RDIST(1) System General Commands Manual RDIST(1)
NAME
rdist - remote file distribution client program
SYNOPSIS
rdist [-DFn] [-A num] [-a num] [-d var=value] [-l ]
[-L ] [-f distfile] [-M maxproc] [-m host]
[-o distopts] [-t timeout] [-p ] [-P ]
[name ...]
rdist -DFn -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
rdist -Server
rdist -V
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. 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 conflict, it is assumed to be a label.
These may be used together to update specific files using specific com-
mands.
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] ;
The -Server option is recognized to provide partial backward compatible
support for older versions of rdist which used this option to put rdist
into server mode. If rdist is started with the -Server command line
option, it will attempt to exec (run) the old version of rdist,
/usr/bin/oldrdist.
rdist uses a remote shell command to access each target host. By
default, ssh(1) is used, unless overridden by the -P option or the RSH
environment variable. If the target host is the string localhost and the
remote user name is the same as the local user name, rdist will run the
command
/bin/sh -c rdistd -S
Otherwise, rdist run will run the command
ssh host -l remuser rdistd -S
where host is the name of the target host, remuser is the name of the
user to make the connection as, and rdistd is the rdist server command on
the target host as shown below.
On each target host rdist will attempt to run the command
rdistd -S
or
-S
if the -p option was specified. If no -p option is included, or the
is a simple filename, rdistd or must be some-
where in the PATH of the user running rdist on the remote (target) host.
The options are as follows:
-A num Set the minimum number of free files (inodes) on a filesystem
that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
-a num Set the minimum amount of free space (in bytes) on a filesystem
that must exist for rdist to update or install a file.
-D Enable copious debugging messages.
-d var=value
Define var to have value. This option is used to define or over-
ride 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.
-F Do not fork any child rdist processes. All clients are updated
sequentially.
-f distfile
Set the name of the distfile to use to be distfile. If distfile
is specified as ``-'' (dash) then read from standard input
(stdin).
-l logopts
Set local logging options. See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for
details on the syntax for logopts.
-L logopts
Set remote logging options. logopts is the same as for local
logging except the values are passed to the remote server
(rdistd). See the section MESSAGE LOGGING for details on the
syntax for logopts.
-M num Set the maximum number of simultaneously running child rdist pro-
cesses to num. The default is 4.
-m machine
Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments
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 a distfile.
-odistopts
Specify the dist options to enable. distopts is a comma sepa-
rated list of options which are listed below. The valid values
for distopts are:
verify 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 will any mail be sent.
whole Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the des-
tination directory name. Normally, only the last compo-
nent 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, rdisting a list of files such as
/path/dir1/f1 and /path/dir2/f2 to /tmp/dir would create
files /tmp/dir/path/dir1/f1 and /tmp/dir/path/dir2/f2
instead of /tmp/dir/dir1/f1 and /tmp/dir/dir2/f2.
noexec Automatically exclude executable files that are in
a.out(5) format from being checked or updated.
younger
Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime
and size (see stat(2)) disagree. This option causes
rdist not to update files that are younger than the mas-
ter 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.
compare
Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and
update files if they differ rather than comparing dates
and sizes.
follow Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link
points to rather than the link itself.
ignlnks
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.
chknfs Do not check or update files on target host that reside
on NFS filesystems.
chkreadonly
Enable check on target host to see if a file resides on a
read-only filesystem. If a file does, then no checking
or updating of the file is attempted.
chksym If the target on the remote host is a symbolic link, but
is not on the master host, the remote target will be left
a symbolic link. This behavior is generally considered a
bug in the original version of rdist, but is present to
allow compatibility with older versions.
defgroup[=groupname]
If the group of a file to be transferred does not exist
on the destination host, use the specified group instead.
If groupname is not specified, the bin group is used.
defowner[=owner]
If the owner of a file to be transferred does not exist
on the destination host, use the specified owner instead.
If owner is not specified, the user bin is used.
updateperm
Do not send the whole file when the size and the modifi-
cation time match. Instead, just update the ownership,
group, and permissions as necessary.
quiet Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally
printed on standard output. This option suppresses that.
remove 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 directo-
ries.
nochkowner
Do not check user ownership of files that already exist.
The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
nochkgroup
Do not check group ownership of files that already exist.
The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
nochkmode
Do not check file and directory permission modes. The
permission mode is only set when the file is updated.
nodescend
Do not descend into a directory. Normally, rdist will
recursively check directories. If this option is
enabled, then any files listed in the file list in the
distfile that are directories are not recursively
scanned. Only the existence, ownership, and mode of the
directory are checked.
numchkgroup
Use the numeric group ID (GID) to check group ownership
instead of the group name.
numchkowner
Use the numeric user ID (UID) to check user ownership
instead of the user name.
savetargets
Save files that are updated instead of removing them.
Any target file that is updated is first renamed from
file to file.OLD.
history
When savetargets and history are both defined then the
target file that is updated is first renamed from file to
file.NNN where NNN increases for each generation update.
