FWTracker
by Sean Godsell
Introduction
------------
What is FWTracker? FWTracker is a program that will run other applications
but it keeps track of which files were opened for writing or deletion. Also
file permissions and contexts are tracked. Fwtracker then saves all changes
and modifications before the files are updated. FWTracker can generate a log
for you as well. The files are written to a directory of your choice.
FWTracker also has the capability to ignore paths/directories of your choice.
If you want FWTracker can restore all the changes/modification at a later time.
Download
--------
To obtain the source code and binary for linux then go
here.
Install
-------
You can download the source and compile it for yourself or use
one of the packages
rpm -ivh fwtracker-{x}.rpm
Build
-----
Make sure you have the libdb package/files installed
On fedora type in:
yum install libdb-devel
The first thing to run is
./configure
If everything is okay then run
make
and then
make install
Running
-------
To run FWTracker just type in at a command prompt 'fwtracker'. A list of
options will be displayed. Fwtracker uses a configuration file which is
called /etc/fwtracker.conf. The configuration file instructs fwtracker
to use a base path and/or paths to ignore.
To track and backup all files written to by a program type in:
fwtracker -n my_name_I_choose my_program_to_run
To list all the files that were changed/deleted/modified:
fwtracker -n my_name_I_choose -l
To resetore all changes type in:
fwtracker -r my_name_I_choose
To track and save all the files from a large update type in:
fwtracker -n yumupdate yum update
If you would like to restore all the files before the update then type in:
fwtracker -r -n yumupdate