diff --git a/clusterd b/clusterd
index 5a0d3a7..e657052 100755
--- a/clusterd
+++ b/clusterd
@@ -302,6 +302,7 @@ our ($udp_peer_addr,$udp_peer_port);	 # ('141.14.12.12',1234)
 our %UDP_HANDLER=
 (
 	'filedata' => \&udp_rx_filedata,
+	'filedata.2' => \&udp_rx_filedata,
 	'amdtardata' => \&udp_rx_amdtardata,
 	'loadavg.2' => \&udp_rx_loadavg2,
 	'restart' => \&udp_rx_restart,
@@ -381,23 +382,32 @@ sub push_file {
 
 	my $st=Donald::FileInfo->lstat($filename);
 	defined $st or return warn "$filename: $!\n";
-	$st->type eq 'F' or die "$filename: not a plain file\n";
-	$st->size<=65536 or die "$filename: to big for broadcast (max 65536 bytes)\n";
+	my $rpc;
+	if ($st->type eq 'F') {
+		$rpc='filedata';
+		$st->size<=65536 or die "$filename: to big for broadcast (max 65536 bytes)\n";
+		if ($st->size==0) {
+			udp_broadcast_message($donald_s,$rpc,$st,0,'');
+			return;
+		}
 
-	if ($st->size==0) {
-		udp_broadcast_message($donald_s,'filedata',$st,0,'');
+		my $fh=new IO::File $filename,'<' or return warn "$filename: $!\n";
+		my $i=0;
+		for (my $pos=0;$pos<$st->size;$pos+=1024) {
+			my $data;
+			defined $fh->sysread($data,1024) or return warn "$filename: $!\n";
+			# warn "send bytes $pos to ",$pos+length($data),"\n";
+			udp_broadcast_message($donald_s,$rpc,$st,$pos,$data);
+			++$i % $BC_RATE or  sleep 1;
+		}
+	} elsif ($st->type eq 'L') {
+		$rpc='filedata.2';
+		udp_broadcast_message($donald_s,$rpc,$st,0,'');
 		return;
+	} else {
+		die "file type not supported\n";
 	}
 
-	my $fh=new IO::File $filename,'<' or return warn "$filename: $!\n";
-	my $i=0;
-	for (my $pos=0;$pos<$st->size;$pos+=1024) {
-		my $data;
-		defined $fh->sysread($data,1024) or return warn "$filename: $!\n";
-		# warn "send bytes $pos to ",$pos+length($data),"\n";
-		udp_broadcast_message($donald_s,'filedata',$st,$pos,$data);
-		++$i % $BC_RATE or  sleep 1;
-	}
 }
 
 our %CMD=(
@@ -511,6 +521,54 @@ sub udp_rx_amdtardata {
 	system '/sbin/make-automaps';
 }
 
+our ($machine,$SYS_lchown,$SYS_mknod,$lmtime_sub);
+chomp($machine=`uname -m`);
+if ($machine eq 'i686') {
+	$SYS_lchown=198;		# __NR_lchown32  in /usr/include/asm/unistd.h
+	$SYS_mknod=14;			# __NR_mknod
+} elsif ($machine eq 'x86_64') {
+	$SYS_lchown=94;			# __NR_lchown in /usr/include/asm-x86_64/unistd.h
+	$SYS_mknod=133;			# __NR_mknod
+} elsif ($machine eq 'alpha') {
+	$SYS_lchown=208;		# SYS_lchown in /usr/include/syscall.h
+	$SYS_mknod=14;			# SYS_mknod
+} elsif ($machine eq 'amd64') {
+	$SYS_lchown=254;		# SYS_lchown in /usr/include/syscall.h
+	$SYS_mknod=14; 			# SYS_mknod
+} else {
+	warn "unknown machine type $machine: symlink ownership can't be set.\n";
+	warn "unknown machine type $machine: named pipes,character and block devices can't be created\n";
+}
+if ($machine eq 'x86_64') {
+	our $SYS_utimensat=280;			# /usr/include/asm/unistd_64.h
+	our $AT_FDCWD=-100;			# /usr/include/fcntl.h
+	our $UTIME_OMIT=(1<<30)-2;		# /usr/include/bits/stat.h
+	our $AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW=0x100;		# /usr/include/fcntl.h
+
+	$lmtime_sub=sub {
+		my ($path,$mtime)=@_;
+		my $tsa=pack 'qqqq',0,$UTIME_OMIT,$mtime,0;
+		syscall($SYS_utimensat,$AT_FDCWD,$path,$tsa,$AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW)==0 or return warn "$path: failed to lmtime: $!\n";
+	}
+} else {
+	$lmtime_sub=sub {
+		my ($path,$mtime)=@_;
+		warn "$path: don't known how to change symlink mtime on target architecture\n";
+	}
+}
+
+sub lchown {
+	my ($uid,$gid,$path)=@_;
+	$SYS_lchown or return;
+	syscall($SYS_lchown,$path,$uid+0,$gid+0)==0 or return warn "$path: failed to lchown: $!\n";
+}
+
+sub lmtime {
+	my ($mtime,$path)=@_;
+	$lmtime_sub or return;
+	$lmtime_sub->($path,$mtime);
+}
+
 sub udp_rx_filedata {
 
 # set rx_filedata_done as a side effect
@@ -530,6 +588,24 @@ sub udp_rx_filedata {
 		return;
 	}
 
+	if ($st_want->type eq 'L') {
+		if (!$st_is || $st_is->type ne 'L' || $st_is->target ne $st_want->target) {
+			 $st_is and (unlink($filename) or return warn "$filename: failed to unlink: $!\n");
+			symlink($st_want->target,$filename) or return warn "$filename: failed to create symlink: $!\n";
+			lchown($st_want->uid,$st_want->gid,$filename);
+			lmtime($st_want->mtime,$filename);
+			warn "installed $filename -> ".$st_want->target."\n";
+		} else {
+			if ($st_is->uid != $st_want->uid || $st_is->gid != $st_want->gid) {
+				lchown($st_want->uid,$st_want->gid,$filename);
+			}
+			if ($st_is->mtime != $st_want->mtime) {
+				lmtime($st_want->mtime,$filename);
+			}
+		}
+		return;
+	}
+
 	if (length($data) == $st_want->size) {
 		# complete file in one broadcast
 		my $fh=IO::File->new($tmp_filename,O_WRONLY|O_CREAT,0);