HPUX remsh[1]
remsh(1) remsh(1)
NAME
remsh - execute from a remote shell
SYNOPSIS
remsh host [-l username] [-n] command
host [-l username] [-n] command
rexec host [-l username] [-n] command
DESCRIPTION
remsh connects to the specified host and executes the specified
command. The host name can be either the official name or an alias as
understood by gethostbyname() (see gethostent(3N) and hosts(4)).
remsh copies its standard input (stdin) to the remote command, and the
standard output of the remote command to its standard output (stdout),
and the standard error of the remote command to its standard error
(stderr). Hangup, interrupt, quit, terminate, and broken pipe signals
are propagated to the remote command. remsh exits when the sockets
associated with stdout and stderr of the remote command are closed.
This means that remsh normally terminates when the remote command does
(see remshd(1M)).
By default, remsh uses the following path when executing the specified
command:
:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/contrib/bin:/usr/local/bin
remsh uses the default remote login shell with the -c option to
execute the remote command. If the default remote shell is csh, csh
sources the remote .cshrc file before the command. remsh cannot be
used to run commands that require a terminal interface (such as vi) or
commands that read their standard error (such as more). In such
cases, use rlogin or telnet instead (see rlogin(1) and telnet(1)).
The remote account name used is the same as your local account name,
unless you specify a different remote name with the -l option. This
remote account name must be equivalent to the originating account; no
provision is made for specifying a password with a command. For more
details about equivalent hosts and how to specify them, see
hosts.equiv(4). The files inspected by remshd on the remote host are
/etc/hosts.equiv and $HOME/.rhosts (see remshd(1M)).
If command, is not specified, instead of executing a single command,
you will be logged in on the remote host using rlogin (see rlogin(1)).
Any rlogin options typed in the command line are transmitted to
rlogin. If command is specified, options specific to rlogin are
ignored by remsh.
By default, remsh reads its standard input and sends it to the remote
command because remsh has no way to determine whether the remote
command requires input. The -n option redirects standard input to
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remsh(1) remsh(1)
remsh from /dev/null. This is useful when running a shell script
containing a remsh command, since otherwise remsh may use input not
intended for it. The -n option is also useful when running remsh in
the background from a job control shell, /bin/csh or /bin/ksh.
Otherwise, remsh stops and waits for input from the terminal keyboard
for the remote command. /bin/sh automatically redirects its input
from /dev/null when jobs are run in the background.
Host names for remote hosts can also be commands (linked to remsh) in
the directory /usr/hosts. If this directory is specified in the $PATH
environment variable, you can omit remsh. For example, if remotehost
is the name of a remote host, /usr/hosts/remotehost is linked to
remsh, and if /usr/hosts is in your search path, the command
remotehost command
executes command on remotehost, and the command
remotehost
is equivalent to
rlogin remotehost
The rexec command, a link to remsh, works the same as remsh except
that it uses the rexec() library routine and rexecd for command
execution (see rexec(3N) and rexecd(1M)). rexec prompts for a
password before executing the command instead of using hosts.equiv for
authentication. It should be used in instances where a password to a
remote account is known but there are insufficient permissions for
remsh.
EXAMPLES
Shell metacharacters that are not quoted are interpreted on the local
host; quoted metacharacters are interpreted on the remote host. Thus
the command line:
remsh otherhost cat remotefile >> localfile
appends the remote file remotefile to the local file localfile, while
the command line
remsh otherhost cat remotefile ">>" otherremotefile
appends remotefile to the remote file otherremotefile.
If the remote shell is /bin/sh, the following command line sets up the
environment for the remote command before executing the remote
command:
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remsh(1) remsh(1)
remsh otherhost . .profile 2>&- \; command
The 2>&- throws away error messages generated by executing .profile
when stdin and stdout are not a terminal.
The following command line runs remsh in the background on the local
system, and the output of the remote command comes to your terminal
asynchronously:
remsh otherhost -n command &
The background remsh completes when the remote command does.
The following command line causes remsh to return immediately without
waiting for the remote command to complete:
remsh otherhost -n "command 1>&- 2>&- &"
(See remshd(1M) and sh(1)). If your login shell on the remote system
is csh, use the following form instead:
remsh otherhost -n "sh -c \"command 1>&- 2>&- &\""
RETURN VALUE
If remsh fails to set up the secondary socket connection, it returns
2. If it fails in some other way, it returns 1. If it fully succeeds
in setting up a connection with remshd, it returns 0 once the remote
command has completed. Note that the return value of remsh bears no
relation to the return value of the remote command.
DIAGNOSTICS
Besides the errors listed below, errors can also be generated by the
library functions rcmd() and rresvport() which are used by remsh (see
rcmd(3N)). Those errors are preceded by the name of the library
function that generated them. remsh can produce the following
diagnostic messages:
rlogin: ...
Error in executing rlogin (rlogin is executed when the user
does not specify any commands to be executed). This is
followed by the error message specifying why the execution
failed.
shell/tcp: Unknown service
The ``shell'' service specification is not present in the
/etc/services file.
Can't establish stderr
remsh cannot establish secondary socket connection for
stderr.
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remsh(1) remsh(1)
<system call>: ...
Error in executing system call. Appended to this error is a
message specifying the cause of the failure.
There is no entry for you (user ID uid) in /etc/passwd
Check with the system administrator to see if your entry in
the password file has been deleted by mistake.
WARNINGS
For security reasons, the /etc/hosts.equiv and .rhosts files should
exist, even if empty, and should be readable and writable only by the
owner. Note also that all information, including any passwords asked
for, is passed unencrypted between the two hosts.
If remsh is run with an interactive command it hangs.
DEPENDENCIES
remsh is the same service as rsh on BSD systems. The name was changed
due to a conflict with the existing System V command rsh (restricted
shell).
AUTHOR
remsh was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
FILES
/usr/hosts/* for version of the command invoked only with hostname
SEE ALSO
rlogin(1), remshd(1M), rexecd(1M), gethostent(3N), rcmd(3N),
rexec(3N), hosts.equiv(4), hosts(4).
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