RDIST(1-BSD) RISC/os Reference Manual RDIST(1-BSD)
NAME
rdist - remote file distribution program
SYNOPSIS
rdist [ -nqbRhivwy ] [ -f distfile ] [ -d var=value ] [ -m
host ] [ name ... ]
rdist [ -nqbRhivwy ] -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
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 possible 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 `Dist-
file' to use as the input. If no names are specified on the
command line, rdist will update all of the files and direc-
tories 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 argu-
ments as a small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as
follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
Other options:
-d Define var to have value. The -d option is used to
define or override variable definitions in the dist-
file. Value can be the empty string, one name, or a
list of names surrounded by parentheses and separated
by tabs and/or spaces.
-m 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.
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-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 truely identical copies of
directories.
-h Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link
points to rather than the link itself.
-i Ignore unresolved links. Rdist will normally try to
maintain the link structure of files being transfered
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Any files that are out of date will be displayed but no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.
-w Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the des-
tination directory name. Normally, only the last com-
ponent of a name is used when renaming files. This
will preserve the directory structure of the files
being copied instead of flattening the directory struc-
ture. 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
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.
Distfile contains a sequence of entries that specify the
files to be copied, the destination hosts, and what opera-
tions 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
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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 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.
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 exam-
ples at the end).
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 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 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 direc-
tory 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
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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. How-
ever, 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 occured) 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 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 mul-
tiple 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 spe-
cial command can be used to rebuild private databases, etc.
after a program has been updated.
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 )
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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 ;
FILES
distfile input command file
/tmp/rdist* temporary file for update lists
SEE ALSO
sh(1), csh(1), stat(2)
DIAGNOSTICS
A complaint about mismatch of rdist version numbers may
really stem from some problem with starting your shell,
e.g., you are in too many groups.
BUGS
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.
Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should
be a general macro facility.
Rdist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before
Jan 1, 1970).
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
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files is also needed.
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