fmirror
is a program for mirroring a directory from a remote ftp server. It
allows regex-matching for files that are to be included and
excluded. It uses a combination of timestamp, file size and file
permissions to decide what files to transfer from the ftp server.
The primary goal of
fmirror
is to use as little memory as possible, but still be able to do its
job efficiently.
fmirror
can delete any files not found on the remote server.
OPTIONS
-A mask
Remote file permissions will be binary anded by
mask
before being
compared. The same mask is also used when creating files. Default
value is 0111, which results in only executable bits being mirrored.
The or mask will be ored in after the and mask is anded in.
-O mask
Remote file permissions will be binary ored by
mask
before being
compared. The same mask is also used when creating files. Default
value is 0444, which results in all files being readable for everyone.
This mask will be ored in after the and mask has been anded in.
-C line
Parses
line
as if it was a line in a config-file.
-N
Don't delete files that are missing from the ftp server. Files that
are replaced by files of other types will still be deleted and updated.
-c command
Use
command
as a dir-command. To read a ls-lR file instead of performing a heavy
ls-operation on the ftp-server, use "RETR ls-lR". The default value is
"LIST -lRa".
-D command
Use
command
as a dir-command for finding the remote timezone. See also the
equivalent dircmd_tz: configuration file keyword.
-d debug-level
The level of debugging (spam) output that is wanted. The default debug-level
is 3.
-e exclude-opt exclude-pattern
Add an exclude-entry. See discussion for exclude: in the configuration
files section. The option and pattern must be one word to the shell,
so enclose both in a single "-pair, ie <fmirror -e "p old/">.
#"
-i include-opt include-pattern
Add an include-entry. See discussion for include: in the configuration
files section.
-f config-file
Reads options from
config-file.
See the section
CONFIGURATION FILES
for more information about the contents of a config-file.
-F pid-file
Write the pid (process id) of the fmirror process to
pid-file.
This is useful when you want to avoid running more than one copy of
fmirror from cron or similar.
-h
Display brief option-summary.
-k
Only download files that are newer than the local copy.
-l local-dir
Change directory to
local-dir
(locally) before mirroring.
-M use-MDTM
set the flag for using MDTM exension. Equivalent to the use_mdtm:
keyword, which is described in detail in the configuration file section.
mode.
Default value is 0755 (octal).
-m mode
All local directories will be made with mode
mode.
Default value is 0755 (octal).
-P port
Connect to port
port
on the remote ftp server.
-p password
The password you want to use on the ftp server. When doing anonymous
ftp, this should be your email address. If password is not specified,
it be set to 'username@', where
username
is the username corresponding
to the real UID of fmirror.
-r remote-dir
Change directory to
remote-dir
(on the ftp server) before mirroring.
-R
Set timestamp of local files to the same as remote files (for
resyncing the timestamps if you are sure the files are correct). Only
sets the timestamps if file lengths and modes match according to the
normal rules.
-s hostname
Use
hostname
as the ftp server to connect to.
-S
Use passive mode for the ftp transfers. This is often necessary to get
through some firewalls.
-T remote-timezone
The remote-timezone value (in minutes) overrides the guess fmirror will
do on the timezone the remote FTP server operates in. Equivalent to
the remotetz: keyword, which is described in detail in the configuration
file section.
-t timefuzz
Allow timestamps to differ by up to
timefuzz
seconds. The default value is 59. No matter what this value is set to,
files that differ by exactly 3600 seconds will always considered equal
to compensate for buggy timezone-handling. Also, files older than 60
days can differ by up to a day to compensate for lack of precision
in ls listings for previous years.
-u username
Sets your username on the ftp server to
username.
For anonymous ftp, this should be
ftp
or
anonymous.
The default value is anonymous.
-v
Show version.
-V verbosity
Verbosity level, 1 is suitable for cron jobs and 3 is suitable for
interactive use. Default is 3.
-x program
Run
program
as a decompressor for the ls listing. This will only be used if
compressed dirlisting is on. This should ONLY be the name of the
executable, it must not contain any options. The default value is "gzip".
-o option
Give
option
as option to the decompressor. The default value is "-dc".
