NAME

SYNOPSIS

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

rdist -Server

rdist -V

DESCRIPTION

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] ;

Rdist can use either the rcmd(3) function call or the rsh(1c), remote shell, command to access each target host. The method used is selected at compile-time. If the rsh(1c) method is used, then rdist runs the command

rsh HOST -l USER RDISTD

where HOST is the name of the target host, USER 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. If the rcmd(3) method is used, then rdist makes the connection to the target host itself and runs the rdistd server program as shown below. The default, and preferred method, is to use rsh(1c) to make the connection to target hosts. This allows rdist to be run without being setuid to ``root''.

On each target host Rdist will attempt to run the command

rdistd -S

or

<rdistd path> -S

if the -p option was specified. If no -p option is included, or the <rdistd path> is a simple filename, rdistd or <rdistd path> must be somewhere in the $PATH of the user running rdist on the remote (target) host.

OPTIONS

-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 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.

-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 processes 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 distfile.

-odistopts

Specify the dist options to enable. distopts is a comma separated list of options which are listed below. The valid values for distopts are:

whole
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, 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 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.

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.

quiet
Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed on standard output. This option suppresses this.

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 directories.

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 updates is first rename from file to file.OLD.

-p <rdistd-path>

Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the target host.

-P <rsh-path>

Set the path to the rsh(1c) command. The rsh-path may be a colon seperated list of possible pathnames. In this case, the first component of the path to exist is used. i.e. /usr/ucb/rsh:/usr/bin/remsh , /usr/bsd/rsh.

-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.

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.

The form of logopts should be of 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 specific 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

DISTFILES

<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 the following format:

<name>
or
`(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)'

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 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 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 format.

`install'

<options> opt_dest_name `;'

`notify'

<name list> `;'

`except'

<name list> `;' `except_pat' <pattern list>`;'

`special'

<name list> string `;' `cmdspecial' <name list> string `;'

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 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. 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.

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.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc sendmail.cf sendmail.fc 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 -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 ;

ENVIRONMENT

FILES

distfile

- input command file $TMPDIR/rdist* - temporary file for update lists

DIAGNOSTICS

The following options are still recognized for backwards compatibility:

-v -N -O -q -b -r -R -s -w -y -h -i -x

BUGS

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.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

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

rdist -Server

rdist -V

DESCRIPTION

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] ;

Rdist can use either the rcmd(3) function call or the rsh(1c), remote shell, command to access each target host. The method used is selected at compile-time. If the rsh(1c) method is used, then rdist runs the command

rsh HOST -l USER RDISTD

where HOST is the name of the target host, USER 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. If the rcmd(3) method is used, then rdist makes the connection to the target host itself and runs the rdistd server program as shown below. The default, and preferred method, is to use rsh(1c) to make the connection to target hosts. This allows rdist to be run without being setuid to ``root''.

On each target host Rdist will attempt to run the command

rdistd -S

or

<rdistd path> -S

if the -p option was specified. If no -p option is included, or the <rdistd path> is a simple filename, rdistd or <rdistd path> must be somewhere in the $PATH of the user running rdist on the remote (target) host.

OPTIONS

-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 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.

-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 processes 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 distfile.

-odistopts

Specify the dist options to enable. distopts is a comma separated list of options which are listed below. The valid values for distopts are:

whole
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, 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 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.

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.

quiet
Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed on standard output. This option suppresses this.

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 directories.

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 updates is first rename from file to file.OLD.

-p <rdistd-path>

Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the target host.

-P <rsh-path>

Set the path to the rsh(1c) command. The rsh-path may be a colon seperated list of possible pathnames. In this case, the first component of the path to exist is used. i.e. /usr/ucb/rsh:/usr/bin/remsh , /usr/bsd/rsh.

-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.

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.

The form of logopts should be of 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 specific 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

DISTFILES

<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 the following format:

<name>
or
`(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)'

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 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 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 format.

`install'

<options> opt_dest_name `;'

`notify'

<name list> `;'

`except'

<name list> `;' `except_pat' <pattern list>`;'

`special'

<name list> string `;' `cmdspecial' <name list> string `;'

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 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. 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.

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.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc sendmail.cf sendmail.fc 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 -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 ;

ENVIRONMENT

FILES

distfile

- input command file $TMPDIR/rdist* - temporary file for update lists

DIAGNOSTICS

The following options are still recognized for backwards compatibility:

-v -N -O -q -b -r -R -s -w -y -h -i -x

BUGS

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.

Table of Contents

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• OPTIONS
• MESSAGE LOGGING
• DISTFILES
• ENVIRONMENT
• FILES
• SEE ALSO
• DIAGNOSTICS
• NOTES
• BUGS
• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• OPTIONS
• MESSAGE LOGGING
• DISTFILES
• ENVIRONMENT
• FILES
• SEE ALSO
• DIAGNOSTICS
• NOTES
• BUGS