Provided by: rdist_6.1.5-21_amd64 
NAME
rdist - remote file distribution client program
SYNOPSIS
rdist [ -DFn ] [ -A num ] [ -a num ] [ -d var=value ] [ -l <local logopts> ] [ -L <remote
logopts> ] [ -f distfile ] [ -M maxproc ] [ -m host ] [ -o distopts ] [ -t timeout ] [ -p
<rdistd-path> ] [ -P <transport-path> ] [ 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 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 (usually either /usr/ucb/oldrdist or /usr/old/rdist) 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/bin/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 -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
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.
<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 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.
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/sbin/sendmail "/usr/sbin/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
TMPDIR Name of temporary directory to use. Default is /tmp.
FILES
distfile - input command file
$TMPDIR/rdist* - temporary file for update lists
SEE ALSO
sh(1), csh(1), stat(2), rsh(1c), rcmd(3)
DIAGNOSTICS
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.
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.