NAME

       pkgsync - Automated package synchronization tool

SYNOPSIS

       pkgsync

DESCRIPTION

       pkgsync is a tool for keeping multiple machines reasonably similar and clean. Packages can either be in a
       `must  be  installed',  `may  be  installed'  or  `must  not  be installed' list (which is presumed to be
       distributed separately using a tool such as rdist or cfengine).  pkgsync will take care  of  meeting  the
       demands  put  down in the lists, and then removing everything that is not in the `must' or `may' list and
       is not necessary for their operations (as determined by aptitude).

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print a short help text and exit.

       -s, --simulate
              Do everything as usual, but put aptitude in simulation mode, causing it to never  do  any  changes
              (except  update  and  autoclean, which should both be harmless) to your system. This is especially
              useful on a new system to make sure pkgsync behaves as expected.

              Note that aptitude prints out its intended actions _before_  running  the  conflict  resolver.  If
              there's  a  conflict somewhere, chances are that the results on your system will be different from
              what aptitude prints out.

       -k, --keep-unused
              Instruct aptitude to not remove cruft (ie. unused packages); this is morally equivalent to  having
              an "*" entry in mayhave.

       -d, --dpkg-glob
              When encountering a wildcard pattern, pkgsync tries to `un-glob' it.  Traditionally, this was done
              using  dpkg -- however, in later versions one can use aptitude instead. Using aptitude is a little
              slower, but the syntax is a lot more flexible, supporting regular expressions and various searches
              on fields. Giving --dpkg-glob makes pkgsync  use  dpkg,  which  is  not  very  useful  except  for
              backwards compatibility.

       -a, --aptitude-glob
              Use aptitude's globbing instead of dpkg's globbing (see above). This option is the default.

SEE ALSO

       /usr/share/doc/pkgsync/README.Debian (complete tutorial and reference documentation)

AUTHOR

       pkgsync is Copyright 2004-2007 Steinar H. Gunderson <sgunderson@bigfoot.com>.

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