Hello list,

Can anyone tell me how I can 'restore' (as in iptables-restore <
/etc/iptables/rules.v4) an iptables ruleset without iptables-restore?
The package seems to be missing from the repos.

~$apt-cache policy iptables*
N: Unable to locate package iptables.sh
N: Couldn't find any package by glob 'iptables.sh'
N: Couldn't find any package by regex 'iptables.sh'

~$apt-cache policy iptables-*
iptables-netflow-dkms:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.6-4
  Version table:
     2.6-4 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
iptables-nftables-compat:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:
iptables-persistent:
  Installed: 1.0.20
  Candidate: 1.0.20
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.20 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

~$ apt-cache policy iptables-*
iptables-netflow-dkms:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.6-4
  Version table:
     2.6-4 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
iptables-nftables-compat:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:
iptables-persistent:
  Installed: 1.0.20
  Candidate: 1.0.20
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.20 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

~$apt-cache policy *-restore
N: Unable to locate package *-restore
N: Couldn't find any package by glob '*-restore'
E: Regex compilation error - Invalid preceding regular expression
N: Couldn't find any package by regex '*-restore'

~$apt-cache policy nft*
nftlb:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.0.7-1
  Version table:
     1.0.7-1 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
nftables:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.0.6-2+deb12u2
  Version table:
     1.0.6-2+deb12u2 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages

My principle usecase is as a cronjob on a remote host: if a known,
good ruleset is restored from backup every 5 minutes, I am able to edit
any experimental ruleset safe in the knowledge that should I shut myself
out, it will only be for a few minutes. This seems to me to be an
important facility, and I assume that the 'restore' function must be
located elsewhere, but I cannot find it by googling.

How do other people edit their firewall on a remote host?

Many thanks