Rdist
is a program to maintain identical copies of files over multiple hosts.
It preserves the owner, group, mode, and mtime of files if possible 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 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] ;
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.
This option will only work if
rdist
was compiled with the location of the old rdist
(the path
/usr/bin/oldrdist
is used on Red Hat linux)
and that program is available at run time.
Rdist
can use either the
rcmd(3)
function call or run an arbitrary transport program such as
rsh(1c)
to access each target host.
The method used is selected at compile-time.
However, if the later method is used, the transport program can be
specified at run-time on the command line with the default being
rsh(1c).
If the
rsh(1c)
method is used and
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
rsh 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.
To use a transport program other than
rsh(1c)
use the
-P
option.
Whatever transport program is used, must be compatible with the above
specified syntax for
rsh(1c).
If the transport program is not, it should be
wrapped
in a shell script which does understand this command line syntax and
which then executes the real transport program.
Here's an example which uses
ssh(1)
as the transport:
rdist -P /usr/local/bin/ssh -f myDistfile
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 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 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:
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 any mail sent.
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.
sparse
Enable checking for sparse (aka wholely) files. One of the most
common types of sparse files are those produced by
ndbm(3).
This option adds some additional processing overhead so it should
only be enabled for targets likely to contain sparse files.
-p <rdistd-path>
Set the path where the rdistd server is searched for on the target host.
-P <transport-path>
Set the path to the
transport command to be used.
This is normally
rsh(1c)
but can be any other program - such as
ssh(1) -
which understands
rsh(1c)
command line syntax and which provides an appropriate connection to the
remote host.
The
transport-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.
MESSAGE LOGGING
Rdist
uses a collection of predefined message
facilities
that each contain 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
-llogopts
option to
rdist
tells
rdist
what logging options to use locally.
The
-Llogopts
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''.
Use the internal
rdistnotify
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.
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.
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.
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 file name is used.
Directories in the path name will be created if they
do not exist on the remote host.
The
-o distopts
option
as specified above under
OPTIONS,
has the same semantics as
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
(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.
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 environment variable
$FILES.
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.
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.
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.