RDIST(1)                                                              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 pos‐
       sible and can update programs that are executing.  Rdist reads commands
       from  distfile  to direct the updating of files and/or directories.  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.  Oth‐
       erwise, 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  spe‐
       cific 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  paren‐
              theses 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 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
              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
              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.

       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  other‐
       wise 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 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 directo‐
       ries.  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 reg‐
       ular  file  or  a symbolic link.  However, under the ‘-R’ option a non-
       empty directory will be removed if the corresponding filename  is  com‐
       pletely  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  dou‐
       bled  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, 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

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        May 13, 1986                         RDIST(1)
 
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