NAME

       pkgsync - Automated package synchronization tool

SYNOPSIS

       pkgsync

DESCRIPTION

       pkgsync is a tool for keeping multiple machines reasonably similar and clean. Packages can
       either be in a `must be installed', `may be installed' or `must  not  be  installed'  list
       (which  is  presumed to be distributed separately using a tool such as rdist or cfengine).
       pkgsync will take care of meeting the demands put down in the  lists,  and  then  removing
       everything  that  is  not  in  the  `must'  or  `may'  list and is not necessary for their
       operations (as determined by aptitude).

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print a short help text and exit.

       -s, --simulate
              Do everything as usual, but put aptitude in simulation mode, causing it to never do
              any  changes  (except  update and autoclean, which should both be harmless) to your
              system. This is especially useful on a new system to make sure pkgsync  behaves  as
              expected.

              Note  that  aptitude  prints out its intended actions _before_ running the conflict
              resolver. If there's a conflict somewhere, chances are that  the  results  on  your
              system will be different from what aptitude prints out.

       -k, --keep-unused
              Instruct  aptitude  to  not  remove  cruft  (ie.  unused packages); this is morally
              equivalent to having an "*" entry in mayhave.

       -d, --dpkg-glob
              When  encountering  a  wildcard   pattern,   pkgsync   tries   to   `un-glob'   it.
              Traditionally,  this  was done using dpkg -- however, in later versions one can use
              aptitude instead. Using aptitude is a little slower, but the syntax is a  lot  more
              flexible,  supporting  regular  expressions  and various searches on fields. Giving
              --dpkg-glob makes pkgsync use dpkg, which is not very useful except  for  backwards
              compatibility.

       -a, --aptitude-glob
              Use  aptitude's globbing instead of dpkg's globbing (see above). This option is the
              default.

SEE ALSO

       /usr/share/doc/pkgsync/README.Debian (complete tutorial and reference documentation)

AUTHOR

       pkgsync is Copyright 2004-2007 Steinar H. Gunderson <sgunderson@bigfoot.com>.

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