RDIST(1) BSD RDIST(1)
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 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 filenames 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] ;
OPTIONS
Other options:
-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.
-b Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files
if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
-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.
-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files that are out of date will be displayed but no files will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.
-w Whole mode. The whole filename 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/f1 dir2/f2 ) to dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/f1
and dir3/dir2/f2, instead of dir3/f1 and dir3/f1.
-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.
-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.
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).
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 the following format:
<name>
or
( <zero or more names separated by white-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 destination hosts.
When the -w option is used with a filename 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 filename.
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
filename is used. Directories in the pathname 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 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 filename, 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 the ; character.
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.
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} -> ${HOSTS}
install -R ;
except /usr/lib/${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
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 files is also needed.
SEE ALSO
sh(1), csh(1), rcp(1), stat(2)