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.\" Worldvisions Weaver Software
.\"   Copyright (C) 1997 - 2004 Net Integration Technologies Inc.
.TH UNI 8 "September 2004" "Uni 4.2.2"
.SH NAME
uni \- a program to interface with the UniConf configuration system
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B uni
get
.I KEY
.RI [ DEFAULT ]
.PP
.B uni
set
.I KEY
.RI [ VALUE ]
.br
.B uni
xset
.I KEY
.RI [ VALUE ]
.PP
.B uni
keys
.I KEY
.br
.B uni
hkeys
.I KEY
.br
.B uni
xkeys
.I KEY
.PP
.B uni
dump
.I KEY
.br
.B uni
hdump
.I KEY
.br
.B uni
xdump
.I KEY
.SH DESCRIPTION
UniConf is the One True Configuration system that includes all the
others because it has plugin backends
.I and
frontends. Or, less grandiosely, it's a lightweight, distributed,
cacheable tree of strings.
.PP
.B 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.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE"
.TP
.I UNICONF
Before using
.BR uni ,
you must tell it which UniConf moinker you wish to query by setting this
environment variable.  
.PP
Monikers are used to contact UniConf back-ends, be they a
.B uniconfd
server, or a local file.
For example, they could be:
.RS 4
\(bu
a filename
.RI (ini: /var/lib/app/config.ini ),
.br
\(bu
or a network address,
.RI (tcp: open.nit.ca:4111 ).
.RE
.SH COMMANDS
.TP
get
Retrieve the
.I VALUE
associated with the provided
.I KEY
within the UniConf database.  If a
.I DEFAULT
is provided, this will be returned if the
.I KEY
has no associated
.IR VALUE .
.TP
set
Assign the provided
.I VALUE 
the the provided
.IR KEY .
UniConf provides no guarentee that the entry committed throughout the
database.  The next \(lqget\(rq command for this
.I KEY
may not return the most recently \(lqset\(rq value due to caching, or
the existance of a read-only generator.
.TP
xset
Assign, to the provided
.IR KEY ,
the contents of the standard-input stream.  Use this command to pipe
information into the UniConf database.
.TP
keys
List all the sub-keys contained within the provided
.IR KEY .
.TP
hkeys
List all the sub-keys, recursively, contained within the provided
.IR KEY .
Since any
.I KEY
may contain sub-keys, UniConf provides no guarentee that there are
no circular references.
.TP
xkeys
List all the sub-keys contained within the provided
.IR KEY ,
which can contain wildcards.  See the
.B WILDCARDS
section.
.TP
dump
List all the sub-keys and their values, contained within the provided
.IR KEY .
.TP
hdump
List all the sub-keys and their values, recursively, contained within
the provided
.IR KEY .
.TP
xdump
List all the sub-keys and their values, contained within the provided
.IR KEY ,
which can contain wildcards.
.SH WILDCARDS
A
.I KEY
looks just like a normal slash-delimited path.  The root of the
UniConf tree has a
.I KEY
named
.RB \(lq / \(rq.
Sub-keys can be accessed by names such as
.RB \(lq /software/myapp/version \(rq.
.PP
With wildcards, you can access more than one key at a time.
.TP
*
To access a sub-key within any one level of keys, use the asterix like
so:
.RB \(lq /software/*/version \(rq.
This retrieves all keys of 
.RB \(lq version \(rq
that are one level beneath
.RB \(lq /software \(rq.
.TP
.RB ...
To access a sub-key anywhere beneath a key, use the ellipsis like so:
.RB \(lq /.../version \(rq.
This retrieves all keys of
.RB \(lq version \(rq
that are zero or more levels beneath the root
.RI ( i.e.
any appearance of
.RB \(lq version \(rq
within the database.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR uniconfd (8)
.SH AUTHORS
This software was written by the hackers at Net Integration
Technologies.  Contact us at <wvstreams\-dev@lists.nit.ca>
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