4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat1/rdist.1
RDIST(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual 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
_R_d_i_s_t 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. _R_d_i_s_t reads commands from _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e to direct
the updating of files and/or directories. If _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e is
`-', the standard input is used. If no -f option is
present, the program looks first for `distfile', then `Dist-
file' to use as the input. If no names are specified on the
command line, _r_d_i_s_t will update all of the files and direc-
tories listed in _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e. 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 _r_d_i_s_t to interpret the remaining argu-
ments as a small _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e. The equivalent distfile is as
follows.
( _n_a_m_e ... ) -> [_l_o_g_i_n@]_h_o_s_t
install [_d_e_s_t] ;
Other options:
-d Define _v_a_r to have _v_a_l_u_e. The -d option is used to
define or override variable definitions in the _d_i_s_t_-
_f_i_l_e. _V_a_l_u_e 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 _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e.
-n Print the commands without executing them. This option
is useful for debugging _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e.
-q Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally
printed on standard output. The -q option suppresses
this.
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-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 truely 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. _R_d_i_s_t will normally try to
maintain the link structure of files being transfered
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 des-
tination directory name. Normally, only the last com-
ponent of a name is used when renaming files. This
will preserve the directory structure of the files
being copied instead of flattening the directory struc-
ture. 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 _m_t_i_m_e
and _s_i_z_e (see _s_t_a_t(2)) disagree. The -y option causes
_r_d_i_s_t 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.
_D_i_s_t_f_i_l_e contains a sequence of entries that specify the
files to be copied, the destination hosts, and what opera-
tions 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 _s_o_u_r_c_e _l_i_s_t
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specifies a list of files and/or directories on the local
host which are to be used as the master copy for distribu-
tion. The _d_e_s_t_i_n_a_t_i_o_n _l_i_s_t 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 exam-
ples 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 _c_s_h(1). They can be escaped with a backslash.
The `~' character is also expanded in the same way as _c_s_h
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 direc-
tory 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 _i_n_s_t_a_l_l 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. _O_p_t__d_e_s_t__n_a_m_e is an optional parameter to rename
files. If no _i_n_s_t_a_l_l command appears in the command list or
the destination name is not specified, the source file name
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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. How-
ever, under the `-R' option a non-empty directory will be
removed if the corresponding filename is completely absent
on the master host. The _o_p_t_i_o_n_s 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 _n_o_t_i_f_y 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 _e_x_c_e_p_t command is used to update all of the files in the
source list except for the files listed in _n_a_m_e _l_i_s_t. This
is usually used to copy everything in a directory except
certain files.
The _e_x_c_e_p_t__p_a_t command is like the _e_x_c_e_p_t command except
that _p_a_t_t_e_r_n _l_i_s_t is a list of regular expressions (see
_e_d(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 _p_a_t_t_e_r_n _l_i_s_t but not shell file pattern matching
characters. To include a `$', it must be escaped with `\'.
The _s_p_e_c_i_a_l command is used to specify _s_h(1) commands that
are to be executed on the remote host after the file in _n_a_m_e
_l_i_s_t is updated or installed. If the _n_a_m_e _l_i_s_t 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
_s_t_r_i_n_g. _S_t_r_i_n_g starts and ends with `"' and can cross mul-
tiple lines in _d_i_s_t_f_i_l_e. Multiple commands to the shell
should be separated by `;'. Commands are executed in the
user's home directory on the host being updated. The _s_p_e_-
_c_i_a_l 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
/usr/include/{*.h,{stand,sys,vax*,pascal,machine}/*.h}
/usr/lib /usr/man/man? /usr/ucb /usr/local/rdist )
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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 ALSO
sh(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.
_R_d_i_s_t 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
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files is also needed.
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