rdist(1) General Commands Manual rdist(1)
Name
rdist - remote file distribution program
Syntax
rdist [ -nqbRhivwy ] [ -f distfile ] [ -d var=value ] [ -m host ] [ name ... ]
rdist [ -nqbRhivwy ] [ -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
Description
The program maintains 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. 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, 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.
Options
-c Forces to interpret the remaining arguments as a small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
-d Defines 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 dist-
file.
-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 Any files that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be changed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 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 mtime and size (see 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 a sharp sign (#) and end with a new-
line.
Variables to be expanded begin with dollar sign ($) followed by one character or a name enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the
end).
The source list and destination list 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 They can be escaped
with a backslash (. The tilde character (~) is also expanded in the same way as but is expanded separately on the local and destination
hosts. When the -w option is used with a file name that begins with tilde (~), 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 com-
pletely 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 at sign
(@) appears in the name, the destination host is appended to the name (for example, 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 for details). If one of
the patterns matches some string within a file name, that file will be ignored. Note that since e 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 dollar sign ($), it must be escaped with e.
The special command is used to specify 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 double quotes (") and can cross
multiple lines in distfile. Multiple commands to the shell should be separated by semi-colons (;). 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
/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} -> ${HOSTS}
install -R ;
except /usr/lib/${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 ;
Restrictions
Source files must reside on the local host where 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.
aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan 1, 1970).
Diagnostics
A complaint about mismatch of version numbers may really stem from some problem with starting your shell (that is, you are in too many
groups).
Files
distfile input command file
/tmp/rdist* temporary file for update lists
See Also
sh(1), csh(1), stat(2)
rdist(1)