-z
Enable decompression of dir-listing.
CONFIGURATION FILES
Unless you are just using this program to mirror a directory once,
you'll probably want to make a configuration file to make the job
easier.
The syntax of the configuration file is very simple. Any line not
starting with an alphabetical letter is considered a comment line
(blank lines are also considered comments).
The first option of a particular kind has the highest priority,
and configuration file and command line options have the same
priority. You can have any number of include and exclude options, the
first one that matches a particular file will be used.
You can also include multiple configuration files, the first
configuration file has precedence over later ones. The debug-level can
be changed between every single option on the command-line to debug
specific configuration files.
NOTE:
All numerical values can be written in octal (leading 0),
decimal (default) or hexadecimal (leading 0x). Modes are usually
written in octal, so make sure you write 0755 and not 755 (for example).
username: username
Sets the username (same as -u command line option). Any whitespace
before the username will be ignored. This will typically be "ftp" or
"anonymous".
password: password
Sets the password (same as -p command line option). Any whitespace
before the password will be ignored. This will typically be
"user@some.domain", ie "finnag@fast.no"
host: remote hostname
Specifies the remote hostname (same as -s command line option). Any
whitespace before the hostname will be ignored.
remotedir: remote directory
Specifies the remote directory that is to be mirrored. (same as -r
command line option). Any whitespace before the name will be ignored.
localdir: local directory
Specifies the local directory that you are mirroring to (same as -l
command line option). Any whitespace before the name will be ignored.
dircmd: directory list command
Specifies what command should be sent to the ftp-server to get a
directory listing. Normally this is "LIST -lRa". If you want to get a
ls-lR file instead, you can put "RETR ls-lR" here. This option is
equivalent to the -c command line option.
dircmd_tz: directory list command
Specifies what command should be sent to the ftp-server to get a
directory listing when trying to find the remote timezone.
The default value is "LIST -ltra".
Should not be set to any recursive command.
Equivalent to the -D command line option.
decompressor:
If you are getting a compressed file-listing, this should be the name
of the decompressor program without any options. This is set to "gzip"
if you only enable compressed dir-listings without specifying a
decompressor. Equivalent to -x command line option.
decompressor_opt:
The option string that is to be sent to the decompressor. This defaults to
"-dc". Equivalent to -o command line option.
port: port
Connect to port
port
on the remote ftp server. Equivalent to -P command line option.
pidfile: pid-file
Store the PID (process id) of the process to the file
pid-file.
Equivalent to -F command line option.
dirmode: mode
All local directories will be created with mode
mode.
Equivalent to -m command line option.
loglevel: level
Specifies the logging level (debug level). Equivalent to -l command line
option.
compressed: val
Takes an integer argument, will enable decompressing of the file listing
if
val
is non-zero. With a non-zero value this is equivalent to the
-z command line option.
timefuzz: fuzz
The maximum number of seconds files can differ by and still be
considered equal. Equivalent to -t command line option.
file_and_mask: mask
File permissions will be anded by
mask
before being compared and created. Equivalent to -A command line option.
file_or_mask: mask
File permissions will be ored by
file_or_mask
before being created. Equivalent to -O command line option.
passive: val
Use passive mode if
val
is non-zero, or normal mode if it is zero.
nodel: val
Don't delete local files if
val
is non-zero (equivalent to -N command line option). Normal operation
if
val
is zero.
log_timestamp: val
Only prepend timestamp on each line output if
val
is non-zero. Default value is 1.
verbosity: verbosity
Chose verbosity value. The only supported values are 1, which is
suitable for non-interactive operation, and 3, which is suitable for
interactive operation.
keep_newer: val
Takes an integer argument, will keep newer file if
val
is non-zero. This means that remote files that have older timestamps
than local files will not cause that file to be retrieved. Equivalent
to -k command line option.
reset_times: val
Takes an integer argument, will reset times of files if
val
is non-zero. This means that files thay only differ in time-stamp, but
match in size and mode, will get their local timestamp adjusted to
that of the remote files instead of being retrieved again. Equivalent
to -R command line option.
remotetz: val
Takes an integer argument. The
val
is the remote timezone in minutes. Typical values would be -60
for most of Europe, -540 for Japan, anywhere from 300 to 480
for the continental US, and 600 for Hawaii.
