1.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)rdist.1 6.9 (Berkeley) 07/24/90 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt RDIST 1 10.Os BSD 4.3 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm rdist 13.Nd remote file distribution program 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm rdist 16.Op Fl nqbRhivwy 17.Op Fl f Ar distfile 18.Op Fl d Ar var=value 19.Op Fl m host 20.Op Ar name ... 21.Pp 22.Nm rdist 23.Op Fl nqbRhivwy 24.Fl c 25.Ar name ... 26.Cx Op login@ 27.Ar host 28.Op :dest 29.Cx 30.Sh DESCRIPTION 31.Nm Rdist 32is a program to maintain identical copies of files over multiple hosts. 33It preserves the owner, group, mode, and mtime of files if possible and 34can update programs that are executing. 35.Nm Rdist 36reads commands from 37.Ar distfile 38to direct the updating of files and/or directories. 39.Pp 40Options specific to the first SYNOPSIS form: 41.Pp 42.Tw Fl 43.Tp Fl 44If 45.Ar distfile 46is 47.Sq Fl , 48the standard input is used. 49.Tp Cx Fl f 50.Cx \&\ \& 51.Ar distfile 52.Cx 53Use the specified 54.Ar distfile. 55.Tp 56.Pp 57If either the 58.Fl f 59or 60.Sq Fl 61option is not specified, the program looks first for 62.Dq Pa distfile , 63then 64.Dq Pa Distfile 65to use as the input. 66If no names are specified on the command line, 67.Nm rdist 68will update all of the files and directories listed in 69.Ar distfile . 70Otherwise, the argument is taken to be the name of a file to be updated 71or the label of a command to execute. If label and file names conflict, 72it is assumed to be a label. 73These may be used together to update specific files 74using specific commands. 75.Pp 76Options specific to the second SYNOPSIS form: 77.Pp 78.Tp Fl c 79Forces 80.Nm rdist 81to interpret the remaining arguments as a small 82.Ar distfile . 83.Pp 84The equivalent distfile is as follows. 85.Pp 86.Df I 87.Pq Ar name ... 88.Li -> 89.Op Ar login@ 90.Ar host 91.Df I 92.Li install 93.Op Ar dest ; 94.De 95.De 96.Tp 97.Pp 98Options common to both forms: 99.Pp 100.Tw Ic 101.Tp Cx Fl d 102.Cx \&\ \& 103.Ar var=value 104.Cx 105Define 106.Ar var 107to have 108.Ar value . 109The 110.Fl d 111option is used to define or override variable definitions in the 112.Ar distfile . 113.Ar Value 114can be the empty string, one name, or a list of names surrounded by 115parentheses and separated by tabs and/or spaces. 116.Tp Cx Fl m 117.Cx \&\ \& 118.Ar host 119.Cx 120Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple 121.Fl m 122arguments can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed the 123.Ar distfile . 124.Tp Fl n 125Print the commands without executing them. This option is 126useful for debugging 127.Ar distfile . 128.Tp Fl q 129Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally 130printed on standard output. The 131.Fl q 132option suppresses this. 133.Tp Fl R 134Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated, any files that exist 135on the remote host that do not exist in the master directory are removed. 136This is useful for maintaining truely identical copies of directories. 137.Tp Fl h 138Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to rather than the 139link itself. 140.Tp Fl i 141Ignore unresolved links. 142.Nm Rdist 143will normally try to maintain the link structure of files being transfered 144and warn the user if all the links cannot be found. 145.Tp Fl v 146Verify that the files are up to date on all the hosts. Any files 147that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be changed 148nor any mail sent. 149.Tp Fl w 150Whole mode. The whole file name is appended to the destination directory 151name. Normally, only the last component of a name is used when renaming files. 152This will preserve the directory structure of the files being 153copied instead of flattening the directory structure. For example, 154renaming a list of files such as ( dir1/f1 dir2/f2 ) to dir3 would create 155files dir3/dir1/f1 and dir3/dir2/f2 instead of dir3/f1 and dir3/f2. 156.Tp Fl y 157Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their 158.Ar mtime 159and 160.Ar size 161(see 162.Xr stat 2 ) 163disagree. The 164.Fl y 165option causes 166.Nm rdist 167not to update files that are younger than the master copy. 168This can be used 169to prevent newer copies on other hosts from being replaced. 170A warning message is printed for files which are newer than the master copy. 171.Tp Fl b 172Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files if they differ 173rather than comparing dates and sizes. 174.Tp 175.Pp 176.Ar Distfile 177contains a sequence of entries that specify the files 178to be copied, the destination hosts, and what operations to perform 179to do the updating. Each entry has one of the following formats. 180.Pp 181.Ds I 182<variable name> `=' <name list> 183[label:]<source list> `\->' <destination list> <command list> 184[label:]<source list> `::' <time_stamp file> <command list> 185.De 186.Pp 187The first format is used for defining variables. 188The second format is used for distributing files to other hosts. 189The third format is used for making lists of files that have been changed 190since some given date. 191The 192.Ar source list 193specifies a 194list of files and/or directories on the local host which are to be used 195as the master copy for distribution. 196The 197.Ar destination list 198is the list of hosts to which these files are to be 199copied. Each file in the source list is added to a list of changes 200if the file is out of date on the host which is being updated (second format) or 201the file is newer than the time stamp file (third format). 202.Pp 203Labels are optional. They are used to identify a command for partial updates. 204.Pp 205Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are 206otherwise ignored. Comments begin with `#' and end with a newline. 207.Pp 208Variables to be expanded begin with `$' followed by one character or 209a name enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the end). 