1RDIST(1) General Commands Manual RDIST(1)
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6 rdist - remote file distribution program
7
9 rdist [ -nqbRhivwy ] [ -f distfile ] [ -d var=value ] [ -m host ] [
10 name ... ]
11 rdist [ -nqbRhivwy ] -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
13
15 Rdist is a program to maintain identical copies of files over multiple
16 hosts. It preserves the owner, group, mode, and mtime of files if pos‐
17 sible and can update programs that are executing. Rdist reads commands
18 from distfile to direct the updating of files and/or directories. If
19 distfile is `-', the standard input is used. If no -f option is
20 present, the program looks first for `distfile', then `Distfile' to use
21 as the input. If no names are specified on the command line, rdist
22 will update all of the files and directories listed in distfile. Oth‐
23 erwise, the argument is taken to be the name of a file to be updated or
24 the label of a command to execute. If label and file names conflict, it
25 is assumed to be a label. These may be used together to update spe‐
26 cific files using specific commands.
27 The -c option forces rdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a
29 small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
30 ( name ... ) -> [login@]host
32 install [dest] ;
33 Other options:
36 -d Define var to have value. The -d option is used to define or
38 override variable definitions in the distfile. Value can be the
39 empty string, one name, or a list of names surrounded by paren‐
40 theses and separated by tabs and/or spaces.
41 -m Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments
43 can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed
44 the distfile.
45 -n Print the commands without executing them. This option is useful
47 for debugging distfile.
48 -q Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed
50 on standard output. The -q option suppresses this.
51 -R Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated, any
53 files that exist on the remote host that do not exist in the
54 master directory are removed. This is useful for maintaining
55 truely identical copies of directories.
56 -h Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to
58 rather than the link itself.
59 -i Ignore unresolved links. Rdist will normally try to maintain
61 the link structure of files being transfered and warn the user
62 if all the links cannot be found.
63 -v Verify that the files are up to date on all the hosts. Any files
65 that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be
66 changed nor any mail sent.
67 -w Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the destination
69 directory name. Normally, only the last component of a name is
70 used when renaming files. This will preserve the directory
71 structure of the files being copied instead of flattening the
72 directory structure. For example, renaming a list of files such
73 as ( dir1/f1 dir2/f2 ) to dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/f1
74 and dir3/dir2/f2 instead of dir3/f1 and dir3/f2.
75 -y Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime and size
77 (see stat(2)) disagree. The -y option causes rdist not to update
78 files that are younger than the master copy. This can be used
79 to prevent newer copies on other hosts from being replaced. A
80 warning message is printed for files which are newer than the
81 master copy.
82 -b Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files
84 if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
85 Distfile contains a sequence of entries that specify the files to be
87 copied, the destination hosts, and what operations to perform to do the
88 updating. Each entry has one of the following formats.
89 <variable name> `=' <name list>
91 [ label: ] <source list> `->' <destination list> <command list>
92 [ label: ] <source list> `::' <time_stamp file> <command list>
93 The first format is used for defining variables. The second format is
95 used for distributing files to other hosts. The third format is used
96 for making lists of files that have been changed since some given date.
97 The source list specifies a list of files and/or directories on the
98 local host which are to be used as the master copy for distribution.
99 The destination list is the list of hosts to which these files are to
100 be copied. Each file in the source list is added to a list of changes
101 if the file is out of date on the host which is being updated (second
102 format) or the file is newer than the time stamp file (third format).
103 Labels are optional. They are used to identify a command for partial
105 updates.
106 Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are other‐
108 wise ignored. Comments begin with `#' and end with a newline.
109 Variables to be expanded begin with `$' followed by one character or a
111 name enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the end).
112 The source and destination lists have the following format:
114 <name>
116 or
117 `(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)'
118 The shell meta-characters `[', `]', `{', `}', `*', and `?' are recog‐
120 nized and expanded (on the local host only) in the same way as csh(1).
121 They can be escaped with a backslash. The `~' character is also
122 expanded in the same way as csh but is expanded separately on the local
123 and destination hosts. When the -w option is used with a file name
124 that begins with `~', everything except the home directory is appended
125 to the destination name. File names which do not begin with `/' or `~'
126 use the destination user's home directory as the root directory for the
127 rest of the file name.
