dpkg-statoverride(1) — Linux manual page
dpkg-statoverride(1) dpkg suite dpkg-statoverride(1)
NAME
dpkg-statoverride - override ownership and mode of files
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-statoverride [option...] command
DESCRIPTION
“stat overrides” are a way to tell dpkg(1) to use a different
owner or mode for a path when a package is installed (this
applies to any filesystem object that dpkg handles, including
directories, devices, etc.). This can be used to force programs
that are normally setuid to be install without a setuid flag, or
only executable by a certain group.
dpkg-statoverride is a utility to manage the list of stat
overrides. It has three basic functions: adding, removing and
listing overrides.
COMMANDS
--add user group mode path
Add an override for path. path does not need to exist nor be
known to dpkg when this command is used; the override will be
stored and used later. Users and groups can be specified by
their name (for example root or nobody), or by their number
by prepending the number with a ‘#’ (for example #0 or
#65534). The mode needs to be specified in octal.
If --update is specified and path exists, it is immediately
set to the new owner and mode.
--remove path
Remove an override for path, the status of path is left
unchanged by this command.
--list [glob-pattern]
List all overrides. If a glob pattern is specified restrict
the output to overrides which match the glob.
--help
Show the usage message and exit.
--force-help
Give help about the --force-thing options (since dpkg
1.19.5).
--version
Show the version and exit.
OPTIONS
--admindir directory
Set the administrative directory to directory. This is where
the statoverride file is stored. Defaults to
«/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg» if DPKG_ADMINDIR has not been set.
--instdir directory
Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory
where packages get installed (since dpkg 1.19.2). Defaults
to «/» if DPKG_ROOT has not been set.
--root directory
Set the root directory to directory, which sets the
installation directory to «directory» and the administrative
directory to «directory/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg» (since dpkg
1.19.2) if DPKG_ROOT has not been set.
--force-things
--no-force-things, --refuse-things
Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to
do some things (since dpkg 1.19.5). things is a comma
separated list of things specified below. --force-help
displays a message describing them. Things marked with (*)
are forced by default.
Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by
experts only. Using them without fully understanding their
effects may break your whole system.
all:
Turns on (or off) all force options.
statoverride-add:
Overwrite an existing stat override when adding it (since
dpkg 1.19.5).
statoverride-remove:
Ignore a missing stat override when removing it (since
dpkg 1.19.5).
security-mac(*):
Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls (MAC)
based security when installing files into the filesystem
(since dpkg 1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation
uses SELinux.
not-root:
Try to (de)install things even when not root (since dpkg
1.21.8).
--force
Force an action, even if a sanity check would otherwise
prohibit it. This is necessary to override an existing
override. This option is deprecated (since dpkg 1.19.5), it
is replaced by --force-all.
--update
Immediately try to change the path to the new owner and mode
if it exists.
--quiet
Be less verbose about what we do.
EXIT STATUS
0 The requested action was successfully performed.
1 For --list, if there are no overrides or none match the
supplied glob.
2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line
usage, or interactions with the system, such as accesses to
the database, memory allocations, etc.
ENVIRONMENT
DPKG_ROOT
If set and the --instdir or --root options have not been
specified, it will be used as the filesystem root directory
(since dpkg 1.19.2).
DPKG_ADMINDIR
If set and the --admindir or --root options have not been
specified, it will be used as the dpkg data directory.
DPKG_DEBUG
Sets the debug mask (since dpkg 1.21.10) from an octal value.
The currently accepted flags are described in the dpkg
--debug option, but not all these flags might have an effect
on this program.
DPKG_FORCE
If set and none of the --force-... options have been
specified, it will be used as the force options to use (since
dpkg 1.19.5).
DPKG_COLORS
Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently
accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.
DPKG_NLS
If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
Language Support, also known as internationalization (or
i18n) support (since dpkg 1.22.7). The accepted values are:
0 and 1 (default).
FILES
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/statoverride
File which contains the current list of stat overrides of the
system. It is located in the dpkg administration directory,
along with other files important to dpkg, such as status or
available.
Note: dpkg-statoverride preserves the old copy of this file,
with extension “-old”, before replacing it with the new one.
SEE ALSO
dpkg(1).
COLOPHON
This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see
⟨http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩. This
page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨git
clone https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2024-05-21.) If you discover any rendering
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