DISTCP(1M) DISTCP(1M)
NAME
distcp - copy or compare software distributions
SYNOPSIS
distcp [ -cnrsvw ] from to [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
distcp copies or compares software distributions. Software distributions
are software releases for one or more software products that are prepared
by Silicon Graphics and installed by inst(1M). distcp is typically used
to create more copies of a software release tape, or to copy software
from tape to a server workstation which becomes the software distribution
source for many workstations on a network.
from is the location of the software distribution to be copied and to is
the location where the copy will be created. from can be a tape device,
a directory containing a software distribution, or the name of a product
in a distribution directory. to can be a tape device or a directory.
from and to can include the name of a remote machine and possibly a
userid.
When accessing a remote machine, you must be superuser when you give the
distcp command. In addition, the userid you use on the remote machine
(default is ``guest'') must have read permission (for from) and/or write
permission (for to). The exact syntax for from and to is identical to
the syntax for the source argument of the inst -f option. See inst(1M)
for details.
The optional file arguments are an additional way to specify what to copy
or compare. A software distribution is a collection of files. Some of
these files are archives that contain the files in the product while
other files contain information about what's in the software
distribution, installation configuration information, and tools for
performing the installation.
The possible files are:
sa sa contains the standalone tools and environment for
miniroot installations (see inst(1M)).
mr mr is an additional file for miniroot installations.
product This file is known as a ``product descriptor'' for product
and contains information about the contents of the
distribution. product is a short name for one software
product.
product.idb This file is called the ``idb file'' and contains one line
for every file, directory, link and fifo in a software
product.
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product.image
These files are called ``images'' and contain the files that
will be installed by inst on a workstation. Typical images
are `sw' and `man'.
A software distribution can contain multiple products. The sa and mr
files are required for doing miniroot installations, but need not be
included in every software distribution you create with distcp. The
default is to include them in copies or comparisons. The -n option can
be used to exclude them.
By default, distcp copies software distributions. Options allow you to
compare distributions or otherwise alter distcp's default behavior:
-c Compare (rather than copy) from and to.
-n Do not include the standalone files sa and mr. The tape will not be
bootable. The file mr is normally a 0 length file; it is required
on bootable tapes for backwards compatibility. distcp no longers
requires an empty mr file in a source directory when writing a
bootable tape; it will create the empty tape file without it, when
this option is not specifed.
-r Retension tape before reading or writing.
-s Compare silently; return exit status only.
-v Verbose; report file names as they are copied.
-w Warnings for short files; report during comparison if file sizes do
not match.
EXAMPLES
To create a distribution directory that will enable users on a network to
install from disk rather than tape, first create a directory (such as
/d/newrel) on a system that has enough disk space to contain all of the
software on all of the tapes. Then, insert each tape in the drive and
give this command once per tape:
distcp /dev/nrtape /d/newrel
To make a tape from a remote machine of just one product in a
distribution directory, say the Network File System (nfs), give the
command:
distcp -n machine:/d/newrel /dev/nrtape "nfs*"
NOTES
If you are using a tape to copy the distribution, it should be the no-
rewind tape device. The tape device MUST also be the fixed blocksize
device (and must be 512 byte blocks; use the mt setblksiz 512 command to
set the blocksize, if necessary) to work reliably, and to work at all for
booting the miniroot it must be the byte swapped device. See intro(7)
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for more information on tape device names.
Only QIC (quarter inch) tapes are bootable on all machines. Some
machines that are newer can boot from other tape types, but this is not
guaranteed.
It is possible to copy to a remote directory but you cannot create a tape
on a remote machine.
distcp can not be used to copy distributions from CD-ROM to a directory,
since the CD-ROM is itself mounted as an EFS filesystem (one may of
course use the mounted CD-ROM directory as a source when using distcp to
copy to tape). To make a local copy of a CD-ROM, use cp with the -r
option, or one of the many other methods of doing directory copies.
Similarly, to copy an installable CD-ROM over the network, use rcp with
the -r
distcp takes tape as an argument by itself to be a synonym for
/dev/nrtape. Thus, if you want to refer to a directory named tape, you
must refer to it by the full pathname, or ./tape, or similar workarounds.
SEE ALSO
inst(1M), versions(1M), cp(1), rcp(1), tps(7)
IRIS-4D Series Installation Guide.