pssh(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   pssh(1)

NAME

       pssh -- parallel ssh program

SYNOPSIS

       pssh  [-vAiIP]  [-h  hosts_file] [-H [user@]host[:port]] [-l user] [-p par] [-o outdir] [-e errdir] [-t timeout] [-O options] [-x args] [-X
       arg] command ...

       pssh -I [-vAiIP] [-h hosts_file] [-H [user@]host[:port]] [-l user] [-p par] [-o outdir] [-e errdir] [-t timeout] [-O options] [-x args] [-X
       arg] [command ...]

DESCRIPTION

       pssh  is a program for executing ssh in parallel on a number of hosts.  It provides features such as sending input to all of the processes,
       passing a password to ssh, saving output to files, and timing out.

OPTIONS

       -h host_file
       --hosts host_file
	      Read hosts from the given host_file.  Lines in the host file are of the form [user@]host[:port] and can include blank lines and com-
	      ments  (lines  beginning	with  "#").  If multiple host files are given (the -h option is used more than once), then pssh behaves as
	      though these files were concatenated together.  If a host is specified specified multiple times, then pssh will  connect	the  given
	      number of times.

       -H     [user@]host[:port]
       --host [user@]host[:port]
       -H     "[user@]host[:port] [ [user@]host[:port ] ... ]"
       --host "[user@]host[:port] [ [user@]host[:port ] ... ]"
	      Add  the	given host strings to the list of hosts.  This option may be given multiple times, and may be used in conjunction with the
	      -h option.

       -l user
       --user user
	      Use the given username as the default for any host entries that don't specifically specify a user.

       -p parallelism
       --par parallelism
	      Use the given number as the maximum number of concurrent connections.

       -t timeout
       --timeout timeout
	      Make connections time out after the given number of seconds.  With a value of 0, pssh will not timeout any connections.

       -o outdir
       --outdir outdir
	      Save standard output to files in the given directory.  Filenames are of the form [user@]host[:port][.num] where the  user  and  port
	      are  only included for hosts that explicitly specify them.  The number is a counter that is incremented each time for hosts that are
	      specified more than once.

       -e errdir
       --errdir errdir
	      Save standard error to files in the given directory.  Filenames are of the same form as with the -o option.

       -x args
       --extra-args args
	      Passes a extra SSH command-line arguments (see the ssh(1) man page for more information about SSH arguments).  This  option  may	be
	      specified  multiple  times.   The  arguments are processed to split on whitespace, protect text within quotes, and escape with back-
	      slashes.	To pass arguments without such processing, use the -X option instead.

       -X arg
       --extra-arg arg
	      Passes a single SSH command-line argument (see the ssh(1) man page for more information about SSH arguments).  Unlike the -x option,
	      no  processing is performed on the argument, including word splitting.  To pass multiple command-line arguments, use the option once
	      for each argument.

       -O options
       --options options
	      SSH options in the format used in the SSH configuration file (see the ssh_config(5) man page for more information).  This option may
	      be specified multiple times.

       -A
       --askpass
	      Prompt  for a password and pass it to ssh.  The password may be used for either to unlock a key or for password authentication.  The
	      password is transferred in a fairly secure manner (e.g., it will not show up in argument lists).	However, be aware that a root user
	      on your system could potentially intercept the password.

       -i
       --inline
	      Display standard output and standard error as each host completes.

       -v
       --verbose
	      Include error messages from ssh with the -i and  options.

       -I
       --send-input
	      Read  input and send to each ssh process.  Since ssh allows a command script to be sent on standard input, the -I option may be used
	      in lieu of the command argument.

       -P
       --print
	      Display output as it arrives.  This option is of limited usefulness because output from different hosts are interleaved.

EXAMPLE

       Connect to host1 and host2, and print "hello, world" from each:
	      pssh -i -H "host1 host2" echo "hello, world"

       Print "hello, world" from each host specified in the file hosts.txt:
	      pssh -i -h hosts.txt echo "hello, world"

       Run a command as root with a prompt for the root password:
	      pssh -i -h hosts.txt -A -l root echo hi

       Run a long command without timing out:
	      pssh -i -h hosts.txt -t 0 sleep 10000

       If the file hosts.txt has a large number of entries, say 100, then the parallelism option may also be set to 100 to ensure  that  the  com-
       mands are run concurrently:
	      pssh -i -h hosts.txt -p 100 -t 0 sleep 10000

       Run a command without checking or saving host keys:
	      pssh -i -H host1 -H host2 -x "-O StrictHostKeyChecking=no -O UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -O GlobalKnownHostsFile=/dev/null" echo hi

EXIT STATUS VALUES

       0      Success

       1      Miscellaneous error

       2      Syntax or usage error

       3      At least one process was killed by a signal or timed out.

       4      All processes completed, but at least one ssh process reported an error (exit status 255).

       5      There were no ssh errors, but at least one remote command had a non-zero exit status.

AUTHORS

       Written by Brent N. Chun <bnc@theether.org> and Andrew McNabb <amcnabb@mcnabbs.org>.

       http://code.google.com/p/parallel-ssh/

SEE ALSO

       ssh(1), pscp(1), prsync(1), pslurp(1), pnuke(1)

								 February 25, 2010							   pssh(1)