1RDIST(1) General Commands Manual RDIST(1)
2
6 rdist - remote file distribution client program
7
9 rdist [ -DFn ] [ -A num ] [ -a num ] [ -d var=value ] [ -l <local
10 logopts> ] [ -L <remote logopts> ] [ -f distfile ] [ -M maxproc ] [ -m
11 host ] [ -o distopts ] [ -t timeout ] [ -p <rdistd-path> ] [ -P <trans‐
12 port-path> ] [ name ... ]
13 rdist -DFn -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
15 rdist -Server
17 rdist -V
19
21 Rdist is a program to maintain identical copies of files over multiple
22 hosts. It preserves the owner, group, mode, and mtime of files if pos‐
23 sible and can update programs that are executing. Rdist reads commands
24 from distfile to direct the updating of files and/or directories. If
25 distfile is `-', the standard input is used. If no -f option is
26 present, the program looks first for `distfile', then `Distfile' to use
27 as the input. If no names are specified on the command line, rdist
28 will update all of the files and directories listed in distfile. Oth‐
29 erwise, the argument is taken to be the name of a file to be updated or
30 the label of a command to execute. If label and file names conflict, it
31 is assumed to be a label. These may be used together to update spe‐
32 cific files using specific commands.
33 The -c option forces rdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a
35 small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
36 ( name ... ) -> [login@]host
38 install [dest] ;
39 The -Server option is recognized to provide partial backward compatible
42 support for older versions of rdist which used this option to put rdist
43 into server mode. If rdist is started with the -Server command line
44 option, it will attempt to exec (run) the old version of rdist. This
45 option will only work if rdist was compiled with the location of the
46 old rdist (the path /usr/bin/oldrdist is used on Red Hat linux) and
47 that program is available at run time.
48 Rdist can use either the rcmd(3) function call or run an arbitrary
50 transport program such as rsh(1c) to access each target host. The
51 method used is selected at compile-time. However, if the later method
52 is used, the transport program can be specified at run-time on the com‐
53 mand line with the default being rsh(1c). If the rsh(1c) method is
54 used and the target host is the string localhost and the remote user
55 name is the same as the local user name, rdist will run the command
56 /bin/sh -c rdistd -S
58 Otherwise rdist run will run the command
60 rsh host -l remuser rdistd -S
62 where host is the name of the target host, remuser is the name of the
64 user to make the connection as and, rdistd is the rdist server command
65 on the target host as shown below. To use a transport program other
66 than rsh(1c) use the -P option. Whatever transport program is used,
67 must be compatible with the above specified syntax for rsh(1c). If the
68 transport program is not, it should be wrapped in a shell script which
69 does understand this command line syntax and which then executes the
70 real transport program.
71 Here's an example which uses ssh(1) as the transport:
73 rdist -P /usr/local/bin/ssh -f myDistfile
75 If the rcmd(3) method is used, then rdist makes the connection to the
78 target host itself and runs the rdistd server program as shown below.
79 The default, and preferred method, is to use rsh(1c) to make the con‐
80 nection to target hosts. This allows rdist to be run without being
81 setuid to ``root''.
82 On each target host Rdist will attempt to run the command
84 rdistd -S
86 or
88 <rdistd path> -S
90 if the -p option was specified. If no -p option is included, or the
92 <rdistd path> is a simple filename, rdistd or <rdistd path> must be
93 somewhere in the $PATH of the user running rdist on the remote (target)
94 host.
95
97 -A num Set the minimum number of free files (inodes) on a filesystem
98 that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
99 -a num Set the minimum amount of free space (in bytes) on a filesystem
101 that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
102 -D Enable copious debugging messages.
104 -d var=value
106 Define var to have value. This option is used to define or
107 override variable definitions in the distfile. Value can be the
108 empty string, one name, or a list of names surrounded by paren‐
109 theses and separated by tabs and/or spaces.
110 -F Do not fork any child rdist processes. All clients are updated
112 sequentially.
113 -f distfile
115 Set the name of the distfile to use to be distfile . If dist‐
116 file is specified as ``-'' (dash) then read from standard input
117 (stdin).
118 -l logopts
120 Set local logging options. See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for
121 details on the syntax for logopts.
