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RDIST(1)		  BSD General Commands Manual		      RDIST(1)

NAME
     rdist — remote file distribution program

SYNOPSIS
     rdist [-nqbRhivwyD] [-P rshcmd] [-f distfile] [-d var=value] [-m host]
	   [name ...]
     rdist [-nqbRhivwyD] [-P rshcmd] -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 possi‐
     ble and can update programs that are executing.  Rdist reads commands
     from distfile to direct the updating of files and/or directories.

     Options specific to the first SYNOPSIS form:

     -	     If distfile is ‘-’, the standard input is used.

     -f distfile
	     Use the specified distfile.

     If either the -f or ‘-’ option is not specified, 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.

     Options specific to the second SYNOPSIS form:

     -c		 Forces rdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a small
		 distfile.

		 The equivalent distfile is as follows.

		       (name ...) -> [login@] host
			     install [dest];

     Options common to both forms:

     -P rshcmd	 Alternative program to provide rsh(1)-like transport to the
		 remote server.	 It must provide a binary-transparent path to
		 the remote server, and must have a command argument syntax
		 that is compatible with rsh(1).

     -d var=value
		 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.

     -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.

     -m host	 Limit which machines are to be updated.  Multiple -m argu‐
		 ments can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts
		 listed in 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 main‐
		 taining truly identical copies of directories.

     -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 destina‐
		 tion 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 cre‐
		 ate 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.

     -D		 Debug mode.

     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 for‐
     mat) 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 recog‐
     nized 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(1) 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 for‐
     mat.

	   `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.  Direc‐
     tories 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 re_format(7) 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 exe‐
     cuted 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/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

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.

     Rdist relies on rcmd(3) type remote services executing successfully and
     in silence.  A common error is for non-interactive initialization
     scripts, like .cshrc, to generate output (or to run other programs which
     generate output when not attached to a terminal -- the most frequent
     offender is stty(1)).  This extra output will cause rdist to fail with
     the error message:

	   rdist: connection failed: version numbers don't match

SEE ALSO
     csh(1), sh(1), stat(2), re_format(7)

HISTORY
     The rdist command appeared in 4.3BSD.

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 direc‐
     tories by regular files or symlinks.  A means of updating file modes and
     owners of otherwise identical files is also needed.

BSD				March 17, 1994				   BSD
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