The first generation is 001, and the last is 999. After
999 generations, the counter is reset to 001 and 001 will
get overwritten all the time. This is undesirable behav-
ior, so some other method needs to be devised to clean up
or limit the number of generations.
sparse Enable checking for sparse (aka ``wholely'') files. One
of the most common types of sparse files are those pro-
duced by db(3). This option adds some additional pro-
cessing overhead so it should only be enabled for targets
likely to contain sparse files.
-p
Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the tar-
get host.
-P
Set the path to the remote shell command. The rsh-path may be a
colon separated list of possible pathnames. In this case, the
first component of the path to exist is used. e.g.,
/usr/bin/ssh:/usr/bin/rsh, /usr/bin/ssh.
-t timeout
Set the timeout period (in seconds) for waiting for responses
from the remote rdist server. The default is 900 seconds.
-V Print version information and exit.
MESSAGE LOGGING
rdist uses a collection of predefined message facilities that each con-
tain a list of message types specifying which types of messages to send
to that facility. The local client (rdist) and the remote server
(rdistd) each maintain their own copy of what types of messages to log to
what facilities.
The -l logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging options to use
locally. The -L logopts option to rdist tells rdist what logging options
to pass to the remote rdistd server.
logopts should be of the form
facility=types:facility=types...
The valid facility names are:
stdout Messages to standard output.
file Log to a file. To specify the file name, use the format
``file=filename=types''. e.g.,
``file=/tmp/rdist.log=all,debug''.
syslog Use the syslogd(8) facility.
notify Use the internal rdist notify facility. This facility is used in
conjunction with the notify keyword in a distfile to specify what
messages are mailed to the notify address.
types should be a comma separated list of message types. Each message
type specified enables that message level. This is unlike the syslog(3)
system facility which uses an ascending order scheme. The following are
the valid types:
change Things that change. This includes files that are installed or
updated in some way.
info General information.
notice General info about things that change. This includes things like
making directories which are needed in order to install a spe-
cific target, but which are not explicitly specified in the
distfile.
nerror Normal errors that are not fatal.
ferror Fatal errors.
warning
Warnings about errors which are not as serious as nerror type
messages.
debug Debugging information.
all All but debug messages.
Here is a sample command line option:
-l stdout=all:syslog=change,notice:file=/tmp/rdist.log=all
This entry will set local message logging to have all but debug messages
sent to standard output, change and notice messages will be sent to
syslog(3), and all messages will be written to the file /tmp/rdist.log.
DISTFILES
The 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.
`='
[ label: ] `->'
[ label: ] `::'
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:
or
`(' `)'
These simple lists can be modified by using one level of set addition,
subtraction, or intersection like this:
list '-' list
or
list '+' list
or
list '&' list
If additional modifications are needed (e.g., ``all servers and client
machines except for the OSF/1 machines'') then the list will have to be
explicitly constructed in steps using ``temporary'' variables.
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 -owhole 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' opt_dest_name `;'
`notify' `;'
`except' `;'
`except_pat' `;'
`special' string `;'
`cmdspecial' 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. The -odistopts option as specified above
has the same semantics as on the command line except distopts 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 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 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. 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 environment variables are set for each special
command:
FILE The full pathname of the local file that was just updated.
REMFILE The full pathname of the remote file that was just updated.
BASEFILE The basename of the remote file that was just updated.
The cmdspecial command is similar to the special command, except it is
executed only when the entire command is completed instead of after each
file is updated. The list of files is placed in the FILES environment
variable. Each file name in FILES is separated by a `:' (colon).
If a hostname ends in a `+' (plus sign), then the plus is stripped off
and NFS checks are disabled. This is equivalent to disabling the
-ochknfs option just for this one host.
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.db crontab dshrc
sendmail.cf sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
install -oremove,chknfs ;
except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
except /usr/games/lib ;
special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail -bi" ;
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 ;
ENVIRONMENT
TMPDIR Name of temporary directory to use. Default is /tmp.
RSH Name of the default remote shell program to use. Default is
ssh(1).
FILES
distfile input command file
$TMPDIR/rdist* temporary file for update lists
SEE ALSO
csh(1), rsh(1), sh(1), ssh(1), stat(2), rcmd(3)
NOTES
If the basename of a file (the last component in the pathname) is ".",
then rdist assumes the remote (destination) name is a directory. i.e.,
/tmp/. means that /tmp should be a directory on the remote host.
The following options are still recognized for backwards compatibility:
-v -N -O -q -b -r -R -s -w -y -h -i -x
BUGS
Source files must reside on the local host where rdist is executed.
rdist will fail when a group name has spaces in it (as Windows OS group
names often have). The rdist protocol cannot handle spaces in a group
name. It is suggested that you use group ID's instead (numchkgroup
option) on Interix.
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).
If a hardlinked file is listed more than once in the same target, then
rdist will report missing links. Only one instance of a link should be
listed in each target.
The defowner, defgroup, and updateperm options are extensions to the
6.1.0 protocol and will not work with earlier versions of rdist 6.
Interix June, 23, 2006 Interix