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5.7 Packet I/O

Monotone can produce and consume data in a convenient, portable form called packets. A packet is a sequence of ASCII text, wrapped at 70-columns and easily sent through email or other transports. If you wish to manually transmit a piece of information – for example a public key – from one monotone database to another, it is often convenient to read and write packets.

Note: earlier versions of monotone queued and replayed packet streams for their networking system. This older networking system has been removed, as the netsync protocol has several properties which make it a superior communication system. However, the packet I/O facility will remain in monotone as a utility for moving individual data items around manually.

mtn automate packets_for_certs id
This command prints out an rcert packet for each cert in your database associated with id. These can be used to transport certificates safely between monotone databases. See Automation for details of this command.
mtn automate packet_for_fdata id
mtn automate packet_for_rdata id
These commands print out an fdata or rdata packet for the file, manifest or revision id in your database. These can be used to transport files or revisions, in their entirety, safely between monotone databases. See Automation for details of these commands.
mtn automate packet_for_fdelta id1 id2
This command prints out an fdelta packet for the differences between file versions id1 and id2, in your database. These can be used to transport file differences safely between monotone databases. See Automation for details of this command.
mtn privkey keyid
mtn pubkey keyid
These commands print out an keypair or pubkey packet for the rsa key keyid. These can be used to transport public or private keys safely between monotone databases.
mtn read
mtn read file1 file2...
This command reads packets from files or stdin and stores them in your database.