see the --config option).

The file can contain empty lines, comments (lines starting with "#") or option settings either on one line or using the "heredoc" syntax. For instance:

  #
  # this is my pakiti-client configuration
  #
  url = http://some.where.org:8080/some/path
  encrypt = <<EOT
  -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  VR0gBF0wWzBZBgorBgEEAWAKBAsBMEswSQYIKwYBBQUHAgEWPWh0dHA6Ly9jYWZp
  U2VydmljZXMsQ049U22ydmljZXMsQ049Q29uZmlndXJhdGlvbixEQz1jZXJuLERD
  ...
  CREUmgapD+aWdxEfeb6qA0OqAFCeHYOWMeeqqtMUE1JPGPoWNkyzqaObr05jm0zd
  YwYIKwYBBQUHMAKGV2h0dHA6Ly6jYWZpbGVzLmNlcm4uY2gvY2FmaWxlcy9jZXJ=
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  EOT

The options specified on the command line have precedence over the ones found in the configuration file.

Lionel Cons <http://cern.ch/lionel.cons>

Copyright (C) CERN 2014-2015

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at: <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>.

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.