ambit(1)ambit man page ambit(1)NAME
Ambit - Expand Host Groups OR Expand + Execute Commands
SYNOPSISambit [AmbitExpandableString]
ambit hostfile
ambit /path/to/hostfile
ambit [UserHostGroup]
ambit [SystemHostGroup]
ambit [NetworkHostGroup]
ambit [ list | create ] hostgroup
ambit [ edit | remove ] hostgroup [HostGroupName]
ambit command [AmbitExpandableString]
DESCRIPTION
Ambit at its simplest uses Bash Brace Expansion to expand and list
hostnames OR commands. Ambit is first and foremost meant to be a gen‐
eral purpose hostlist enumerator for use by other applications or
scripts. Additionally Ambit can be used to manage hostgroups specific
to a single user or accessible to all users on a system or queryable
from anywhere on the network. Finally, Ambit is able to detect when it
is passed a command on the command line, allowing for the command to be
expanded into separate commands that are then executed in serial. This
means Ambit can expand and run just about anything on the command line
and usually works in places where Bash Brace Expansion will fail.
Ambit allows for hosts to be enumerated from a number of different
places including directly on the command line (via an Ambit expandable
string), a file in the current working directory ($PWD), a file whose
path is specified, user pre-defined hostgroups, system pre-defined
hostgroups and network defined hostgroups.
CLI Argument
Ambit will accept an expandable string on the command line and
expand that string into either hosts or hostgroups. If any part
of a string expands to a hostgroup, Ambit will then enumerate
the hostgroup along with any other hosts/hostgroups that may
also result from expansion.
File in $PWD
If a file happens to be in a user's $PWD and has either Ambit
expandable strings or hostnames, it can be passed to Ambit as an
argument and Ambit will expand it.
File Path
Ambit will accept the full path to a file with Ambit expandable
strings or hostnames that it will enumerate.
User Hostgroups
Ambit will enumerate Ambit expandable strings or hostnames by a
designated name created with 'ambit create hostsgroup' or manu‐
ally and located in the directory $HOME/.ambit/hosts.
System Hostgroups
Ambit will enumerate Ambit expandable strings or hostnames by a
designated name created as root via 'ambit create hostsgroup' or
manually and located in the directory /var/ambit/hosts.
Network Hostgroups
Ambit will enumerate Ambit expandable strings stored in DNS TXT
records at a domain specified in the Domain="" option.
OPTIONS
HostGroup Controls
list hostgroups
List all User, System and Network Hostgroups. Name and Descrip‐
tion are displayed.
create hostgroup
Create a new Hostgroup. If executing Ambit with root privileges
the Hostgroup will be created as a System Hostgroup, otherwise
it will be a User Hostgroup.
remove hostgroup
Remove a User or System Hostgroup.
edit hostgroup
Edit an existing User or System Hostgroup.
Option Controls
list options
List both System and User Tunable Options.
edit option
Edit or Set a User Option. User options override System Options.
SHORT COMMANDS
Ambit supports an abbreviated subcommand syntax:
ambit list hgroups
ambit show hgroups
ambit ls hgs
ambit create hostgroup
ambit add hgroup
ambit add hg
ambit cr hg
ambit edit hostgroup [HostGroupName]
ambit ed hg [HostGroupName]
ambit remove hostgroup [HostGroupName]
ambit del hgroup [HostGroupName]
ambit rm hg [HostGroupName]
SPECIAL HOSTGROUP
There is a special System HostGroup called 'down'
(/var/ambit/hosts/down) that is installed and left empty by default.
This group is meant to provide a dynamic, near realtime listing of
hosts that have been determined to be unreachable from the local host
for one reason or another. Reasons can range from, a host or hosts in
'down' have failed specific monitoring check or failed the last peri‐
odic ping check or someone with root privileges has decided that it is
down. If a host happens to be currently listed in the System HostGroup
'down' AND a user has a User HostGroup named down
($HOME/.ambit/hosts/down) Ambit will omit the host from all results for
that user. In other words, users can choose whether they want to honor
the current list of unreachable hosts according the local host. To do
so they simple have to create the HostGroup down with no hosts listed.
The existence of this group tells Ambit to honor the System HostGroup
'down'.