122 -L logopts
124 Set remote logging options. logopts is the same as for local
125 logging except the values are passed to the remote server
126 (rdistd). See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for details on the
127 syntax for logopts.
128 -M num Set the maximum number of simultaneously running child rdist
130 processes to num. The default is 4.
131 -m machine
133 Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments
134 can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed in
135 the distfile.
136 -n Print the commands without executing them. This option is useful
138 for debugging distfile.
139 -odistopts
141 Specify the dist options to enable. distopts is a comma sepa‐
142 rated list of options which are listed below. The valid values
143 for distopts are:
144 verify Verify that the files are up to date on all the hosts.
146 Any files that are out of date will be displayed but no
147 files will be changed nor any mail sent.
148 whole Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the desti‐
150 nation directory name. Normally, only the last component
151 of a name is used when renaming files. This will pre‐
152 serve the directory structure of the files being copied
153 instead of flattening the directory structure. For exam‐
154 ple, rdisting a list of files such as /path/dir1/f1 and
155 /path/dir2/f2 to /tmp/dir would create files
156 /tmp/dir/path/dir1/f1 and /tmp/dir/path/dir2/f2 instead
157 of /tmp/dir/dir1/f1 and /tmp/dir/dir2/f2.
158 noexec Automatically exclude executable files that are in
160 a.out(5) format from being checked or updated.
161 younger
163 Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime
164 and size (see stat(2)) disagree. This option causes rdist
165 not to update files that are younger than the master
166 copy. This can be used to prevent newer copies on other
167 hosts from being replaced. A warning message is printed
168 for files which are newer than the master copy.
169 compare
171 Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update
172 files if they differ rather than comparing dates and
173 sizes.
174 follow Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points
176 to rather than the link itself.
177 ignlnks
179 Ignore unresolved links. Rdist will normally try to
180 maintain the link structure of files being transferred
181 and warn the user if all the links cannot be found.
182 chknfs Do not check or update files on target host that reside
184 on NFS filesystems.
185 chkreadonly
187 Enable check on target host to see if a file resides on a
188 read-only filesystem. If a file does, then no checking
189 or updating of the file is attempted.
190 chksym If the target on the remote host is a symbolic link, but
192 is not on the master host, the remote target will be left
193 a symbolic link. This behavior is generally considered a
194 bug in the original version of rdist, but is present to
195 allow compatibility with older versions.
196 quiet Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally
198 printed on standard output. This option suppresses this.
199 remove Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated,
201 any files that exist on the remote host that do not exist
202 in the master directory are removed. This is useful for
203 maintaining truly identical copies of directories.
204 nochkowner
206 Do not check user ownership of files that already exist.
207 The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
208 nochkgroup
210 Do not check group ownership of files that already exist.
211 The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
212 nochkmode
214 Do not check file and directory permission modes. The
215 permission mode is only set when the file is updated.
216 nodescend
218 Do not descend into a directory. Normally rdist will
219 recursively check directories. If this option is
220 enabled, then any files listed in the file list in the
221 distfile that are directories are not recursively
222 scanned. Only the existence, ownership, and mode of the
223 directory are checked.
224 numchkgroup
226 Use the numeric group id (gid) to check group ownership
227 instead of the group name.
228 numchkowner
230 Use the numeric user id (uid) to check user ownership
231 instead of the user name.
232 savetargets
234 Save files that are updated instead of removing them.
235 Any target file that is updates is first rename from file
236 to file.OLD.
237 sparse Enable checking for sparse (aka wholely) files. One of
239 the most common types of sparse files are those produced
240 by ndbm(3). This option adds some additional processing
241 overhead so it should only be enabled for targets likely
242 to contain sparse files.
243 -p <rdistd-path>
245 Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the tar‐
246 get host.
247 -P <transport-path>
249 Set the path to the transport command to be used. This is nor‐
250 mally rsh(1c) but can be any other program - such as ssh(1) -
251 which understands rsh(1c) command line syntax and which provides
252 an appropriate connection to the remote host. The transport-
253 path may be a colon seperated list of possible pathnames. In
254 this case, the first component of the path to exist is used.
255 i.e. /usr/ucb/rsh:/usr/bin/remsh , /usr/bsd/rsh.
