ordist(1c) ordist(1c)
ordist - remote file distribution program
ordist [-nqbRhivwyD] [-f distfile] [-d var=value] [-m host] [name...]
ordist [-nqbRhivwyD] -c name ... [login@]host[:dest]
Ordist 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. Ordist 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, ordist 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 ordist to interpret the remaining arguments as a
small distfile. The equivalent distfile is as follows.
( name ... ) -> [login@]host
install [dest] ;
Other options:
-d 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.
-m Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments can be
given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed 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.
-h Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to rather
than the link itself.
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-i Ignore unresolved links. Ordist will normally try to maintain the
link structure of files being transferred and warn the user if all
the links cannot be found.
-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that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be changed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)) disagree. The -y option causes ordist 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.
-b Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files if
they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.
-D Print debugging messages.
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.
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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> `)'
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 -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. When specifying several
options, each one must begin with a hyphen. For example, use -b -v
instead of -bv, which is interpreted as the destination directory. 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, ...).
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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 = (sequoia alic@redwood)
FILES = (/d1/project/{src,bin,lib,doc,dbm})
EXLIB = (acct.dir acct.pag)
${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
install -R ;
except /d1/project/dbm/${EXLIB} ;
special /d1/project/dbm/acct "mkdbm $FILE" ;
srcs:
/d1/project/src -> yosemite
except_pat ( \\.o\$ /RCS\$ ) ;
PROGS = (dog flight arena)
update:
/usr/src/demos/${PROGS} -> lassen
install /usr/local/demos ;
notify bob;
${FILES} :: stamp.shasta
notify chuck@shasta ;
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ordist(1c) ordist(1c)
distfile input command file
/tmp/rdist* temporary file for update lists
sh(1), csh(1), stat(2), rdist(1)
A complaint about mismatch of ordist version numbers may really stem from
some problem with starting your shell.
Source files must reside on the local host where ordist 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.
Ordist 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.
Ordist doesn't interpret properly multiple options to the 'install'
command unless each one begins with a hyphen.
On 4.3BSD, the local rdist expects the remote rdist to reside in
/usr/ucb. On IRIX, it resides in /usr/bsd. To allow the 4.3BSD rdist to
communicate with the IRIS, create a symbolic link for /usr/ucb:
su
ln -s /usr/bsd /usr/ucb
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