PKGSYNC(8)						      System Manager's Manual							PKGSYNC(8)

NAME

       pkgsync - Automated package synchronization tool

SYNOPSIS

       pkgsync

DESCRIPTION

       pkgsync	is  a  tool  for  keeping multiple machines reasonably similar and clean. Packages can either be in a `must be installed', `may be
       installed' or `must not be installed' list (which is presumed to be distributed separately  using  a  tool  such  as  rdist  or	cfengine).
       pkgsync	will  take care of meeting the demands put down in the lists, and then removing everything that is not in the `must' or `may' list
       and is not necessary for their operations (as determined by aptitude).

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
	      Print a short help text and exit.

       -s, --simulate
	      Do everything as usual, but put aptitude in simulation mode, causing it to never do any changes (except update and autoclean,  which
	      should both be harmless) to your system. This is especially useful on a new system to make sure pkgsync behaves as expected.

	      Note  that aptitude prints out its intended actions _before_ running the conflict resolver. If there's a conflict somewhere, chances
	      are that the results on your system will be different from what aptitude prints out.

       -k, --keep-unused
	      Instruct aptitude to not remove cruft (ie. unused packages); this is morally equivalent to having an "*" entry in mayhave.

       -d, --dpkg-glob
	      When encountering a wildcard pattern, pkgsync tries to `un-glob' it.  Traditionally, this was done using dpkg -- however,  in  later
	      versions	one can use aptitude instead. Using aptitude is a little slower, but the syntax is a lot more flexible, supporting regular
	      expressions and various searches on fields. Giving --dpkg-glob makes pkgsync use dpkg, which is not very useful except for backwards
	      compatibility.

       -a, --aptitude-glob
	      Use aptitude's globbing instead of dpkg's globbing (see above). This option is the default.

SEE ALSO

       /usr/share/doc/pkgsync/README.Debian (complete tutorial and reference documentation)

AUTHOR

       pkgsync is Copyright 2004-2007 Steinar H. Gunderson <sgunderson@bigfoot.com>.

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