Change detection script based on git

Dependancy : you should have git installed

I. Preparation

0. Choose the directories you want to track

1. Enter the first directory you want to track cd /local

2. Initialize the git repo and add everything under this directory git init ; git add .

3. Look for files that should be ignored by git : file that are changing often and/or automaticaly like logs, generated datas etc. Wait a few minutes, then do :

   git status -s | grep '^.[^ ]'

    AM var/log/auth.log
   

You want to ignore the files that recently changed.

Add the modified files to to .gitignore Preferably add the parent directory if there are many files :

vi .gitignore

var/log

4. once .gitignore has a few list of files, remove the .git directory and start again rm -fr .git git init ; git add . etc.

5. do that until you find no more files to ignore, you can do the initial commit

6. Repeat step 1 to 5 for each tracked directory in the list

II. Setup

1. Install the script sh ./INSTALL

2. Configure the directory list vi /local/etc/changedetection.conf

   add each directory sepated by a newline

   /etc /local

3. Add a cron entry

PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin

MAILTO = syadmins@example.com 1-59/1 * * * * root /local/bin/keepstate changedetection.state /local/bin/changedetection