This distribution interface was primarily designed as a mechanism for delivering patch releases from www.sambar.com. A mechanism was needed to build, distribute and install new releases to users (backing up their existing distributions first!) without all the steps of a full InstallShield installation. It is anticipated that all future "patch" releases of the Sambar Server will be available using these interfaces. These interfaces are exposed to all Pro server licensees with the hope that the functionality might assist in packaging internal distributions of the Sambar Server. The following three RPCs provide the distribution update mechanism:

• dist-check Check a site for a new distribution (www.sambar.com by default). You get a report of the difference between the distribution described in the file on the site and your current installation. Then you get a form asking if you want to run dist-install (using the download information in the distribution file).
• dist-install Grabs the distribution described in the distribution file, uploads it to your server, ungzips the file, backs up bin to bin-old and lib to lib-old and then untars the distribution over your running server. When complete, you receive a report of all files updated and must restart the server.
• dist-build Builds a new distribution from your current system by taring up the directories specified above and then compressing the distribution package and finally writing out a package distribution file describing the system. The package distribution description is contains:

[Sambar Server]
Build = <build-date of the server>
Version = <version of the server, i.e. 4.4>
Server = <host where distribution is located, i.e. www.powertv.com>
URL = <URL to distribution on host, i.e. /dist/win32-latest.tar.gz>
Comments = <Description of distribution.>