how do i/is there a way to return the exit code from the remote host?
echo $? from the local host only gives 0, if the rexec command itself executes successfully. But what if in the case of the remote command failiing? echo $? on the localhost still gives 0, but I'm interested in the exit code from the failing command on the REMOTE host...

On the remote host echo the exit code after the command has completed and use that on the localhost by using tail -1 on the output of the rexec command.

hi reborg and all,
i tried that and it still returns 0. i even rexec'ed a nonsense command (something like "lsdflkjfd" - which I'm sure doesn't do anything...) and the echo $?, as in:

rexec server1 "lsdflkjfd; echo $?"
i log in with username and password, and it echoes back:

ksh: lsdflkjfd: not found.
0

It still returns 0!!!

Single quotes otherwise the shell will expand $?

Here is what I get:

The difference is that diego surrounded the remote call with double quotes, and reborg used single quotes.

In diego's case, his shell interpreted the string before sending it as an arg to rexec, so rexec passed the command ""lsdflkjfd; echo 0"

As reborg pointed out, its vital you use single quotes