NAME

pfars - PFARS For Automatic Replication System

SYNOPSIS

pfars [ --quiet | --verbose ] [ --auto [ --changes ] ] [ --no-act ] [ --config=configfile ] [ --version ] [ --help ]

DESCRIPTION

pfars will run perform a series of tasks to properly sync a farm of servers. There are three stages to the sync process.

Stage One - Replication Initialization

pfars will first download a few files from the master server that control how the rest of the stages will perform. Using rsync(1) over ssh(1), pfars will download these files. pfars then checks to see if itself has been changed as part of this process. If so, it will then rerun itself using the new updated pfars.

Stage Two - Debian Package Synchronization

pfars will now download the current list of debian packages that are installed on the master server using dpkg(8). It will then install, upgrade, and remove packages as necessary to match the master server using apt-get(8).

Stage Three - Full System Synchronization

In the third and final stage, pfars will then do a full mirror of the master system.

COMMAND SWITCHES

If called with no arguments, pfars will perform all replication tasks. It will prompt you before performing any of the tasks.

--auto: pfars will perform stages one and three without any interaction from a user. This is suitable to run from cron(8).
--config=configfile: You may specify the config file that pfars should use. The default config file is /etc/pfars/config
--quiet, -q: pfars will run with no output except error messages. This switch is ignored unless --auto is also specified.
--verbose, -v: pfars will display more output about what actions are taking place. If you may specify the --verbose option more than once to increase the amount of output.
--changes: Only displays output if changes have been made to the system. Best be used with --verbose or --debug. Can only be used with --auto.
--no-act: Simulate replication without actually doing anything.
--version, -V: Display the pfars version number and exit.
--help, -h: Display this help message.

FILES

These files may or may not be used during a run-time session.

/etc/pfars/config: Stores the configuration information for pfars. This file is replicated during stage one.
/etc/pfars/config.local: Stores the configuration information for pfars. Configuration options specified in this file have higher precedence than the regular /etc/pfars/config file. This file is local to the machine it exists on and is NEVER replicated.
/etc/pfars/init-files: Specifies the files that pfars needs to process during stage one of operation. It is used by rsync(1) as an exclude file. Please see the rsync(1) documentation for information about the format of this file. This is one of the files replicated during stage one.
/etc/pfars/init-files.local: Specifies the files that pfars needs to process during stage one of operation. This file is local to machine it exists on and is NEVER replicated.
/etc/pfars/files: Specifies the files that pfars needs to process during stage three of operation. It is used by rsync(1) as an exclude file. Please see the rsync(1) documentation for information about the format of this file. This is one of the files replicated during stage one.
/etc/pfars/files.local: Specifies the files that pfars needs to process during stage three of operation. This file is local to machine it exists on and is NEVER replicated.
/var/run/pfars.pid: Contains the process ID of a currently running pfars. pfars will not start if this file exists.

AUTHOR

Paul Baker, pbaker@where2getit.com