Installing and Administering Internet Services

414 Chapter10
Using rdist
Creating the Distfile
[ label :] source_list -> destination_list command_list ;
label : is optional and is used to group command entries. You can use
labels to perform a partial update. Normally, rdist updates all the files
and directories listed in a distfile. You can invoke rdist with a specific
label; in this case, rdist executes only the entries under the specified
label.
source_list specifies the directories or files on the master host that are
to be used as the master copy for distributing to the remote hosts.
destination_list specifies the list of remote hosts to which
source_list is to be distributed.
source_list and destination_list can consist of the following:
• Single name (for example, matisse).
• Variable defined previously in the distfile. Variables to be expanded
begin with “$”, followed by the variable name in curly braces (for
example, ${HOSTS}).
• List of names, separated by white space and enclosed in parentheses
(for example, ( /usr/lib /usr/bin /usr/ucb )).
command_list consists of one or more of the commands listed in Table