AUGMATCH(1)

📦
version 1.15.0 · 11 versions
, in arch rolling

💅 augmatch(1) — the Augeas girlie's field guide

ok so you found the augmatch(1) page in the Augeas manual and you're like "bestie what is this" — don't worry, I got you. Sit down, hydrate, and let's get into it. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

augmatch — inspect and match contents of configuration files. that's it, that's the vibe. 🔍

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

augmatch [OPTIONS] FILE

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so augmatch prints out the tree that Augeas generates when it parses a configuration file. or — and this is the fun part — it prints just the parts of that tree that match a certain path expression. iykyk. 💅

the parsing itself is controlled by lenses, and a whole bunch of them ship with Augeas already. augmatch will try to select the correct lens for a given file automatically, unless you specifically hand it one with the --lens option. main character energy: it figures it out on its own, but it will absolutely let you pick. ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -a, --all — print all the tree nodes, even the ones with no associated value. without this flag, augmatch leaves those nodes out of the output because honestly they're usually not that interesting. 💀
  • -e, --exact — only print the parts of the tree that exactly match the expression you gave with --match, and none of the descendants of the matching nodes. strictly the matched node, no plus-ones. 🙅
  • -I, --include=DIR — add DIR to the module loadpath. you can give this multiple times (-I is a repeater, she's flexible 💖). the directories you set here get searched before any directories specified in the AUGEAS_LENS_LIB environment variable, and before the default directories /usr/share/augeas/lenses and `/usr/share/augeas/lenses/dist.
  • -l, --lens=LENS — use LENS for the given file. without this option, augmatch tries to guess the lens for the file based on the file's name and path — which only works for files in standard locations. non-standard path? yeah, you're gonna need this flag. 😭
  • -L, --print-lens — print the name of the lens that will be used with the given file, and exit. just the gossip, no tree. 👑
  • -m, --match=EXPR — only print the parts of the tree that match the path expression EXPR. all nodes that match EXPR and their descendants get printed. use --exact if you want only the matching nodes and not the descendants. 🌈
  • -r, --root=ROOT — use directory ROOT as the root of the filesystem. this takes precedence over a root set with the AUGEAS_ROOT environment variable. root over root, periodt.
  • -S, --nostdinc — do not search any of the default directories for lenses. when this is set, only directories specified explicitly with -I or specified in AUGEAS_LENS_LIB will be searched for modules. no defaults, no surprises. 🚫
  • -o, --only-value — print only the value, and not the label or the path of nodes. minimalism slay. 💅
  • -q, --quiet — do not print anything. exit with zero status if a match was found. silent but useful, the introvert icon. 🤫

🧚 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🧚

  • AUGEAS_ROOT — the file system root, defaults to /. can be overridden with the -r command line option.
  • AUGEAS_LENS_LIB — colon separated list of directories with lenses. directories specified here are searched after any directories set with the -I command line option, but before the default directories /usr/share/augeas/lenses and `/usr/share/augeas/lenses/dist.
order matters here bestie, lowkey the whole search order is: -I dirs → AUGEAS_LENS_LIB dirs → the defaults. don't forget it. 🫶

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

# print the tree for /etc/exports
augmatch /etc/exports

# show only the entry for a specific mount
augmatch -m 'dir["/home"]' /etc/exports

# show all the clients to which we are exporting /home
augmatch -eom 'dir["/home"]/client' /etc/exports

look at that third one — -eom, three flags stacked like a little charm bracelet. ate. 🔥

🍓 EXIT STATUS 🍓

  • the exit status is 0 when there was at least one match 💖
  • 1 if there was no match 😭
  • 2 if an error occurred 💀

🌈 FILES 🌈

lenses and schema definitions live in /usr/share/augeas/lenses and `/usr/share/augeas/lenses/dist

💜 AUTHOR 💜

David Lutterkort <lutter@watzmann.net> — the icon who made this all happen. 👑

Copyright 2007-2018 David Lutterkort

Augeas (and augmatch) are distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

okay that's the whole page, you're basically an Augeas expert now, no cap. go match some trees. 🌸

Augeas 1.15.0 · 2026-09-29 — mwah, that's the version and the date, and that's the whole AUGMATCH(1) page. bye bestie! 💅✨

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