rdist(1M) rdist(1M)
NAME
rdist - remote file distribution client program
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/rdist [-DFn] [-A num] [-a num] [-d var=value]
[-l locallogopts] [-L remotelogopts] [-f distfile]
[-M maxproc] [-m host] [-o distopts] [-t timeout]
[-p rdistd-path] [-P rsh-path] [name ...]
/usr/ucb/rdist -DFn -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
/usr/ucb/rdist -Server
/usr/ucb/rdist -V
DESCRIPTION
rdist is a program to maintain identical copies of files over multiple
hosts. It preserves the owner, group, mode, and mtime of files if pos-
sible and can update programs that are executing. rdist reads commands
from distfile to direct the updating of files and/or directories. If
distfile is "-", the standard input is used. If no -f option is
present, the program looks first for distfile, then Distfile to use as
the input. If no names are specified on the command line, rdist will
update all of the files and directories listed in distfile. Otherwise,
the argument is taken to be the name of a file to be updated or the
label of a command 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.
The -c option forces rdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a
small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
The -Server option is recognized to provide partial backward compati-
ble support for older versions of rdist which used this option to put
rdist into server mode. If rdist is started with the -Server command
line option, it will attempt to exec (run) the old version of rdist.
This option will only work if the old version of rdist under
/usr/ucb/oldrdist is available at run time.
rdist uses the rsh(1), remote shell, command to access each target
host. If the target host is the string localhost and the remote user
name is the same as the local user name, rdist will run the command
/bin/sh -c rdistd -S
Otherwise rdist run will run the command
rsh host -l remuser rdistd -S
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where host is the name of the target host, remuser is the name of the
user to make the connection as and, rdistd(8) is the rdist server com-
mand on the target host as shown below.
On each target host rdist will attempt to run the command
rdistd -S
or
rdistdpath -S
if the -p option was specified. If no -p option is included, or the
rdistdpath is a simple filename, rdistd or rdistdpath must be some-
where in the $PATH of the user running rdist on the remote (target)
host.
OPTIONS
-A num
Set the minimum number of free files (inodes) on a filesystem
that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
-a num
Set the minimum amount of free space (in bytes) on a filesystem
that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
-D Enable copious debugging messages.
-d var=value
Define var to have value. This option is used to define or over-
ride variable definitions in the distfile. value can be the empty
string, one name, or a list of names surrounded by parentheses
and separated by tabs and/or spaces.
-F Do not fork any child rdist processes. All clients are updated
sequentially.
-f distfile
Set the name of the distfile to use to be distfile. If distfile
is specified as "-" (dash) then read from standard input (stdin).
-l logopts
Set local logging options. See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for
details on the syntax for logopts.
-L logopts
Set remote logging options. logopts is the same as for local log-
ging except the values are passed to the remote server (rdistd).
See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for details on the syntax for
logopts.
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-M num
Set the maximum number of simultaneously running child rdist
processes to num. The default is 4.
-m machine
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.
-o distopts
Specify the dist options to enable. distopts is a comma separated
list of options which are listed below. The valid values for
distopts are:
verify
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.
whole
Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the destina-
tion directory name. Normally, only the last component of a
name is used when renaming files. This will preserve the
directory structure of the files being copied instead of
flattening the directory structure. For example, rdisting a
list of files such as /path/dir1/f1 and /path/dir2/f2 to
/tmp/dir would create files /tmp/dir/path/dir1/f1 and
/tmp/dir/path/dir2/f2 instead of /tmp/dir/dir1/f1 and
/tmp/dir/dir2/f2.
noexec
Automatically exclude executable files that are in a.out(4)
format from being checked or updated.
younger
Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime and
size [see stat(2)] disagree. This option causes rdist 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.
compare
Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update
files if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
follow
Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to
rather than the link itself.
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ignlnks
Ignore unresolved links. rdist will normally try to maintain
the link structure of files being transferred and warn the
user if all the links cannot be found.
chknfs
Do not check or update files on target host that reside on
NFS filesystems.
chkreadonly
Enable check on target host to see if a file resides on a
read-only filesystem. If a file does, then no checking or
updating of the file is attempted.
chksym
If the target on the remote host is a symbolic link, but is
not on the master host, the remote target will be left a
symbolic link. This behavior is generally considered a bug
in the original version of rdist, but is present to allow
compatibility with older versions.
quiet
Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally
printed on standard output. This option suppresses this.
remove
Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated,
any files that exist on the remote host that do not exist in
the master directory are removed. This is useful for main-
taining truly identical copies of directories.
nochkowner
Do not check user ownership of files that already exist. The
file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
nochkgroup
Do not check group ownership of files that already exist.
The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
nochkmode
Do not check file and directory permission modes. The per-
mission mode is only set when the file is updated.
nodescend
Do not descend into a directory. Normally rdist will recur-
sively check directories. If this option is enabled, then
any files listed in the file list in the distfile that are
directories are not recursively scanned. Only the existence,
ownership, and mode of the directory are checked.
