oldrdist(1M) oldrdist(1M)
NAME
oldrdist - remote file distribution program
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/oldrdist [-nqbRhivwyD] [-f distfile] [-d var=value] [-m host]
[name ...]
/usr/ucb/oldrdist [-nqbRhivwyD] -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
DESCRIPTION
oldrdist is a program to maintain identical copies of files over mul-
tiple hosts. It preserves the owner, group, mode, and modification
time of files if possible and can update programs that are executing.
oldrdist reads commands from distfile to direct the updating of files
and/or directories.
OPTIONS
Options specific to the first synopsis form:
-f Use the specified distfile. If distfile is -, the standard input
is used.
If either the -f or - option is not specified, the program first
looks for distfile, then Distfile, to use as the input.
If no names ... are specified on the command line, oldrdist will
update all of the files and directories listed in distfile. Otherwise,
the names ... are taken to be the names of a files to be updated or
the labels of a commands to execute. If label and file names conflict,
it is assumed to be a label. These may be used together to update
specific files using specific commands.
Options specific to the second synopsis form:
-c Forces oldrdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a small
distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
Other options common to both synopsis forms:
-b Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files
if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
-D Turn on debug mode.
-d Define var to have value. The -d option is used to define or
override variable definitions in the distfile. value can be the
empty string, one name, or a list of names surrounded by paren-
theses and separated by tabs and/or spaces.
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-h Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to
rather than the link itself.
-i Ignore unresolved links. oldrdist will normally try to maintain
the link structure of files being transferred and warn the user
if all the links cannot be found.
-m Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments can
be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed in the
distfile.
-n Print the commands without executing them. This option is useful
for debugging distfile.
-q Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed on
standard output. The -q option suppresses this.
-R Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated, any
files that exist on the remote host that do not exist in the mas-
ter directory are removed. This is useful for maintaining truly
identical copies of directories.
-v Verify that the files are up to date on all the hosts. Any files
that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be
changed nor any mail sent.
-w Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the destination
directory name. Normally, only the last component of a name is
used when renaming files. This will preserve the directory struc-
ture of the files being copied instead of flattening the direc-
tory structure. For example, renaming a list of files such as
( dir1/f1 dir2/f2 ) to dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/f1 and
dir3/dir2/f2 instead of dir3/f1 and dir3/f2.
-y Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime and size
[see stat(2)] disagree. The -y option causes oldrdist not to
update files that are younger than the master copy. This can be
used to prevent newer copies on other hosts from being replaced.
A warning message is printed for files which are newer than the
master copy.
distfile contains a sequence of entries that specify the files to be
copied, the destination hosts, and what operations to perform to do
the updating. Each entry has one of the following formats.
variablename = namelist
[label:] sourcelist -> destinationlist commandlist
[label:] sourcelist :: timestampfile commandlist
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The first format is used for defining variables. The second format is
used for distributing files to other hosts. The third format is used
for making lists of files that have been changed since some given
date. The sourcelist specifies a list of files and/or directories on
the local host which are to be used as the master copy for distribu-
tion. The destinationlist is the list of hosts to which these files
are to be copied. Each file in the source list is added to a list of
changes if the file is out of date on the host which is being updated
(second format) or the file is newer than the time stamp file (third
format).
Labels are optional. They are used to identify a command for partial
updates.
Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are other-
wise ignored. Comments begin with # and end with a newline.
Variables to be expanded begin with $ followed by one character or a
name enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the end).
The source and destination lists have the following format:
name
or
( zeroormorenamesseparatedbywhite-space )
The shell metacharacters [, ], {, }, *, and ? are recognized and
expanded (on the local host only) in the same way as csh(1). They can
be escaped with a backslash. The ~ character is also expanded in the
same way as csh but is expanded separately on the local and destina-
tion hosts. When the -w option is used with a file name that begins
with ~, everything except the home directory is appended to the desti-
nation name. File names which do not begin with / or ~ use the desti-
nation user's home directory as the root directory for the rest of the
file name.
The command list consists of zero or more commands of the following
format:
install options optdestname ;
notify namelist ;
except namelist ;
exceptpat patternlist ;
special namelist string ;
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The install command is used to copy out of date files and/or direc-
tories. Each source file is copied to each host in the destination
list. Directories are recursively copied in the same way.
optdestname is an optional parameter to rename files. If no install
command appears in the command list or the destination name is not
specified, the source file name is used. Directories in the path name
will be created if they do not exist on the remote host. To help
prevent disasters, a non-empty directory on a target host will never
be replaced with a regular file or a symbolic link. However, under the
-R option a non-empty directory will be removed if the corresponding
filename is completely absent on the master host. The options are -R,
-h, -i, -v, -w, -y, and -b and have the same semantics as options on
the command line except they only apply to the files in the source
list. The login name used on the destination host is the same as the
local host unless the destination name is of the format login@host.
The notify command is used to mail the list of files updated (and any
errors that may have occurred) to the listed names. If no @ appears in
the name, the destination host is appended to the name (e.g.,
name1@host, name2@host, ...).
The except command is used to update all of the files in the source
list other than for the files listed in namelist. This is usually
used to copy everything in a directory except certain files.
The exceptpat command is like the except command except that
patternlist is a list of regular expressions [see ed(1) for details].
If one of the patterns matches some string within a file name, that
file will be ignored. Note that since \ is a quote character, it must
be doubled to become part of the regular expression. Variables are
expanded in patternlist but not shell file pattern matching charac-
ters. To include a $, it must be escaped with \.
The special command is used to specify sh(1) commands that are to be
executed on the remote host after the file in namelist is updated or
installed. If the namelist is omitted then the shell commands will be
executed for every file updated or installed. The shell variable $FILE
is set to the current filename before executing the commands in
string. string starts and ends with " and can cross multiple lines in
distfile. Multiple commands to the shell should be separated by ;.
Commands are executed in the user's home directory on the host being
updated. The special command can be used to rebuild private databases,
and so on after a program has been updated.
The following is a brief example:
HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa)
FILES = ( /bin /lib /usr/bin /usr/games
/usr/include/{*.h,{stand,sys,vax*,pascal,machine}/*.h}
/usr/lib /usr/man/man? /usr/ucb /usr/local/oldrdist )
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EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc
sendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
install -R ;
except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
except /usr/games/lib ;
special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail -bz" ;
srcs:
/usr/src/bin -> arpa
exceptpat ( \\.o\$ /SCCS\$ ) ;
IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi)
imagen:
/usr/local/${IMAGEN} -> arpa
install /usr/local/lib ;
notify ralph ;
${FILES} :: stamp.cory
notify root@cory ;
DIAGNOSTICS
A complaint about mismatch of oldrdist version numbers may really stem
from some problem with starting your shell (for example, you are in
too many groups).
NOTES
Source files must reside on the local host where oldrdist is executed.
There is no easy way to have a special command executed after all
files in a directory have been updated.
Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be a gen-
eral macro facility.
oldrdist aborts on files that have a negative modification time
(before Jan 1, 1970 UTC).
If you oldrdist a file owned by someone else, oldrdist will chown the
destination only if you are the superuser.
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oldrdist(1M) oldrdist(1M)
FILES
distfile
input command file
/tmp/oldrdist*
temporary file for update lists
SEE ALSO
csh(1), sh(1), stat(2).
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