Please support /dev/null as input database

[aide]

Please support /dev/null as input database

[hvhaugwitz]

Since v0.16.2 /dev/null is supported as output database.

What is the use case for using /dev/null as input database and what is the difference to just initialize the database with --init?

[Zugschlus]

You get a report as if you had an empty database before. And it's faster than --init.

And, I apologize, 13 years after the original report was filed, I do not remember much of my original use case. There is a possibility that I just thought "heck, it's one line of code, it might be useful for input database as well to be complete and orthogonal".

Greetings
Marc

[hvhaugwitz]

Using /dev/null as input database currently gives you a warning about missing db_spec:

mkdir /tmp/test
aide --config /dev/null --before database=file:/dev/null --before database_attrs=E --before root_prefix=/tmp/test --before '/ R' --check
File database must have one db_spec specification
Start timestamp: 2020-12-23 20:58:32 +0100 (AIDE 0.16.1)
AIDE found differences between database and filesystem!!
Root prefix: /tmp/test

Summary:
  Total number of entries:      1
  Added entries:                1
  Removed entries:              0
  Changed entries:              0

---------------------------------------------------
Added entries:
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d++++++++++++++++: /

End timestamp: 2020-12-23 20:58:32 +0100 (run time: 0m 0s)

The warning will be removed in the next release of AIDE.