|
These shell scripts provide a simple log–based client–server replica
management. The server keeps a log of changes made to its file
system, and clients synchronize by reading the log and applying
these changes locally.
These scripts are a polished interface to the low–level tools described
in replica(8). See replica(8) for details on the inner workings
of replica management. These tools were written primarily as the
fourth edition Plan 9 distribution mechanism, but they have wider
applicability. For example, they could be used to
synchronize one's home directory between a laptop and a central
file server.
Replicas are described by configuration files. The name in all
the replica commands is a configuration file. Paths that do not
begin with /, ./, or ../ are assumed to be relative to $home/lib/replica.
Configuration files are described below.
Replica/scan is the only one of these programs that does not need
to be run on the client. It scans the server file system for changes
and appends entries for those changes into the server log. Typically
it is run on a machine with a fast network connection to the server
file system.
Replica/pull copies changes from the server to the client, while
replica/push copies changes from the client to the server. (Both
run on the client.) If a list of paths is given, only changes
to those paths or their children are copied. The –v flag causes
pull or push to print a summary of what it is doing. Each status
line is
of the form
| |
verb path serverpath mode uid gid mtime length
|
Verb describes the event: addition of a file (a), deletion of
a file (d), a change to a file's contents (c), or a change to
a file's metadata (m). Path is the file path on the client; serverpath
is the file path on the server. Mode, uid, gid, and mtime are
the file's metadata as in the Dir structure (see stat(5)). For
deletion
events, the metadata is that of the deleted file. For other events,
the metadata is that after the event. The –n flag causes pull or
push to print the summary but not actually carry out the actions.
Push and pull are careful to notice simultaneous changes to a
file or its metadata on both client and server. Such simultaneous
changes are called conflicts. Here, simultaneous does not mean
at the same instant but merely that both changes were carried
out without knowledge of the other. For example, if a client and
server both make changes to a file without an intervening push
or pull, the next push or pull will report an update/update conflict.
If a conflict is detected, both files are left the same. The –c
flag to pull specifies that conflicts for paths beginning with
name should be resolved using the client's copy, while –s specifies
the server's copy. The –c and –s options may be repeated.
Replica/changes prints a list of local changes made on the client
that have not yet been pushed to the server. It is like push with
the –n flag, except that it does not check for conflicts and thus
does not require the server to be available.
The replica configuration file is an rc(1) script that must define
the following functions and variables:
servermount
| |
A function that mounts the server; run on both client and server.
|
serverupdate
| |
A function that rescans the server for changes. Typically this
command dials a CPU server known to be close to the file server
and runs replica/scan on that well–connected machine.
|
serverroot
| |
The path to the root of the replicated file system on the server,
as it will be in the name space after running servermount.
|
serverlog
| |
The path to the server's change log, after running servermount.
|
serverproto
| |
The path to the proto file describing the server's files, after
running servermount. Only used by scan.
|
serverdb
| |
The path to the server's file database, after running servermount.
Only used by scan.
|
clientmount
| |
A function to mount the client file system; run only on the client.
|
clientroot
| |
The path to the root of the replicated file system on the client,
after running clientmount.
|
clientlog
| |
The path to the client's copy of the server log file. The client
log is maintained by pull.
|
clientproto
| |
The path to the proto file describing the client's files. Only
used by changes. Often just a copy of $serverproto.
|
clientdb
| |
The path to the client's file database, after running clientmount.
|
clientexclude
| |
A (potentially empty) list of paths to exclude from synchronization.
A typical use of this is to exclude the client database and log
files. These paths are relative to the root of the replicated
file system.
|
As an example, the Plan 9 distribution replica configuration looks
like:
| |
fn servermount { 9fs sources; bind /n/sources/plan9 /n/dist }
fn serverupdate { status='' }
serverroot=/n/dist
s=/n/dist/dist/replica
serverlog=$s/plan9.log
serverproto=$s/plan9.proto
fn clientmount { 9fs boot }
clientroot=/n/boot
c=/n/boot/dist/replica
clientlog=$c/client/plan9.log
clientproto=$c/plan9.proto
clientdb=$c/client/plan9.db
clientexclude=(dist/replica/client)
|
(Since the Plan 9 developers run scan manually to update the log,
the clients need not do anything to rescan the file system. Thus
serverupdate simply returns successfully.)
The fourth edition Plan 9 distribution uses these tools to synchronize
installations with the central server at Bell Labs. The replica
configuration files and metadata are kept in /dist/replica. To
update your system, make sure you are connected to the internet
and run
| |
replica/pull /dist/replica/network
|
If conflicts are reported (say you have made local changes to
/rc/bin/cpurc and /rc/bin/termrc, but only want to keep the cpurc
changes), use
| |
replica/pull –c rc/bin/cpurc –s rc/bin/termrc /dist/replica/network
|
to instruct pull to ignore the server's change to cpurc.
The script /usr/glenda/bin/rc/pull runs pull with the –v flag and
with /dist/replica/network inserted at the right point on the
command line. Logged in as glenda, one can repeat the above example
with:
| |
pull –c rc/bin/cpurc –s rc/bin/termrc
|
To see a list of changes made to the local file system since installation,
run
| |
replica/changes /dist/replica/network
|
(Although the script is called network, since changes is a local–only
operation, the network need not be configured.)
|