HP-UX Remote Access Services Administrator's Guide

The rdist Command
rdist allows you to maintain identical copies of files over multiple hosts. It preserves
the owner, group, mode, and modification time of files and updates executing
programs.The syntax for rdist is as follows:
rdist [ -bhinqvwyMR ] [ -f distfile ] [ -d var=value ]
[ -m host ]
The distfile in the rdist command contains a sequence of entries that specify the
files to be copied, the destination hosts, and operations to perform while updating.
Each entry has one of the following formats:
• variable_name = name_list
Used for defining variables.
• [label:] source_list -> destination_list command_list
Used for distributing files to other hosts.
• [label:] source_list :: time_stamp_file command_list
Used for preparing a list of files on the local host that have changed since a
particular date.
Table 1-3
Table 1-3 The distfile Entries
DescriptionOption
Specifies a variable name.
variable_name
Specifies a list of names separated by tabs and spaces and enclosed by
parentheses.
name_list
Specifies a list of files and directories on the local host to be used as a
master copy for distribution.
source_list
Specifies a list of hosts to which the source files are copied.
destination_list
Specifies a date to generate a list of files on the local host that were
modified since the specified date.
time_stamp_file
Identifies a command for particular updates.
label:
Specifies a list of commands to be performed.
command_list
describes the distfile entries.
24 Remote Access Services Overview