RDIST(1)RDIST(1)NAMErdist - remote file distribution program
SYNOPSISrdist [ -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 will update 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 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 arguments 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 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 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.
-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that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be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 file name 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/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 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 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 directory 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 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. 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 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
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
`;'. 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 is a small example.
HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa)
FILES = ( /bin /lib /usr/bin /usr/games
NextDeveloper/Headers/bsd/{*.h,{sys,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
SEE ALSOsh(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 files is also needed.
NeXT, Inc. May 13, 1986 RDIST(1)
