RDIST(1,C) AIX TCP/IP User's Guide RDIST(1,C)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rdist
PURPOSE
Maintains identical copies of files over multiple hosts.
SYNTAX
+--------+ +---------------+ +----------------+
rdist ---| +----+ |---| |---| |-...
+-| -n |-+ +- -f distfile -+ +- -d var=value -+
^| -q ||
|| -b ||
|| -R ||
|| -h ||
|| -i ||
|| -v ||
|| -w ||
|| -y ||
|+----+|
+------+
+-----------+ +--------+
...-| |---| |---|
+- -m host -+ +- name -+
^ |
+------+
+--------+ +-----------+ +---------+
rdist ---| +----+ |--- -c name ---| |--- host ---| |---|
+-| -n |-+ +- login @ -+ +- :dest -+
^| -q ||
|| -b ||
|| -R ||
|| -h ||
|| -i ||
|| -v ||
|| -w ||
|| -y ||
|+----+|
+------+
DESCRIPTION
The rdist command maintains identical copies of files over multiple hosts. It
preserves the owner, group, mode, and mtime of files if possible and can update
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programs that are executing. The rdist command aborts when using files which
have a negative mtime (file's time of last modification; see statx in the AIX
Operating System Technical Reference). This command reads commands from
distfile to direct the updating of files and directories. Source files must
reside on the local host where rdist is executed. If distfile is -, the
standard input is used. If no -f option is present, the program looks in the
current directory first for a file called distfile, then a file called Distfile
to use as the input. If no names are specified on the command line, rdist
updates 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. There is no simple way to have a special command executed after all
files in a directory have been updated.
Note: When rdist encounters a hidden directory on the local host, it creates
or updates a flat file on the destination host. The flat file will contain one
of the selectable components of the hidden directory.
FLAGS
The rdist command options are:
-b Binary comparison. Performs a binary comparison and updates files if
they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
-c name Forces rdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a small
distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
(name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
-d var=value
Defines 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 parentheses
and separated by tabs and spaces.
-D Displays debugging information.
-f distfile
Specifies the path name for distfile. If no -f option is present, it
looks in the current directory first for distfile, then Distfile to
use as the input.
-h Follows symbolic links. Copies the file that the link points to
rather than the link itself.
-i Ignores unresolved links. rdist normally tries to maintain the link
structure of files being transferred and warns the user if all the
links cannot be found.
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-m host Limits the machines which are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments
can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed the
distfile.
-n Prints the commands without executing them. This option is useful
for debugging distfile.
-q Quiets mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed on
standard output. The -q option suppresses this.
-R Removes 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 maintaining truly
identical copies of directories.
-v Verifies that the files are up to date on all the hosts. Any files
that are out of date are displayed but no files are 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 preserves the directory structure of the
files being copied instead of flattening the directory 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
disagree. The -y 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.
Distfile contains a sequence of entries that specifies the files to be copied,
the destination hosts, and what operations the user needs to perform to update
the files. Each entry has one of the following formats.
<variable name> = <name list>
[label:] <source list> -> <destination list> <command list>
[label:] <source list> :: <time_stamp file> <command list>
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 source list
specifies a list of files and directories on the local host which are to be
used as the master copy for distribution. The destination list 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.
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New lines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are otherwise
ignored. Comments begin with # and end with a new line.
Variables to be expanded begin with $ followed by one character or a name
enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the end). Variable expansion
only works for name lists.
The source and destination lists have the following format:
<name>
or
( <zero or more names separated by white-space> )
The shell meta-characters [, ], {, }, *, and ? are recognized and expanded (on
the local host only) in the same way as the C shell. They can be escaped with
a backslash \. The ~ character is also expanded in the same way as the C shell
but is expanded separately on the local and destination hosts. When the -w
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.
PARAMETERS
The command list consists of zero or more commands of the following format.
install <options> opt_dest_name ;
notify <name list> ;
except <name list> ;
except_pat <pattern list> ;
special <name list> string ;
install
Copies out-of-date files and directories. Each source file is copied to
each host in the destination list. Directories are recursively copied in
the same way. opt_dest_name 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
are created if they do not exist on the remote host. To help prevent
disasters, a non-empty directory on a target host is never replaced with a
regular file or a symbolic link. However, under the -R option a non-empty
directory is removed if the corresponding file name 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.
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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.
notify
Mails the list of updated files (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 (name1@host, name2@host, ...).
except
Updates 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.
except_pat
Like the except command except that pattern list is a list of regular
expressions (see ed in the AIX Operating System Command Reference for
details). If one of the patterns matches some string within a file name,
that file is ignored. Note that since \ is a quote character, it must be
doubled to become part of the regular expression. Variables are expanded
in pattern list but not shell file pattern matching characters. To include
a $, it must be escaped with \.
special
Specifies sh (see AIX Operating System Commands Reference) commands that
are to be executed on the remote host after the file in name list is
updated or installed. If the name list is omitted then the shell commands
are executed for every file updated or installed. The shell variable FILE
is set to the current file name 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 after a program
has been updated.
The following is a short example:
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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 -R ;
except /usr/lib/$/EXLIB ;
except /usr/games/lib ;
special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail - bz":
srcs:
/usr/src/bin - > arpa
except_pat ( \\.o\$ /SCCS lash.$ ) ;
IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi)
imagen:
/usr/local/$IMAGEN - > arpa
install /usr/local/lib ;
notify ralph ;
$ {FILES} :: stamp.cory
notify root@cory ;
EXAMPLES
To print update commands without executing them:
$ rdist -n -f mydistfile
$ _
To limit update to host2 and host3:
$ rdist -f mydistfile -m host2 -m host3
$ _
To display a list of out-of-date files:
$ rdist -v -f mydistfile
$ _
MESSAGES
A complaint about mismatch of rdist version numbers may really stem from some
problem with starting your shell, such as you are in too many groups.
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FILES
distfile input command file
/tmp/rdist* temporary file for update lists
RELATED INFORMATION
sh, csh, refer to AIX Operating System Command Reference
stat, refer to AIX Operating System Technical Reference
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