omnitty(1)omnitty(1)NAMEomnitty - A tool to ssh into several machines simultaneously
SYNOPSISomnitty [-W list_width] [-T term_width]
DESCRIPTION
Omnitty is a curses-based program that allows one to log into several
machines simultaneously and interact with them, selectively directing
input to individual machines or groups of selected machines. You can
run both line-oriented and screen oriented in the target machines,
because Omnitty has built-in terminal emulation capability. When the
terminal is large enough, Omnitty also displays a "summary area" for
each machine, in which it shows what the latest output from the machine
was.
OPTIONS-W specifies the width of the list window, if the default is not
satisfactory. For example, if your machines have exceptionally
long names, you might have to use this parameter to configure
the desired width of the list window.
-T specifies the width of the terminal window, if the default is
not satisfactory. For example, if you use omnitty in any X ter‐
minal with a small font you can increase the with to see longer
lines without wrapping. The default is to give you an 80 column
terminal and leave the remaining width for the summary area.
PROJECT HOME PAGE
The Omnitty Project's official homepage is the following:
http://omnitty.sourceforge.net
There you will find author information, FAQ, links to the latest ver‐
sion of the program, etc.
AUTHOR
This program was written by Bruno T. C. de Oliveira, a computer-science
student at Universidade de S�o Paulo, Brazil. My e-mail address is:
btco@linux.ime.usp.br or brunotc@gmail.com
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
When you specify '@foo' as a machine name when adding, the default pro‐
gram behavior is to read a file named 'foo' in the current directory
and add all the machines listed there (one per line). If however you
set the OMNITTY_AT_COMMAND environment variable, omnitty will, instead
of trying to open a file named 'foo', execute the command
OMNITTY_AT_COMMAND supplying it the argument 'foo'. The output of this
command will be interpreted as a list of machines to add (one per
line).
MORE DETAILS
Multiple-host network administration usually involves running the same
set of commands on several different machines. An administrator might
ssh into each of the machines in his network individually to perform
the required tasks, but the process soon becomes repetitive and prone
to errors. Scripts might help in the case of noninteractive programs
and when the administrator knows exactly what commands are to be given.
Error handling in these scripts is also difficult to code, and the
process becomes especially tedious if these tasks have to be done regu‐
larly.
Omnitty tries to present a different approach to manipulating several
machines remotely. It simultaneously logs you into all the machines you
specify and then presents a screen in which you navigate through the
list of machines. When you select a machine, its "terminal" is shown
onscreen and they keypresses you type are sent to that machine while it
is selected. The user may freely navigate the list, interacting with
the machines in any order.
Another feature is that you can 'tag' machines on the list and enter a
mode where the input you provide is directed to ALL the machines you
tagged, simultaneously. Thus you might tag all the machines in which
you need to run a particular command and then type the command once to
have all machines execute it.
Omnitty not only works with regular commands, but also with visual pro‐
grams. For example, you might run 'vi' remotely on several machines
simultaneously, and every keystroke you supply will be reproduced in
every machine you tagged. Thus you might interactively edit files in
several machines at once.
LICENSE INFORMATION
Copyright (c) 2004 Bruno Takahashi C. de Oliveira. All rights reserved.
This program is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version
2 or, at your option, any later version. For full license information,
please refer to the COPYING file that accompanies the program.
Omnitty SSH multiplexer August 2004 omnitty(1)
