--- name: "oldrdist" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "44bsd-rdist" version: "20001111-6" release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/oldrdist" --- # oldrdist(1) remote file distribution program ## NAME **rdist** – remote file distribution program ## SYNOPSIS **rdist** \[**-nqbRhivwyD**\] \[**-P** *rshcmd*\] \[**-f** *distfile*\] \[**-d** *var=value*\] \[**-m** *host*\] \[*name* *...*\] **oldrdist** \[**-nqbRhivwyD**\] \[**-P** *rshcmd*\] **-c** *name* *...* \[login@\]*host*\[:dest\] ## 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. Options specific to the first SYNOPSIS form: - **-** If *distfile* is ‘**-**’, the standard input is used. - **-f** *distfile* Use the specified *distfile*. If either the **-f** or ‘**-**’ option is not specified, 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. Options specific to the second SYNOPSIS form: - **-c** Forces **rdist** to interpret the remaining arguments as a small *distfile*. The equivalent distfile is as follows. (*name* *...*) -\> \[*login@*\] *host* install \[*dest*\]; Options common to both forms: - **-P** *rshcmd* Alternative program to provide [rsh(1)](/rsh/1.md) -like transport to the remote server. It must provide a binary-transparent path to the remote server, and must have a command argument syntax that is compatible with [rsh(1)](/rsh/1.md). - **-d** *var=value* Define *var* to have *value*. The **-d** 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. - **-h** Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to rather than the link itself. - **-i** 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. - **-m** *host* 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*. - **-q** Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed on standard output. The **-q** option suppresses this. - **-R** 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. - **-v** 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. - **-w** 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, renaming a list of files such as ( dir1/f1 dir2/f2 ) to dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/f1 and dir3/dir2/f2 instead of dir3/f1 and dir3/f2. - **-y** Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their *mtime* and *size* (see [stat(2)](/stat/2.md)) disagree. The **-y** 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. - **-D** Debug mode. *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. ``` `=' [label:] `->' [label:] `::' ``` 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: ``` ``` or ``` `(' `)' ``` The shell meta-characters \`\[', \`\]', \`{', \`}', \`\*', and \`?' are recognized and expanded (on the local host only) in the same way as [csh(1)](/csh/1.md). They can be escaped with a backslash. The \`~' character is also expanded in the same way as [csh(1)](/csh/1.md) but is expanded separately on the local and destination hosts. When the **-w** 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' \ opt\_dest\_name \`;' | | \`notify' \ \`;' | | \`except' \ \`;' | | \`except\_pat' \ \`;' | | \`special' \ 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. To help prevent disasters, a non-empty directory on a target host will never be replaced with a regular file or a symbolic link. However, under the \`-R' option a non-empty directory will be removed if the corresponding filename is completely absent on the master host. The *options* are \`-R', \`-h', \`-i', \`-v', \`-w', \`-y', and \`-b' and have the same semantics as options 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 [re\_format(7)](/re_format/7.md) 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)](/sh/1.md) 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. The shell variable \`FILE' is set to the current filename before executing the commands in *string*. *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 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} -> ${HOSTS} install -R ; except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ; except /usr/games/lib ; special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/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 ; ``` ## FILES - *distfile* input command file - */tmp/rdist\** temporary file for update lists ## SEE ALSO [csh(1)](/csh/1.md), [sh(1)](/sh/1.md), [stat(2)](/stat/2.md), [re\_format(7)](/re_format/7.md) ## HISTORY The **rdist** command appeared in 4.3BSD. ## DIAGNOSTICS A complaint about mismatch of **rdist** version numbers may really stem from some problem with starting your shell, e.g., you are in too many groups. **Rdist** relies on [rcmd(3)](/rcmd/3.md) type remote services executing successfully and in silence. A common error is for non-interactive initialization scripts, like *.cshrc*, to generate output (or to run other programs which generate output when not attached to a terminal -- the most frequent offender is [stty(1)](/stty/1.md)). This extra output will cause **rdist** to fail with the error message: ``` rdist: connection failed: version numbers don't match ``` ## BUGS Source files must reside on the local host where **rdist** is executed. There is no easy way to have a **special** command executed after all files in a directory have been updated. 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). There should be a \`force' option to allow replacement of non-empty directories by regular files or symlinks. A means of updating file modes and owners of otherwise identical files is also needed.