The policy file begins as a text file containing comments, rules, directives, and variables. These dictate the way Tripwire software checks your system. Each rule in the policy file specifies a system object to be monitored.
Rules also describe which changes to the object to report, and which to ignore.
System objects are the files and directories you wish to monitor. Each object is identified by an object name. A property refers to a single characteristic of an object that Tripwire software can monitor. Directives control conditional processing of sets of rules in a policy file. During installation, the text policy file is encrypted and renamed, and becomes the active policy file.