RDIST(1)						      General Commands 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

       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  directo-
       ries.  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 con-
       flict, 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 dis-
	      tfile.

       -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 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.  Rdist 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 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 warn-
	      ing 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 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 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  charac-
       ters.  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
		       /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/sbin/sendmail "/usr/sbin/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.

       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.

4.3 Berkeley Distribution					 October 22, 1996							  RDIST(1)