Normally, fmirror will only try to guess the timezone when use_mdtm is
in effect, and assume GMT in all other cases. Overriding the time zone
guess is particularly important when you are fetching a ls-lR file with
RETR instead of actually doing a LIST, since the guess is based on doing
LIST and MDTM and comparing the results.
use_mdtm: val
Takes an integer argument. The
val
decides whether to try using the MDTM extension for getting remote
modification times. To avoid constantly regetting files, this also
needs to figure out what timezone the remote server is running in,
by doing a remote "LIST -ltra", picking a file with time information,
sending an MDTM command for it, and comparing the results. See
also the dircmd_tz: and remotetz: keywords.
A value of 0 turns off trying MDTM, a value of 1 means to use it if it
is available and we can determine the remote timezone, while any other
value (preferably 2) means to use it if it is available and assume that
the remote timezone is GMT if we can't determine it normally.
In the last case, using a large value for timefuzz (like 50000 for a
bit more than 12 hours) may also be useful. The default value is 1.
input_timeout: num
Will wait
num
seconds before forcing a read of a file to time out. No equivalent
command line option, default value is 240 seconds.
connect_timeout: num
The timeout before retrying a connect operation (not the initial connect,
but the connects that are required to transfer files after the control
connection is up). Will wait
num
seconds before timing out on connects (or accepts for non-passive ftp
transfers). No equivalent command line option, default value is 120 seconds.
connect_retries: num
The number of times to retry a connect operation (not the initial
connect, but the connects that are required to transfer files after
the control connection is up). Will try to connect up to
num
times before giving up. No equivalent command line option, default value
is 3.
reconnect_timeout: num
Will wait
num
seconds before retrying a connect operation to a ftp server, either if
there was no reply from the ftp server at all at the initial connect,
or if the username/password combo was not allowed (usually happens on
full ftp servers). No equivalent command line option, default value is
120 seconds.
reconnect_retries: num
Will try to connect up to
num
times before giving up if initial connection cannot be made. This
means that eitehr the ftp servre does not reply at all, or fmirror is
kicked out because the ftp server is full. No equivalent command line
option, default value is 15;
exclude:[i][x][n]{p|f}pattern
A regex pattern that, if matched in a particular file/path-name,
should not be mirrored. This will override any include-patterns
encountered after this. Equivalent to -e command line option.
NOTE:
An exclude-rule doesn't differ between files or directories. p or f
only decide whether the entire path-name or just the name of the
file/directory itself should be matched. Directories get "/" appended
before they are matched against the regex, so "exclude f ^old/"
will exclude a directory named "old" (but not necessarily its contents), but
not a file named "old".
Directories are created "on demand", so if you have excluded "old/"
but not "\.gif$", a file with path "old/bill.gif" will cause the
"old"-directory to be made and the "bill.gif"-file to be retrieved. To
exclude any directory named "old" and all its contents, use "p (^|/)old/".
i
means case insensitive match.
x
means to match anything EXCEPT the following regex, effectively
inverting the rule.
n
means that the file/directory will not be deleted if it exists locally,
matches this rule, and would otherwise be deleted.
p
means match full path-name (eg "pub/foo.bar").
f
means match filename only (eg "foo.bar")
pattern
is an extended POSIX regular expression.
include:[i][x][n]{p|f}pattern
A regex pattern that, if matched in a particular file/path-name,
should be mirrored. This will override any exclude-patterns encountered
after this. Equivalent to -i command line option.
The options are identical with the
exclude
options.
EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILES
There should be several sample configuration files with your copy of
fmirror in the
configs
directory.
BUGS
Transient errors are not handled well. If one file cannot be
transferred for some reason, such as 'Failed to make data socket',
it doesn't try to get that file again, so you effectively lose the file.
COPYING
Copyright 1995-2000 Finn Arne Gangstad and Tor Egge.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in
the original English.
AUTHORS
fmirror
was written by
Finn Arne Gangstad <finnag@fast.no>
