rdist(1)rdist(1)NAMErdist - remote file distribution program
SYNOPSIS
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ label... ]
[ ] [login@]host[:dest]
DESCRIPTION
facilitates the maintaining of identical copies of files over multiple
hosts. It preserves the owner, group, mode, and modification time of
files if possible and can update programs that are executing.
Specify a distfile for to execute. distfile contains a sequence of
entries that specify the files to be copied, the destina‐
tion hosts, and what operations to perform to do the updat‐
ing. The format of distfile is described in detail later.
If distfile is the standard input is used. If no option is
present, the program looks first for a file called then in
the local host's working directory to use as the input.
Define var to have value. The option is used to define variable
definitions in the distfile. value can be an empty string,
one name, or a list of name separated by tabs and/or spaces
and enclosed by a pair of parentheses. However, if the
variable specified is already defined in the distfile, the
option has no effect (because the distfile overrides the
option).
Display debugging information onto standard output.
Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple
arguments can be given to limit updates to a subset of
hosts that are listed in the distfile. For more informa‐
tion on the host format, refer to the section destina‐
tion_list.
label Label of a command to execute. The label must be defined
in distfile.
The option forces to interpret the remaining arguments as a
small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
In IPv6 enabled systems to use the option with an IPv6
address, the IPv6 address has to be enclosed in a square
bracket pair and An example invocation of with the option
and an IPv6 address is as shown below:
If the IPv6 address is not enclosed within square brackets,
the first occurrence of a colon is treated as the separator
between the hostname and the path.
Print the commands without executing them. This option is
useful for debugging distfile.
Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally
printed on standard output. The option suppresses this.
Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated, any files
that exist
on the remote host that do not exist in the master direc‐
tory are removed. This is useful for maintaining truly
identical copies of directories.
Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to rather
than the
link itself.
Ignore unresolved links.
will normally try to maintain the link structure of files
being transferred and warn the user if it cannot find all
the links.
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.
Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the destination direc‐
tory
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 and to would create files and instead of and
Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their
mtime and size (see stat(2)) disagree. The option causes
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.
Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files if they
differ
rather than comparing dates and sizes.
Check that mode, ownership, and group are the same in addition to any
other
form of comparison that is in effect. This option will
cause files to be replaced but will only correct the prob‐
lem with a directory and print a warning message.
The distfile used by contains a sequence of entries that specify the
files to be copied, the destination hosts, and what operations to per‐
form 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 on the local host that have been changed
since some given date. (See
variable_name
Specify the name of a variable.
name_list List of names (such as list of hosts or lists of files) sepa‐
rated by tabs and/or spaces and enclosed by parentheses.
source_list
Specify a list of files and/or directories on the local host
to be used as the master copy for distribution. Each file in
the source_list is added to a list for changes, if the file
is out of date on the host that is being updated (second for‐
mat), or if the file is newer than the time stamp file (third
format). source_list may contain a single name, or multiple
names separated by tabs and/or spaces and enclosed by paren‐
theses.
destination_list
List of hosts to which these files are to be copied. desti‐
nation_list may contain a single name, or multiple names sep‐
arated by tabs and/or spaces and the whole list must be
enclosed by parentheses. The host names in the destina‐
tion_list can also be in the form For example, In this case,
the user owns the files distributed at
time_stamp_file
Specify a given date to generate a list of files on the local
host that were modified since that date.
label: Labels are optional. They are used to identify a command for
partial updates.
command_list
Specifies a list of commands to be performed.
The command list consists of zero or more commands of the
following format.
The command is used to copy out-of-date files and/or directo‐
ries. Each source file is copied to each host in the desti‐
nation list. Directories are recursively copied in the same
way. opt_dest_name is an optional parameter to rename files.
If no command appears in the command list or the destination
name is not specified, source_list 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 direc‐
tory on a target will never be replaced with a regular file
or a symbolic link. However, under the option a non-empty
directory will be removed if the corresponding filename is
completely absent on the master host. The options are and
and have the same semantics as options on the command line,
except that they only apply to the files in the specified
source_list. The login name used on the destination host is
the same as on the local host, unless the destination name is
of the form "login@host".
The command is used to mail the list of files updated (and
any errors that may have occurred) to the listed names, in
name_list. If no appears in the name, the destination host
is appended to the name (e.g., name1@host, name2@host, ...).
The command is used to update all of the files in the source
list, except for the files listed in name_list. This is usu‐
ally used to copy everything in a directory except certain
files.
The command is like the 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 the backslash 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 backslash.
The 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 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 command can be
used, for example, to rebuild private databases after a pro‐
gram has been updated. Shell variables cannot be used in the
command because there is no escape mechanism for the charac‐
ter.
Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are other‐
wise ignored. Comments begin with and end with a newline.
A generalized way of dynamically building variable lists is provided by
using a backquote syntax much like the shell. In this way, arbitrary
commands that generate stdout with space-separated words may be used to
build the list (see the use of command in the examples).
Variables to be expanded begin with followed by the variable name
enclosed in curly braces.
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 back‐
slash. The character is also expanded in the same way as csh but is
expanded separately on the local and destination hosts. When the
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.
DIAGNOSTICS
A message about a mismatch of version numbers may mean that an exe‐
cutable is not in the shell's path on the remote system.
EXAMPLES
The following is an example.
HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa )
FILES = ( /usr/lib /usr/bin /usr/local/games
/usr/include/{*.h,{sys,rpc*,arpa}/*.h}
/usr/man/man? `cat ./std-files` )
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/local/games/lib ;
special /usr/sbin/sendmail " /usr/sbin/sendmail -bz" ;
srcs:
/usr/local/src -> 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 ;
WARNINGS
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 and in the command string;
there should be a general macro facility.
aborts on files that have a negative mtime (before Jan 1, 1970).
does carry the atime when installing a file but will preserve it on an
updated file.
There should be a `force' option to allow replacement of non-empty
directories by regular files or symlinks.
AUTHOR
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
appeared in the 4.3 Berkeley Software Distribution.
FILES
Input command file.
Temporary file for update lists.
SEE ALSOsh(1), csh(1), stat(2).
rdist(1)
