man dpkg-statoverride (1): 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 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.
--version: Show the version and exit.

OPTIONS

--admindir directory: Change the directory of the dpkg database where the statoverride file is also stored. Defaults to /var/lib/dpkg.
--force: Force an action, even if a sanity check would otherwise prohibit it. This is necessary to override an existing override.
--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_ADMINDIR: If set and the --admindir option has not been specified, it will be used as the dpkg data directory.

FILES

/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.