rdist(1Mtcp)

Synopsis

rdist [-nqbRhivwyD] -c name... [login@]host[:dest]

Description

Files

distfile

input command file

/tmp/rdist*

temporary file for update lists

Diagnostics

Usage

Options

-

If distfile is `-', the standard input is used.

-f distfile

Use the specified distfile.

If either the -f or `-' option is not specified, rdist 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 filenames 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 form of the rdist command are:

-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 of the rdist command are:

-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.

-m host

Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed 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 maintaining truly identical copies of directories.

-h

Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to rather than the link itself. This has no effect on machines without symbolic links.

-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 Any files that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be changed nor any mail sent.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 filename 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/file1 dir2/file2) to dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/file1 and dir3/dir2/file2 instead of dir3/file1 and dir3/file2.

-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.

-b

Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.

-D

Enable debugging.

Distribution file

   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 either of the following formats:

   name
   ( <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(1) but is expanded separately on the local and destination hosts. When the -w option is used with a filename that begins with ``~'', everything except the home directory is appended to the destination name. Filenames which do not begin with ``/'' or ``~'' use the destination user's home directory as the root directory for the rest of the filename.

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 filename 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 (for example, name1@host, name2@host, ...).

The except command is used to update all files in the source list except for those 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 filename, 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 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, and so on after a program has been updated.

Warnings

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.

rdist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before January 1, 1970).

References

Notices

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.

Examples

   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 ;