Rsync

Rsync is useful for copying directory structures to/from other machines and could aid in the installation/setup process.

Rsync should work on its own, via rsh or an rsync server can be used. I prefer the rsync server, since access to the service can be permitted without turning on all of the features (security holes) of rsh.

Once rsync is installed, per the instructions, make sure the server is run via inetd or xinetd (see above). Create a config file that describes the "modules" that are available to the rsync users.

/etc/rsyncd.conf:

Describes the "modules" (i.e. sharepoints) that are available to the rsync users. Here is an example of one "module" that can be used to store original files from another machine, when setting up a mirror machine:

     uid = nobody
     gid = nobody
     [orig]
          path = /orig
          read only = false
          comment = Original server files

This will let anybody copy files to/from the path "/orig" with a username of "nobody" and a group name of "nobody", providing the permissions allow it. To copy all of the files and subdirectories from /etc to a new directory /orig/etc under "orig", one might do:

     rsync -avz /etc/ newserver::orig/etc