256 -t timeout
258 Set the timeout period (in seconds) for waiting for responses
259 from the remote rdist server. The default is 900 seconds.
260 -V Print version information and exit.
262
264 Rdist uses a collection of predefined message facilities that each con‐
265 tain a list of message types specifying which types of messages to send
266 to that facility. The local client (rdist) and the remote server
267 (rdistd) each maintain their own copy of what types of messages to log
268 to what facilities.
269 The -l logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging options to use
271 locally. The -L logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging
272 options to pass to the remote rdistd server.
273 The form of logopts should be of form
275 facility=types:facility=types...
277 The valid facility names are:
279 stdout Messages to standard output.
281 file Log to a file. To specify the file name, use the format
283 ``file=filename=types''. e.g.
284 ``file=/tmp/rdist.log=all,debug''.
285 syslog Use the syslogd(8) facility.
287 notify Use the internal rdist notify facility. This facility is
289 used in conjunction with the notify keyword in a distfile
290 to specify what messages are mailed to the notify
291 address.
292 types should be a comma separated list of message types. Each message
294 type specified enables that message level. This is unlike the sys‐
295 log(3) system facility which uses an ascending order scheme. The fol‐
296 lowing are the valid types:
297 change Things that change. This includes files that are
299 installed or updated in some way.
300 info General information.
302 notice General info about things that change. This includes
304 things like making directories which are needed in order
305 to install a specific target, but which are not explic‐
306 itly specified in the distfile.
307 nerror Normal errors that are not fatal.
309 ferror Fatal errors.
311 warning
313 Warnings about errors which are not as serious as nerror
314 type messages.
315 debug Debugging information.
317 all All but debug messages.
319 Here is a sample command line option:
321 -l stdout=all:syslog=change,notice:file=/tmp/rdist.log=all
323 This entry will set local message logging to have all but debug mes‐
325 sages sent to standard output, change and notice messages will be sent
326 to syslog(3), and all messages will be written to the file
327 /tmp/rdist.log.
328
330 The distfile contains a sequence of entries that specify the files to
331 be copied, the destination hosts, and what operations to perform to do
332 the updating. Each entry has one of the following formats.
333 <variable name> `=' <name list>
335 [ label: ] <source list> `->' <destination list> <command list>
336 [ label: ] <source list> `::' <time_stamp file> <command list>
337 The first format is used for defining variables. The second format is
339 used for distributing files to other hosts. The third format is used
340 for making lists of files that have been changed since some given date.
341 The source list specifies a list of files and/or directories on the
342 local host which are to be used as the master copy for distribution.
343 The destination list is the list of hosts to which these files are to
344 be copied. Each file in the source list is added to a list of changes
345 if the file is out of date on the host which is being updated (second
346 format) or the file is newer than the time stamp file (third format).
347 Labels are optional. They are used to identify a command for partial
349 updates.
350 Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are other‐
352 wise ignored. Comments begin with `#' and end with a newline.
353 Variables to be expanded begin with `$' followed by one character or a
355 name enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the end).
356 The source and destination lists have the following format:
358 <name>
360 or
361 `(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)'
362 These simple lists can be modified by using one level of set addition,
364 subtraction, or intersection like this:
365 list '-' list
367 or
368 list '+' list
369 or
370 list '&' list
371 If additional modifications are needed (e.g., ``all servers and client
373 machines except for the OSF/1 machines'') then the list will have to be
374 explicitly constructed in steps using "temporary" variables.
375 The shell meta-characters `[', `]', `{', `}', `*', and `?' are recog‐
377 nized and expanded (on the local host only) in the same way as csh(1).
378 They can be escaped with a backslash. The `~' character is also
379 expanded in the same way as csh but is expanded separately on the local
380 and destination hosts. When the -owhole option is used with a file
381 name that begins with `~', everything except the home directory is
382 appended to the destination name. File names which do not begin with
383 `/' or `~' use the destination user's home directory as the root direc‐
384 tory for the rest of the file name.
385 The command list consists of zero or more commands of the following
387 format.
388 `install' <options> opt_dest_name `;'
390 `notify' <name list> `;'
391 `except' <name list> `;'
392 `except_pat' <pattern list>`;'
393 `special' <name list> string `;'
394 `cmdspecial' <name list> string `;'
395 The install command is used to copy out of date files and/or directo‐
398 ries. Each source file is copied to each host in the destination list.
