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nrdist - Remote file distribution client program
/usr/bin/nrdist [-DFn] [-A num] [-a num] [-d var=value] [-l <local logopts>] [-L <remote logopts>] [-f distfile] [-M maxproc] [-m host] [-odistopts] [-t timeout] [name...]
/usr/bin/nrdist -DFn -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
/usr/bin/nrdist -Server
/usr/bin/nrdist -V
Sets the minimum number of free files (inodes) on a filesystem
that must exist for
nrdist
to update or install a file.
Sets the minimum amount of free space (in bytes) on a filesystem
that must exist for
nrdist
to update or install a file.
Turns on debugging output.
Defines
var
to have
value. This option is used to define or override variable definitions
in the
distfile. The
value
parameter can be an empty string, one name, or a list of names surrounded
by parentheses and separated by tabs or spaces.
Does not fork any child
nrdist
processes.
All clients are updated sequentially.
Sets the name of the distfile to use to be
distfile. If
distfile
is specified as
-
(dash), read from standard input (stdin).
Sets local logging options. See
MESSAGE LOGGING
for details on the syntax for
logopts.
Sets remote logging options. The
logopts
is the same as for local logging except the values are passed to the remote
server (rdistd). See
MESSAGE LOGGING
for details on the syntax for
logopts.
Sets the maximum number of simultaneously running child
nrdist
processes to
num. The default
is 4.
Limits 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.
Prints the commands without executing them. This option is
useful for debugging
distfile.
Specifies the dist options to enable. The
distopts
is a comma-separated list of the following options:
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files that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be changed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 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.
Automatically exclude executable files that are in
a.out(4)
format from being checked or updated.
Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their
mtime
and
size
(see
stat(2)) disagree.
This option causes
nrdist
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.
Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update
files if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points
to rather than the link itself.
Ignore unresolved links. The
nrdist
command
will normally try to maintain the link structure of files being transferred
and warn the user if all the links cannot be found.
Do not check or update files on target host that reside on
NFS filesystems.
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.
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
nrdist, but is present to allow compatibility with older versions.
Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed
on standard output. This option suppresses this.
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.
Do not check user ownership of files that already exist. The
file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
Do not check group ownership of files that already exist.
The file ownership is only set when the file is updated.
Do not check file and directory permission modes. The permission
mode is only set when the file is updated.
Do not descend into a directory. Normally
nrdist
will recursively check directories. If this option is enabled,
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.
Use the numeric group id (gid) to check group ownership instead
of the group name.
Use the numeric user id (uid) to check user ownership instead
of the user name.
Save files that are updated instead of removing them. Any
target file that is updates is first rename from
file
to
file.OLD.
Sets the timeout period (in seconds) for waiting for responses
from the remote
nrdist
server. The default is 900 seconds.
Print version information and exit.
The nrdist command is a program to maintain identical copies of files over multiple hosts. It preserves the owner, group, mode, and modification time of files if possible and can update programs that are executing. The nrdist command reads commands from distfile to direct the updating of files or directories, or both. If distfile is a - (dash), the standard input is used.
If no -f option is specified, the program looks first for distfile, then Distfile to use as the input. If no file names are specified on the command line, nrdist updates all of the files and directories listed in distfile. Otherwise, the argument is read as the name of a file to be updated or a command to execute. If the name of the file specified by the file argument is the same as the name of a command, the nrdist command treats the file name as a command. These may be used together to update specific files using specific commands.
The -c option forces nrdist to interpret the remaining arguments as a small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
The -Server option provides partial backward compatible support for older versions of nrdist that used this option to put nrdist into server mode. If nrdist is started with the -Server command line option, it attempts to exec (run) the old version of rdist. This option will only work if nrdist was compiled with the location of the old rdist (usually /usr/old/rdist) and that program is available at run time.
The
nrdist
command uses the
rcmd(3)
interface
to access each target host. The
nrdist
command attempts
to run the
rdistd
-S
command on each target
host. The
nrdist
command does not specify the absolute
pathname to
rdistd
on the target host in order to avoid
imposing any policy on where
rdistd
must be installed on
target host. Therefore,
rdistd
must be somewhere in the
$PATH
of the user running
nrdist
on the remote
(target) host.
The nrdist command 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 (nrdist) 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 nrdist tells nrdist what logging options to use locally. The -L logopts option to nrdist tells nrdist 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: Sends messages to standard output. Sends messages to a file. To specify the file name, use the following format: file=filename=types.
The 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: Things that change. This includes files that are installed or updated in some way. General information. 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. Normal errors that are not fatal. Fatal errors. Warnings about errors which are not as serious as nerror type messages. Debugging information. 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.
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> :: <timestamp_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 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 timestamp_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 a # (number sign) and end with a newline.
Variables to be expanded begin with a $ (dollar sign) followed by one character or a name enclosed in curly braces (see EXAMPLES).
The source and destination lists one of the following formats:
<name> ( <zero or more names separated by white-space> )
These simple lists can be modified by using one level of set addition, subtraction, or intersection as follows:
list - list list + list list & list
If additional modifications are needed (for example, all servers and client machines except for the Tru64 UNIX machines), 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 ~ (tilde) 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 a ~, everything except the home directory is appended to the destination name. File names that do not begin with a / (slash) or a ~ 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 or directories. Each source file is copied to each host in the destination list. Directories are recursively copied in the same way. The opt_dest_name argument is an optional argument 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 are created if they do not exist on the remote host. The -odistopts option, as specified 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 @ (at sign) appears in the name, the destination host is appended to the name (for example, 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 $ (dollar sign), it must be escaped with \ (backslash).
The special command is used to specify sh 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, the shell commands will be executed for every file updated or installed. string starts and ends with " (double quote) and can cross multiple lines in distfile. Separate multiple commands to the shell with a ; (semicolon). Commands are executed in the user's home directory on the host being updated. The special command can be used to rebuild private databases after a program has been updated. The following environment variables are set for each special command: The full pathname of the local file that was just updated. The full pathname 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 ; (semicolon).
If a hostname ends in a + (plus sign), the plus sign is stripped off and NFS checks are disabled. This is equivalent to disabling the -ochknfs option just for this one host.
The following is an example of a distfile:
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/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 ;
If the basename of a file (the last component in the pathname) is . (period), nrdist assumes the remote (destination) name is a directory. For example, /tmp/. means that /tmp is 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
Name of temporary directory to use. Default is
/tmp.
Input command file.
Temporary file for update lists.
Commands: sh(1), csh(1), rdist(1)