'down'
$ sudo ambit create hostgroup
HostGroup Name : down
HostGroup Summary : System Wide Unreachable Hosts
Enter Hostnames Below [Ctrl-d to End]:
test1.mydomain.org
$ ambit list hostgroups | grep down
down: System Wide Unreachable Hosts
$ ambit down
test1.mydomain.org
$ ambit create hostgroup
HostGroup Name : mydomain
HostGroup Summary : Production mydomain.org Servers
Enter Hostnames Below [Ctrl-d to End]:
test[1..12].mydomain.org
$ ambit mydomain
test1.mydomain.org
test10.mydomain.org
test11.mydomain.org
test12.mydomain.org
test2.mydomain.org
test3.mydomain.org
test4.mydomain.org
test5.mydomain.org
test6.mydomain.org
test7.mydomain.org
test8.mydomain.org
test9.mydomain.org
$ ambit create hostgroup
HostGroup Name : down
HostGroup Summary : Honoring System HostGroup 'down'
Enter Hostnames Below [Ctrl-d to End]:
$ ambit list hostgroups
System HostGroups
------------------
down: System Wide Unreachable Hosts
User HostGroups
----------------
mydomain: Production mydomain.org Servers
down: Honoring System HostGroup 'down'
$ ambit mydomain
test10.mydomain.org
test11.mydomain.org
test12.mydomain.org
test2.mydomain.org
test3.mydomain.org
test4.mydomain.org
test5.mydomain.org
test6.mydomain.org
test7.mydomain.org
test8.mydomain.org
test9.mydomain.org
$ sudo ambit edit hostgroup down
#
# Summary - System Wide Unreachable Hosts
#
test1.mydomain.org
test10.mydomain.org
test11.mydomain.org
test12.mydomain.org
$ ambit mydomain
test2.mydomain.org
test3.mydomain.org
test4.mydomain.org
test5.mydomain.org
test6.mydomain.org
test7.mydomain.org
test8.mydomain.org
test9.mydomain.org
EXAMPLES
Listing All Enumerable HostGroups
$ ambit list hostgroups
Network Host Groups
-------------------
svn: descriptive text "web[1..3].mydomain.org"
yum: descriptive text "web[4..6].mydomain.org"
web: descriptive text "web[7..50].mydomain.org"
System Host Groups
------------------
down: System Wide Down Hosts
admin: All Admin Hosts
User Host Groups
----------------
aff: Test Group For Expansion
latest: The Latest Hotness in Hosts
stuff: Stuff and Thing
Listing Configurable Options
$ ambit list options
System Options
--------------
WeLogin="yes"
YouMask="0077"
Random="$RANDOM"
AllFiles="/var/$MyNameIs"
UsrFiles="$HOME/.$MyNameIs"
AllConf="/etc/$MyNameIs/$MyNameIs.conf"
UsrConf="$HOME/.$MyNameIs.conf"
Domain=""
User Options
------------
Domain="mydomain.org"
Creating, Listing and Expanding a HostGroup
$ ambit create hostgroup
Host Group Name: manpage
Host Group Description: Sweet HostGroup For Ambit's ManPage
Enter Hostnames Below [Ctrl-d to End]:
manpage[1..5].mydomain.org
manpage7.mydomain.org
manpage10.mydomain.org
$ ambit list hostgroups | grep manpage
manpage: Sweet HostGroup For Ambit's ManPage
$ ambit manpage
manpage10.mydomain.org
manpage1.mydomain.org
manpage2.mydomain.org
manpage3.mydomain.org
manpage4.mydomain.org
manpage5.mydomain.org
manpage7.mydomain.org
Mixing HostGroups and Expandable Strings
$ ambit [manpage,aff,ns[1..4].google.com]
1.a.ff
2.a.ff
3.a.ff
manpage10.mydomain.org
manpage1.mydomain.org
manpage2.mydomain.org
manpage3.mydomain.org
manpage4.mydomain.org
manpage5.mydomain.org
manpage7.mydomain.org
ns1.google.com
ns2.google.com
ns3.google.com
ns4.google.com
Expanding Commands
$ ambit host -t ns [google,facebook,twitter].com
facebook.com name server ns1.facebook.com.
facebook.com name server ns2.facebook.com.
facebook.com name server ns3.facebook.com.
facebook.com name server ns4.facebook.com.
facebook.com name server ns5.facebook.com.
google.com name server ns1.google.com.
google.com name server ns2.google.com.
google.com name server ns3.google.com.
google.com name server ns4.google.com.
twitter.com name server ns1.p34.dynect.net.
twitter.com name server ns2.p34.dynect.net.
twitter.com name server ns3.p34.dynect.net.
twitter.com name server ns4.p34.dynect.net.
$ ambit sudo /sbin/service [httpd,postfix,named] restart
Stopping httpd: [ OK ]
Starting httpd: [ OK ]
Shutting down postfix: [ OK ]
Starting postfix: [ OK ]
Stopping named: [ OK ]
Starting named: [ OK ]
$ ambit lastlog -u [$(grep Wheel /etc/group |sed -e 's/W.*//g')]
Username Port From Latest
bill ttyp3 cpe-76-87-95-166 Thu Jul 29 08:48:33 -0700 2010
doug ttyp0 99-64-251-98.lig Fri Oct 22 14:47:48 -0700 2010
felipe ttyp0 pool-108-41-38-2 Sun Mar 20 16:52:36 -0700 2011
james **Never logged in**
john **Never logged in**
kurtis **Never logged in**
mm pts/3 cpe-76-171-101-9 Sat Jul 9 02:31:50 -0700 2011
sara **Never logged in**
shaun **Never logged in**
shomari **Never logged in**
victor **Never logged in**
zack **Never logged in**
^^ Listing for the last time the members of the Wheel group logged in (if ever).
BUGS
Fleas, Adam Had 'em.
AUTHOR
Mike Marschall (mm@a.tt)
2.0 08 Jul 2011 ambit(1)