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numchkgroup
Use the numeric group id (gid) to check group ownership
instead of the group name.
numchkowner
Use the numeric user id (uid) to check user ownership
instead of the user name.
savetargets
Save files that are updated instead of removing them. Any
target file that is updates is first rename from file to
file.OLD.
sparse
Enable checking for sparse (i.e zero-filled) files. One of
the most common types of sparse files are those produced by
ndbm(3C). This option adds some additional processing over-
head so it should only be enabled for targets likely to con-
tain sparse files.
-p rdistd-path
Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the tar-
get host.
-P rsh-path
Set the path to the rsh(1) command. The rsh-path may be a colon
separated list of possible pathnames. In this case, the first
existing component of the path is used, e.g. /usr/bin/rsh from
/usr/bin/rsh:/usr/bin/remsh.
-t timeout
Set the timeout period (in seconds) for waiting for responses
from the remote rdist server. The default is 900 seconds.
-V Print version information and exit.
MESSAGE LOGGING
rdist uses a collection of predefined message facilities that each
contain a list of message types specifying which types of messages to
send to that facility. The local client (rdist) and the remote server
(rdistd) each maintain their own copy of what types of messages to log
to what facilities.
The -l logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging options to use
locally. The -L logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging
options to pass to the remote rdistd server.
The form of logopts should be of form
facility=types:facility=types ...
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The valid facility names are:
stdout Messages to standard output.
file Log to a file. To specify the file name, use the format
file=filename=types. e.g. file=/tmp/rdist.log=all,debug.
syslog Use the syslogd(1M) facility.
notify Use the internal rdist notify facility. This facility is used
in conjunction with the notify keyword in a distfile to
specify what messages are mailed to the notify address.
types should be a comma separated list of message types. Each message
type specified enables that message level. This is unlike the
syslog(3C) system facility which uses an ascending order scheme. The
following are the valid types:
change Things that change. This includes files that are installed or
updated in some way.
info General information.
notice General info about things that change. This includes things
like making directories which are needed in order to install a
specific target, but which are not explicitly specified in the
distfile.
nerror Normal errors that are not fatal.
ferror Fatal errors.
warning Warnings about errors which are not as serious as nerror type
messages.
debug Debugging information.
all All but debug messages.
Here is a sample command line option:
-l stdout=all:syslog=change,notice:file=/tmp/rdist.log=all
This entry will set local message logging to have all but debug mes-
sages sent to standard output, change and notice messages will be sent
to syslog(3C), and all messages will be written to the file
/tmp/rdist.log.
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DISTFILES
The 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
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 )
These simple lists can be modified by using one level of set addition,
subtraction, or intersection like this:
list + list
or
list - list
or
list & list
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If additional modifications are needed (e.g., "all servers and client
machines except for the OSF/1 machines") then the list will have to be
explicitly constructed in steps using "temporary" variables.
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 -o whole option is used with a file name that
begins with ~, everything except the home directory is appended to the
destination name. File names which do not begin with / or ~ use the
destination 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 ;
cmdspecial namelist string ;
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. options are
the -o distopts options as specified above under OPTIONS. They have
the same semantics as 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 except for the files listed in namelist. This is usually used to
copy everything in a directory except certain files.
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The exceptpat command is like the except command except that pattern
list 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 dou-
bled to become part of the regular expression. Variables are expanded
in patternlist but not shell file pattern matching characters. 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. 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, etc. after a program has
been updated. The following environment variables are set for each
special command:
FILE The full pathname of the local file that was just updated.
REMFILE The full pathname of the remote file that was just
updated.
BASEFILE The basename of the remote file that was just updated.
The cmdspecial command is similar to the special command, except it is
executed only when the entire command is completed instead of after
each file is updated. The list of files is placed in the environment
variable $FILES. Each file name in $FILES is separated by a ":"
(colon).
If a hostname ends in a + (plus sign), then the plus is stripped off
and NFS checks are disabled. This is equivalent to disabling the -o
chknfs option just for this one host.
The following is a small 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/rdist )
EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc
sendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
install -oremove,chknfs ;
except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
except /usr/games/lib ;
special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail -bz" ;
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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 ;
NOTES
If the basename of a file (the last component in the pathname) is ".",
then rdist assumes the remote (destination) name is a directory. i.e.
/tmp/. means that /tmp should be a directory on the remote host.
The following options are still recognized for backwards compatibil-
ity:
-v, -N, -O, -q, -b, -r, -R, -s, -w, -y, -h, -i, -x.
Source files must reside on the local host where rdist is executed.
Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be a gen-
eral macro facility.
rdist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan 1,
1970).
If a hardlinked file is listed more than once in the same target, then
rdist will report missing links. Only one instance of a link should be
listed in each target.
ENVIRONMENT
TMPDIR
Name of temporary directory to use. Default is /tmp.
FILES
distfile
input command file
$TMPDIR/rdist*
temporary file for update lists
SEE ALSO
csh(1), rsh(1), sh(1), stat(2), rdistd(8).
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