Re: Updating files in /etc Remotely (and automated)

["Jesús M. Navarro" <jesus.navarro@undominio.net>]

Hi, Hal:

On Saturday 11 September 2010 23:15:50 Hal Vaughan wrote:
> I will be working with a server on the Internet that uses rsync and is
> running Debian.  I will be setting up initial /etc/rsyncd.conf and
> /etc/rsyncd.secrets files on it.  But along the way, whenever a new user is
> added, they'll need to be updated.  I can use ssh on this system, but, of
> course, I don't want to allow root access.
>
> I'd like to be able to have these files updated automatically when I add a
> new user to another system.  I could create new copies of the files
> locally, where the users are added and use scp to copy them to a directory
> on the server.  But that's where there are problems.  How can I chown the
> files to root, copy them to /etc, and chmod as needed for rsync to use them
> automatically?

I know that's not what you specifically asked for, but thinking a bit 
out-of-the-box, what you have is a need to remotely configure a machine from 
a "central" information repository.

Have you though about using Puppet*1 for that?

*1 http://www.puppetlabs.com

Cheers.