ANN: 'tsshbatch' Server Automation Tool Version 1.171 Released

[Tim Daneliuk]

'tsshbatch' Version 1.171 is now released and available for download at:

          http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tsshbatch

The last public release was 1.137.
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What Is 'tsshbatch'?
--------------------

'tsshbatch' is a server automation tool to enable you to issue commands
to many servers without having to log into each one separately.  When
writing scripts, this overcomes the 'ssh' limitation of not being able to
specify the password on the command line.

'tsshbatch' also understands basic 'sudo' syntax and can be used
to access a server, 'sudo' a command, and then exit.

'tsshbatch' thus allows you to write complex, hands-off scripts that--
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Tim Daneliuk     tundra at tundraware.com
PGP Key:         http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/

issue commands to many servers without the tedium of manual login and
'sudo' promotion.  System administrators, especially, will find this
helpful when working in large server farms.

'tsshbatch' is written in Python and requires the 'paramiko library.
It has been tested on various Linux and FreeBSD variants.


WHATSNEW For 'tsshbatch' 1.171    (Fri Nov  1 12:08:31 CDT 2013)
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CHANGES:

   - Changed default behavior to pick up $USER from the environment and
     not prompt for it.

   - When prompting for username, now shows $USER or the user presented
     via -n as default if present.

   - Cosmetic changes in reporting output

   - Cleaned up sudo handling and reporting

NEW FEATURES:

   - A new option, -N, to forces prompting for username to overcome the
     new default behavior of using $USER or the name provided by -n
     without promptng.  What Is 'tsshbatch'?
--------------------

'tsshbatch' is a tool to enable you to issue commands to many
servers without having to log into each one separately.  When writing
scripts, this overcomes the 'ssh' limitation of not being able to
specify the password on the command line.

'tsshbatch' also understands basic 'sudo' syntax and can be used
to access a server, 'sudo' a command, and then exit.

'tsshbatch' thus allows you to write complex, hands-off scripts that
issue commands to many servers without the tedium of manual login and
'sudo' promotion.  System administrators, especially, will find this
helpful when working in large server farms.

'tsshbatch' is written in Python and requires the 'paramiko library.
It has been tested on various Linux and FreeBSD variants as well
as cygwin on MS-Windows.
This option also overrides any previous
     request for key exchange authentication.

   - A new option, -S, forces prompting for the sudo password, with the
     default being any previously provided password (interactive or -p).
     This allows you to use one password to authenticate to the system
     and a different one to do sudo promotion.

   - Two new options, -G and -P, support file transfer GETs and PUTs
     respectively from the selected hosts.

   - A new option, -f cmdfile, allows multiple commands stored
     in the file to be run on each of the selected hosts.  This
     allows for considerably more complex operations than the
     single command string at the end of the command line supported
     in previous versions.

   - A new option, -y, turns on 'noisy' reporting and produces
     context information (hostname, output stream, and command)
     for every line of output.  This makes the output more useful
     when filtered through something like 'grep'.

   - There is a new options, -t, to turn on "test mode" which
     will show what would be done, but will not actually do it.
     This mode also displays useful diagnostic information
     about the command line, variable defintions, file tranfer
     requests, and so on.

   - The new -x option is used to negate a prior -t and thereby
     force execution of the requested file transfers and/or
     commands.

   - Both cmdfiles and hostlistfiles now support freeform whitespace
     and commenting via the "#" character.

   - Both cmdfiles and hostlistfiles now support including other
     files via the .include directive.  Circular include detection
     is also implemented.

   - Both cmdfiles and hostlistfiles can contain variable
     definitions that are literally replaced in any following
     text.



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Tim Daneliuk     tundra at tundraware.com
PGP Key:         http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/



-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk     tundra at tundraware.com
PGP Key:         http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk     tundra at tundraware.com
PGP Key:         http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/