399 Directories are recursively copied in the same way. Opt_dest_name is
400 an optional parameter to rename files. If no install command appears
401 in the command list or the destination name is not specified, the
402 source file name is used. Directories in the path name will be created
403 if they do not exist on the remote host. The -o distopts option as
404 specified above under OPTIONS, has the same semantics as on the command
405 line except they only apply to the files in the source list. The login
406 name used on the destination host is the same as the local host unless
407 the destination name is of the format ``login@host".
408 The notify command is used to mail the list of files updated (and any
410 errors that may have occurred) to the listed names. If no `@' appears
411 in the name, the destination host is appended to the name (e.g.,
412 name1@host, name2@host, ...).
413 The except command is used to update all of the files in the source
415 list except for the files listed in name list. This is usually used to
416 copy everything in a directory except certain files.
417 The except_pat command is like the except command except that pattern
419 list is a list of regular expressions (see ed(1) for details). If one
420 of the patterns matches some string within a file name, that file will
421 be ignored. Note that since `\' is a quote character, it must be dou‐
422 bled to become part of the regular expression. Variables are expanded
423 in pattern list but not shell file pattern matching characters. To
424 include a `$', it must be escaped with `\'.
425 The special command is used to specify sh(1) commands that are to be
427 executed on the remote host after the file in name list is updated or
428 installed. If the name list is omitted then the shell commands will be
429 executed for every file updated or installed. String starts and ends
430 with `"' and can cross multiple lines in distfile. Multiple commands
431 to the shell should be separated by `;'. Commands are executed in the
432 user's home directory on the host being updated. The special command
433 can be used to rebuild private databases, etc. after a program has
434 been updated. The following environment variables are set for each
435 special command:
436 FILE The full pathname of the local file that was just updated.
438 REMFILE
440 The full pathname of the remote file that was just updated.
441 BASEFILE
443 The basename of the remote file that was just updated.
444 The cmdspecial command is similar to the special command, except it is
446 executed only when the entire command is completed instead of after
447 each file is updated. The list of files is placed in the environment
448 variable $FILES. Each file name in $FILES is separated by a `:'
449 (colon).
450 If a hostname ends in a ``+'' (plus sign), then the plus is stripped
452 off and NFS checks are disabled. This is equivalent to disabling the
453 -ochknfs option just for this one host.
454 The following is a small example.
456 HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa)
458 FILES = ( /bin /lib /usr/bin /usr/games
460 /usr/include/{*.h,{stand,sys,vax*,pascal,machine}/*.h}
461 /usr/lib /usr/man/man? /usr/ucb /usr/local/rdist )
462 EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc
464 sendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
465 ${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
467 install -oremove,chknfs ;
468 except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
469 except /usr/games/lib ;
470 special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail -bz" ;
471 srcs:
473 /usr/src/bin -> arpa
474 except_pat ( \\.o\$ /SCCS\$ ) ;
475 IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi)
477 imagen:
479 /usr/local/${IMAGEN} -> arpa
480 install /usr/local/lib ;
481 notify ralph ;
482 ${FILES} :: stamp.cory
484 notify root@cory ;
485
488 TMPDIR Name of temporary directory to use. Default is /tmp.
489
491 distfile - input command file
492 $TMPDIR/rdist* - temporary file for update lists
493
495 sh(1), csh(1), stat(2), rsh(1c), rcmd(3)
496
499 If the basename of a file (the last component in the pathname) is ".",
500 then rdist assumes the remote (destination) name is a directory. i.e.
501 /tmp/. means that /tmp should be a directory on the remote host.
502 The following options are still recognized for backwards compatibility:
504 -v -N -O -q -b -r -R -s -w -y -h -i -x
506
509 Source files must reside on the local host where rdist is executed.
510 Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be a general
512 macro facility.
513 Rdist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan 1, 1970).
515 If a hardlinked file is listed more than once in the same target, then
517 rdist will report missing links. Only one instance of a link should be
518 listed in each target.
5194.3 Berkeley Distribution June 13, 1998 RDIST(1)