UNI(8) System Manager's Manual UNI(8)

uni - a program to interface with the UniConf configuration system

uni get KEY [DEFAULT]

uni set KEY [VALUE]
uni xset KEY [VALUE]

uni keys KEY
uni hkeys KEY
uni xkeys KEY

uni dump KEY
uni hdump KEY
uni xdump KEY

UniConf is the One True Configuration system that includes all the others because it has plugin backends and frontends. Or, less grandiosely, it's a lightweight, distributed, cacheable tree of strings.

uni is used to interface directly with the UniConf system. It's primary use is for diagnostic purposes, but it can be used to add UniConf support to shell scripts.

Before using uni, you must tell it which UniConf moinker you wish to query by setting this environment variable.

Monikers are used to contact UniConf back-ends, be they a uniconfd server, or a local file. For example, they could be:

• a filename (ini:/var/lib/app/config.ini),
• or a network address, (tcp:open.nit.ca:4111).

Retreive the VALUE associated with the provided KEY within the UniConf database. If a DEFAULT is provided, this will be returned if the KEY has no associated VALUE.
Assign the provided VALUE the the provided KEY. UniConf provides no guarentee that the entry committed throughout the database. The next “get” command for this KEY may not return the most recently “set” value due to caching, or the existance of a read-only generator.
Assign, to the provided KEY, the contents of the standard-input stream. Use this command to pipe information into the UniConf database.
List all the sub-keys contained within the provided KEY.
List all the sub-keys, recursively, contained within the provided KEY. Since any KEY may contain sub-keys, UniConf provides no guarentee that there are no circular references.
List all the sub-keys contained within the provided KEY, which can contain wildcards. See the WILDCARDS section.
List all the sub-keys and their values, contained within the provided KEY.
List all the sub-keys and their values, recursively, contained within the provided KEY.
List all the sub-keys and their values, contained within the provided KEY, which can contain wildcards.

A KEY looks just like a normal slash-delimited path. The root of the UniConf tree has a KEY named “/”. Sub-keys can be accessed by names such as “/software/myapp/version”.

With wildcards, you can access more than one key at a time.

*
To access a sub-key within any one level of keys, use the asterix like so: “/software/*/version”. This retrieves all keys of “version” that are one level beneath “/software”.
...
To access a sub-key anywhere beneath a key, use the ellipsis like so: “/.../version”. This retrieves all keys of “version” that are zero or more levels beneath the root (i.e. any appearance of “version” within the database.

uniconfd(8)

This software was written by the hackers at Net Integration Technologies. Contact us at <wvstreams-dev@lists.nit.ca>

September 2004 Uni 4.6.1