210.Pp 211The source and destination lists have the following format: 212.Pp 213.Ds I 214<name> 215.De 216or 217.Ds I 218`(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)' 219.De 220.Pp 221The shell meta-characters `[', `]', `{', `}', `*', and `?' 222are recognized and expanded (on the local host only) in the same way as 223.Xr csh 1 . 224They can be escaped with a backslash. 225The `~' character is also expanded in the same way as 226.Xr csh 1 227but is expanded separately on the local and destination hosts. 228When the 229.Fl w 230option is used with a file name that begins with `~', everything except the 231home directory is appended to the destination name. 232File names which do not begin with `/' or `~' use the destination user's 233home directory as the root directory for the rest of the file name. 234.Pp 235The command list consists of zero or more commands of the following 236format. 237.Ds I 238.Cw except_patx pattern\ listx 239.Cl `install' <options> opt_dest_name `;' 240.Cl `notify' <name list> `;' 241.Cl `except' <name list> `;' 242.Cl `except_pat' <pattern list> `;' 243.Cl `special' <name list> string `;' 244.Cw 245.De 246.Pp 247The 248.Ic install 249command is used to copy out of date files and/or directories. 250Each source file is copied to each host in the destination list. 251Directories are recursively copied in the same way. 252.Ar Opt_dest_name 253is an optional parameter to rename files. 254If no 255.Ic install 256command appears in the command list or 257the destination name is not specified, 258the source file name is used. 259Directories in the path name will be created if they 260do not exist on the remote host. 261To help prevent disasters, a non-empty directory on a target host will 262never be replaced with a regular file or a symbolic link. 263However, under the `\-R' option a non-empty directory will be removed 264if the corresponding filename is completely absent on the master host. 265The 266.Ar options 267are `\-R', `\-h', `\-i', `\-v', `\-w', `\-y', and `\-b' 268and have the same semantics as 269options on the command line except they only apply to the files 270in the source list. 271The login name used on the destination host is the same as the local host 272unless the destination name is of the format ``login@host". 273.Pp 274The 275.Ic notify 276command is used to mail the list of files updated (and any errors 277that may have occured) to the listed names. 278If no `@' appears in the name, the destination host is appended to 279the name 280(e.g., name1@host, name2@host, ...). 281.Pp 282The 283.Ic except 284command is used to update all of the files in the source list 285.Ic except 286for the files listed in 287.Ar name list . 288This is usually used to copy everything in a directory except certain files. 289.Pp 290The 291.Ic except_pat 292command is like the 293.Ic except 294command except that 295.Ar pattern list 296is a list of regular expressions 297(see 298.Xr ed 1 299for details). 300If one of the patterns matches some string within a file name, that file will 301be ignored. 302Note that since `\e' is a quote character, it must be doubled to become 303part of the regular expression. Variables are expanded in 304.Ar pattern list 305but not shell file pattern matching characters. To include a `$', it 306must be escaped with `\e'. 307.Pp 308The 309.Ic special 310command is used to specify 311.Xr sh 1 312commands that are to be executed on the 313remote host after the file in 314.Ar name list 315is updated or installed. 316If the 317.Ar name list 318is omitted then the shell commands will be executed 319for every file updated or installed. The shell variable `FILE' is set 320to the current filename before executing the commands in 321.Ar string . 322.Ar String 323starts and ends with `"' and can cross multiple lines in 324.Ar distfile . 325Multiple commands to the shell should be separated by `;'. 326Commands are executed in the user's home directory on the host 327being updated. 328The 329.Ar special 330command can be used to rebuild private databases, etc. 331after a program has been updated. 332.Pp 333The following is a small example: 334.Pp 335.Ds I 336HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa ) 337.sp 338FILES = ( /bin /lib /usr/bin /usr/games 339\t/usr/include/{*.h,{stand,sys,vax*,pascal,machine}/*.h} 340\t/usr/lib /usr/man/man? /usr/ucb /usr/local/rdist ) 341.sp 342EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc 343\tsendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont ) 344.sp 345${FILES} -> ${HOSTS} 346\tinstall -R ; 347\texcept /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ; 348\texcept /usr/games/lib ; 349\tspecial /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail -bz" ; 350.sp 351srcs: 352/usr/src/bin -> arpa 353\texcept_pat ( \e\e.o\e$ /SCCS\e$ ) ; 354.sp 355IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi) 356.sp 357imagen: 358/usr/local/${IMAGEN} -> arpa 359\tinstall /usr/local/lib ; 360\tnotify ralph ; 361.sp 362${FILES} :: stamp.cory 363\tnotify root@cory ; 364.De 365.Sh FILES 366.Dw /tmp/rdist* 367.Di L 368.Dp Pa distfile 369input command file 370.Dp Pa /tmp/rdist* 371temporary file for update lists 372.Dp 373.Sh SEE ALSO 374.Xr sh 1 , 375.Xr csh 1 , 376.Xr stat 2 377.Sh HISTORY 378The 379.Nm 380command appeared in 4.3 BSD. 381.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 382A complaint about mismatch of rdist version numbers may really stem 383from some problem with starting your shell, e.g., you are in too many groups. 384.Sh BUGS 385Source files must reside on the local host where 386.Nm rdist 387is executed. 388.Pp 389There is no easy way to have a special command executed after all files 390in a directory have been updated. 391.Pp 392Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be a general macro 393facility. 394.Pp 395.Nm Rdist 396aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan 1, 1970). 397.Pp 398There should be a `force' option to allow replacement of non-empty directories 399by regular files or symlinks. A means of updating file modes and owners 400of otherwise identical files is also needed. 401