128 The command list consists of zero or more commands of the following
130 format.
131 `install' <options> opt_dest_name `;'
133 `notify' <name list> `;'
134 `except' <name list> `;'
135 `except_pat' <pattern list>`;'
136 `special' <name list> string `;'
137 The install command is used to copy out of date files and/or directo‐
140 ries. Each source file is copied to each host in the destination list.
141 Directories are recursively copied in the same way. Opt_dest_name is
142 an optional parameter to rename files. If no install command appears
143 in the command list or the destination name is not specified, the
144 source file name is used. Directories in the path name will be created
145 if they do not exist on the remote host. To help prevent disasters, a
146 non-empty directory on a target host will never be replaced with a reg‐
147 ular file or a symbolic link. However, under the `-R' option a non-
148 empty directory will be removed if the corresponding filename is com‐
149 pletely absent on the master host. The options are `-R', `-h', `-i',
150 `-v', `-w', `-y', and `-b' and have the same semantics as options on
151 the command line except they only apply to the files in the source
152 list. The login name used on the destination host is the same as the
153 local host unless the destination name is of the format ``login@host".
154 The notify command is used to mail the list of files updated (and any
156 errors that may have occured) to the listed names. If no `@' appears
157 in the name, the destination host is appended to the name (e.g.,
158 name1@host, name2@host, ...).
159 The except command is used to update all of the files in the source
161 list except for the files listed in name list. This is usually used to
162 copy everything in a directory except certain files.
163 The except_pat command is like the except command except that pattern
165 list is a list of regular expressions (see ed(1) for details). If one
166 of the patterns matches some string within a file name, that file will
167 be ignored. Note that since `\' is a quote character, it must be dou‐
168 bled to become part of the regular expression. Variables are expanded
169 in pattern list but not shell file pattern matching characters. To
170 include a `$', it must be escaped with `\'.
171 The special command is used to specify sh(1) commands that are to be
173 executed on the remote host after the file in name list is updated or
174 installed. If the name list is omitted then the shell commands will be
175 executed for every file updated or installed. The shell variable
176 `FILE' is set to the current filename before executing the commands in
177 string. String starts and ends with `"' and can cross multiple lines
178 in distfile. Multiple commands to the shell should be separated by
179 `;'. Commands are executed in the user's home directory on the host
180 being updated. The special command can be used to rebuild private
181 databases, etc. after a program has been updated.
182 The following is a small example.
184 HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa)
186 FILES = ( /bin /lib /usr/bin /usr/games
188 /usr/include/{*.h,{stand,sys,vax*,pascal,machine}/*.h}
189 /usr/lib /usr/man/man? /usr/ucb /usr/local/rdist )
190 EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc
192 sendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
193 ${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
195 install -R ;
196 except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
197 except /usr/games/lib ;
198 special /usr/sbin/sendmail "/usr/sbin/sendmail -bz" ;
199 srcs:
201 /usr/src/bin -> arpa
202 except_pat ( \\.o\$ /SCCS\$ ) ;
203 IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi)
205 imagen:
207 /usr/local/${IMAGEN} -> arpa
208 install /usr/local/lib ;
209 notify ralph ;
210 ${FILES} :: stamp.cory
212 notify root@cory ;
213
216 distfile input command file
217 /tmp/rdist* temporary file for update lists
218
220 sh(1), csh(1), stat(2)
221
223 A complaint about mismatch of rdist version numbers may really stem
224 from some problem with starting your shell, e.g., you are in too many
225 groups.
226
228 Source files must reside on the local host where rdist is executed.
229 There is no easy way to have a special command executed after all files
231 in a directory have been updated.
232 Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be a general
234 macro facility.
235 Rdist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan 1, 1970).
237 There should be a `force' option to allow replacement of non-empty
239 directories by regular files or symlinks. A means of updating file
240 modes and owners of otherwise identical files is also needed.
2414.3 Berkeley Distribution October 22, 1996 RDIST(1)