| RDIST(1) | General Commands Manual | RDIST(1) | 
rdist —
| rdist | [ -bDhinqRvwy] [-dvar=value] [-fdistfile] [-mhost] [name ...] | 
| rdist | [ -bDhinqRvwy]-cname ...
      [login@]host[:dest] | 
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:
--’, the standard input is
    used.-f
    distfileIf 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:
-crdist to interpret the remaining arguments
      as a small distfile.
    The equivalent distfile is as follows.
-> [login@]
      hostinstall
      [dest];Options common to both forms:
-b-d
    var=value-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.-D-h-irdist 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-m arguments can be given to limit updates to a
      subset of the hosts listed in the distfile.-n-q-q option suppresses this.-R-v-w-y-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.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>
`(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)'
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(1) 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' | <options> | opt_dest_name `;' | 
| `notify' | <name list> | `;' | 
| `except' | <name list> | `;' | 
| `except_pat' | <pattern list> | `;' | 
| `special' | <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. 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
    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. 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 ;
rdist command appeared in
  4.3BSD.
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.
| March 17, 1994 | NetBSD 10.1 |