Each entry has the displayed text (item) and the command to be executed (cmd). This first script only uses the item text to display a list of commands that may be executed:

You probably don't want to allow open access to certain parts of your web interface. In many cases, you may want to restrict access to everything. HTTP gives basic authentication support that is compatible with all browsers and is easy to use.

The underlying scripts are the actual commands that make changes to your systems. For all of your automation tasks, it is a good idea to do the dirty work with command-line programs. They may be bash or Perl scripts, as long as they do not require direct user interaction.

You can run the script as often as you like. I would suggest running it once per day. If the data is very important (like a corporate CVS repository), running it once per hour wouldn't be unreasonable.

Defining a rule is simple. With an appropriate rule, Tripwire can monitor any file on your system in any way you want. As an example, consider a common file for an attacker to modify –/bin/login. This program can be replaced with a version that logs the users' passwords to be used by the attacker at some future time.