rdist(1) rdist(1)
NAME
rdist - remote file distribution program
SYNOPSIS
rdist [-nqbRhivwyD] [-f distfile] [-d var=value] [-m host] [name ...]
rdist [-nqbRhivwyD] -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
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 programs that are
executing.
Files
distfile input command file
/tmp/rdist* temporary file for update lists
Diagnostics
A complaint about mismatch of rdist version numbers may really
stem from some problem with starting your shell, for example,
when you are in too many groups.
USAGE
rdist reads commands from distfile to direct the updating of
files and/or directories.
Options
Options specific to the first form of the rdist command are:
- If distfile is `-', the standard input is used.
-f distfile Use the specified distfile.
If either the -f or `-' option is not specified, rdist 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.
Options specific to the second form of the rdist command are:
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rdist(1) rdist(1)
-c Forces rdist to interpret the remaining arguments
as a small distfile.
The equivalent distfile is as follows.
(name ...) -> [login@] host
install [dest];
Options common to both forms of the rdist command are:
-d var=value
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 parentheses
and separated by tabs and/or spaces.
-m host Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple
-m arguments can be given to limit updates to a
subset of the hosts listed 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 master directory are
removed. This is useful for maintaining truly
identical copies of directories.
-h Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the
link points to rather than the link itself. This
has no effect on machines without symbolic links.
-i 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.
-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.
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rdist(1) rdist(1)
-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 structure
of the files being copied instead of flattening
the directory structure. For example, renaming a
list of files such as (dir1/file1 dir2/file2) to
dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/file1 and
dir3/dir2/file2 instead of dir3/file1 and
dir3/file2.
-y Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their
mtime and size (see stat(2)) 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.
-b Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison
and update files if they differ rather than
comparing dates and sizes.
-D Enable debugging.
Distribution File
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:
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/or 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).
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Labels are optional. They are used to identify a command for
partial updates.
Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are
otherwise 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 either of the following
formats:
name
( <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 csh(1). They can be escaped with a backslash.
The `~' character is also expanded in the same way as csh(1)
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.
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 ;
The install command is used to copy out of date files and/or
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 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
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rdist(1) rdist(1)
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 (for example, 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 name_list. This is
usually used to copy everything in a directory except certain
files.
The except_pat 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 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 `\'.
The special command is used to specify sh(1) 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 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 data bases, and so on after a program has been
updated.
Examples
The following is a small distfile 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 )
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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
except_pat ( \\.o\$ /SCCS\$ ) ;
IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi)
imagen:
/usr/local/${IMAGEN} -> arpa
install /usr/local/lib ;
notify ralph ;
${FILES} :: stamp.cory
notify root@cory ;
Warnings
rdist on older versions of BSD UNIX systems had rdist hard
coded to point to /usr/ucb/rdist.
Source files must reside on the local host where rdist is
executed.
There is no easy way to have a special command executed after
all files in a directory have been updated.
rdist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan
1, 1970).
REFERENCES
sh(1), csh(1), stat(2)
NOTICES
Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be
a general macro facility.
There should be a `force' option to allow replacement of non-
empty directories by regular files or symlinks. A means of
updating file modes and owners of otherwise identical files is
also needed.
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