---
name: "uniconfd"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "wvstreams"
version: "4.6.1-21"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/uniconfd"
---

# uniconfd(8)

a daemon program for the UniConf configuration system

## NAME

uniconfd - a daemon program for the UniConf configuration system

## SYNOPSIS

**uniconfd** \[ *OPTIONS* \] *MOUNT* ...

## DESCRIPTION

UniConf is the One True Configuration system that includes all the others because it has plugin backends *and* frontends. Or, less grandiosely, it's a lightweight, distributed, cacheable tree of strings.

It supports:

- •

  retrieving, storing, and enumerating key/value pairs (where both keys and values are strings).

- •

  multiple backends where the actual key/value pairs are stored.

- •

  multiple frontends for tying it to other configuration architectures.

It operates locally, and across a network, allowing you to tie multiple different applications together for distributed computing. Also, it provides notifications in the form of callbacks, so your application can be notified if a configuration key has changed.

**uniconfd** is necessary when you have more than one application, or multiple instances of an application, sharing one configuration. UniConf-enabled applications contact **uniconfd** which provides notifications when any of their watched keys change.

You tell **uniconfd** which UniConf *MOUNT* you want it to manage.  See the **MOUNTS** section for more information.

## OPTIONS

- **-f**

  Run in the foreground.  Do not fork into a separate daemon process.

- **-d**, **-dd**

  Print debugging messages to the console.  The second **d** increases the verbosity of the messages.

- **-V**

  Print the version number and exit.

- **-a**

  Require authentication on incoming connections.

- **-A**

  Check all accesses against a *perms* moniker.

- **-p** *port*

  Listen on a given TCP  *port*. The default is 4111.  If *port* is 0, then listening on TCP is disabled.

- **-s** *port*

  Listen on a given TCP *port* wrapped in SSL.   The default is 4112.  If *port* is 0, then listening on SSL-over-TCP is disabled.

- **-u** *filename*

  Listen on a given Unix socket *filename*. This is disabled by default.

## MOUNTS

Mounts are UniConf path monikers which are in the form:

/*SUBTREE*=*GENERATORS*:*PATH*

- *SUBTREE*

  This is the tree to manage.  All trees are descended from the root tree, indicated by a bare slash  (**/**).

- *GENERATORS*

  These are the generators used to read and write key/value pairs.  You can chain them with colons.  For example, the generator chain: *cache:retry:ini* will cache the configuration for speed, retry persistently if the data source disappears, and store the data in an INI-formatted file.

- *PATH*

  This is the location where the data is stored.  It is dependent on which *GENERATOR*S were specified.  For instance, it could be: • a filename (ini:*/var/lib/app/config.ini*),\
   • a network address, (tcp:*open.nit.ca:4111*),\
   • or even an empty string (tmp:).

**Examples:**

/=*tmp*:\
 /*ca/nit*=*ssl*:*open.nit.ca*\
 /*ca/nit/uniconfd*=*ini*:*/var/lib/uniconfd/uniconfd.ini*\
 /*apps*=*cache:retry:unix*:*/var/lib/apps/socket*

## FILES

*/etc/uniconfd.conf*\
 */var/lib/uniconf/uniconfd.ini*\
 */var/lib/uniconf/uniconf.ini*

## AUTHORS

This software was written by the hackers at Net Integration Technologies.  Contact us at \<wvstreams-dev@lists.nit.ca\>