RDIST(1)RDIST(1)NAMErdist - remote file distribution client program
SYNOPSISrdist [ -DFn ] [ -A num ] [ -a num ] [ -d var=value ] [ -l <local
logopts> ] [ -L <remote logopts> ] [ -f distfile ] [ -M maxproc ] [ -m
host ] [ -o distopts ] [ -t timeout ] [ -p <rdistd-path> ] [ -P <trans‐
port-path> ] [ name ... ]
rdist-DFn -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
rdist-Server
rdist-V
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 pos‐
sible 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
will update all of the files and directories listed in distfile. Oth‐
erwise, 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 spe‐
cific 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] ;
The -Server option is recognized to provide partial backward compatible
support for older versions of rdist which used this option to put rdist
into server mode. If rdist is started with the -Server command line
option, it will attempt to exec (run) the old version of rdist. This
option will only work if rdist was compiled with the location of the
old rdist (the path /usr/bin/oldrdist is used on Red Hat linux) and
that program is available at run time.
Rdist can use either the rcmd(3) function call or run an arbitrary
transport program such as rsh(1c) to access each target host. The
method used is selected at compile-time. However, if the later method
is used, the transport program can be specified at run-time on the com‐
mand line with the default being rsh(1c). If the rsh(1c) method is
used and the target host is the string localhost and the remote user
name is the same as the local user name, rdist will run the command
/bin/sh -c rdistd -S
Otherwise rdist run will run the command
rsh host -l remuser rdistd -S
where host is the name of the target host, remuser is the name of the
user to make the connection as and, rdistd is the rdist server command
on the target host as shown below. To use a transport program other
than rsh(1c) use the -P option. Whatever transport program is used,
must be compatible with the above specified syntax for rsh(1c). If the
transport program is not, it should be wrapped in a shell script which
does understand this command line syntax and which then executes the
real transport program.
Here's an example which uses ssh(1) as the transport:
rdist-P /usr/local/bin/ssh -f myDistfile
If the rcmd(3) method is used, then rdist makes the connection to the
target host itself and runs the rdistd server program as shown below.
The default, and preferred method, is to use rsh(1c) to make the con‐
nection to target hosts. This allows rdist to be run without being
setuid to ``root''.
On each target host Rdist will attempt to run the command
rdistd -S
or
<rdistd path> -S
if the -p option was specified. If no -p option is included, or the
<rdistd path> is a simple filename, rdistd or <rdistd path> must be
somewhere in the $PATH of the user running rdist on the remote (target)
host.
OPTIONS-A num Set the minimum number of free files (inodes) on a filesystem
that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
-a num Set the minimum amount of free space (in bytes) on a filesystem
that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
-D Enable copious debugging messages.
-d var=value
Define var to have value. This 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 paren‐
theses and separated by tabs and/or spaces.
-F Do not fork any child rdist processes. All clients are updated
sequentially.
-f distfile
Set the name of the distfile to use to be distfile . If dist‐
file is specified as ``-'' (dash) then read from standard input
(stdin).
-l logopts
Set local logging options. See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for
details on the syntax for logopts.
-L logopts
Set remote logging options. logopts is the same as for local
logging except the values are passed to the remote server
(rdistd). See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for details on the
syntax for logopts.
-M num Set the maximum number of simultaneously running child rdist
processes to num. The default is 4.
-m machine
Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments
can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed in
the distfile.
-n Print the commands without executing them. This option is useful
for debugging distfile.
-odistopts
Specify the dist options to enable. distopts is a comma sepa‐
rated list of options which are listed below. The valid values
for distopts are:
verify 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.
whole Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the desti‐
nation directory name. Normally, only the last component
of a name is used when renaming files. This will pre‐
serve the directory structure of the files being copied
instead of flattening the directory structure. For exam‐
ple, rdisting a list of files such as /path/dir1/f1 and
/path/dir2/f2 to /tmp/dir would create files
/tmp/dir/path/dir1/f1 and /tmp/dir/path/dir2/f2 instead
of /tmp/dir/dir1/f1 and /tmp/dir/dir2/f2.
noexec Automatically exclude executable files that are in
a.out(5) format from being checked or updated.
younger
Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime
and size (see stat(2)) disagree. This 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.
compare
Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update
files if they differ rather than comparing dates and
sizes.
follow Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points
to rather than the link itself.
ignlnks
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.
chknfs Do not check or update files on target host that reside
on NFS filesystems.
chkreadonly
Enable check on target host to see if a file resides on a
read-only filesystem. If a file does, then no checking
or updating of the file is attempted.
chksym If the target on the remote host is a symbolic link, but
is not on the master host, the remote target will be left
a symbolic link. This behavior is generally considered a
bug in the original version of rdist, but is present to
allow compatibility with older versions.
quiet Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally
printed on standard output. This option suppresses this.
remove 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.
nochkowner
Do not check user ownership of files that already exist.
The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
nochkgroup
Do not check group ownership of files that already exist.
The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
nochkmode
Do not check file and directory permission modes. The
permission mode is only set when the file is updated.
nodescend
Do not descend into a directory. Normally rdist will
recursively check directories. If this option is
enabled, then any files listed in the file list in the
distfile that are directories are not recursively
scanned. Only the existence, ownership, and mode of the
directory are checked.
numchkgroup
Use the numeric group id (gid) to check group ownership
instead of the group name.
numchkowner
Use the numeric user id (uid) to check user ownership
instead of the user name.
savetargets
Save files that are updated instead of removing them.
Any target file that is updates is first rename from file
to file.OLD.
sparse Enable checking for sparse (aka wholely) files. One of
the most common types of sparse files are those produced
by ndbm(3). This option adds some additional processing
overhead so it should only be enabled for targets likely
to contain sparse files.
-p <rdistd-path>
Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the tar‐
get host.
-P <transport-path>
Set the path to the transport command to be used. This is nor‐
mally rsh(1c) but can be any other program - such as ssh(1)-
which understands rsh(1c) command line syntax and which provides
an appropriate connection to the remote host. The transport-
path may be a colon seperated list of possible pathnames. In
this case, the first component of the path to exist is used.
i.e. /usr/ucb/rsh:/usr/bin/remsh , /usr/bsd/rsh.
-t timeout
Set the timeout period (in seconds) for waiting for responses
from the remote rdist server. The default is 900 seconds.
-V Print version information and exit.
MESSAGE LOGGING
Rdist uses a collection of predefined message facilities that each con‐
tain a list of message types specifying which types of messages to send
to that facility. The local client (rdist) and the remote server
(rdistd) each maintain their own copy of what types of messages to log
to what facilities.
The -l logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging options to use
locally. The -L logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging
options to pass to the remote rdistd server.
The form of logopts should be of form
facility=types:facility=types...
The valid facility names are:
stdout Messages to standard output.
file Log to a file. To specify the file name, use the format
``file=filename=types''. e.g.
``file=/tmp/rdist.log=all,debug''.
syslog Use the syslogd(8) facility.
notify Use the internal rdist notify facility. This facility is
used in conjunction with the notify keyword in a distfile
to specify what messages are mailed to the notify
address.
types should be a comma separated list of message types. Each message
type specified enables that message level. This is unlike the sys‐
log(3) system facility which uses an ascending order scheme. The fol‐
lowing are the valid types:
change Things that change. This includes files that are
installed or updated in some way.
info General information.
notice General info about things that change. This includes
things like making directories which are needed in order
to install a specific target, but which are not explic‐
itly specified in the distfile.
nerror Normal errors that are not fatal.
ferror Fatal errors.
warning
Warnings about errors which are not as serious as nerror
type messages.
debug Debugging information.
all All but debug messages.
Here is a sample command line option:
-l stdout=all:syslog=change,notice:file=/tmp/rdist.log=all
This entry will set local message logging to have all but debug mes‐
sages sent to standard output, change and notice messages will be sent
to syslog(3), and all messages will be written to the file
/tmp/rdist.log.
DISTFILES
The 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 other‐
wise 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> `)'
These simple lists can be modified by using one level of set addition,
subtraction, or intersection like this:
list '-' list
or
list '+' list
or
list '&' list
If additional modifications are needed (e.g., ``all servers and client
machines except for the OSF/1 machines'') then the list will have to be
explicitly constructed in steps using "temporary" variables.
The shell meta-characters `[', `]', `{', `}', `*', and `?' are recog‐
nized 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 -owhole 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 direc‐
tory 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 `;'
`cmdspecial' <name list> string `;'
The install command is used to copy out of date files and/or directo‐
ries. 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. The -o distopts option as
specified above under OPTIONS, has the same semantics as 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 (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 dou‐
bled 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. 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 databases, etc. after a program has
been updated. The following environment variables are set for each
special command:
FILE The full pathname of the local file that was just updated.
REMFILE
The full pathname of the remote file that was just updated.
BASEFILE
The basename of the remote file that was just updated.
The cmdspecial command is similar to the special command, except it is
executed only when the entire command is completed instead of after
each file is updated. The list of files is placed in the environment
variable $FILES. Each file name in $FILES is separated by a `:'
(colon).
If a hostname ends in a ``+'' (plus sign), then the plus is stripped
off and NFS checks are disabled. This is equivalent to disabling the
-ochknfs option just for this one host.
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 )
EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc
sendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
install -oremove,chknfs ;
except /usr/lib/${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 ;
ENVIRONMENT
TMPDIR Name of temporary directory to use. Default is /tmp.
FILES
distfile - input command file
$TMPDIR/rdist* - temporary file for update lists
SEE ALSOsh(1), csh(1), stat(2), rsh(1c), rcmd(3)DIAGNOSTICSNOTES
If the basename of a file (the last component in the pathname) is ".",
then rdist assumes the remote (destination) name is a directory. i.e.
/tmp/. means that /tmp should be a directory on the remote host.
The following options are still recognized for backwards compatibility:
-v -N -O -q -b -r -R -s -w -y -h -i -x
BUGS
Source files must reside on the local host where rdist is executed.
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).
If a hardlinked file is listed more than once in the same target, then
rdist will report missing links. Only one instance of a link should be
listed in each target.
4.3 Berkeley Distribution June 13, 1998 RDIST(1)
