CS(1) BSD General Commands Manual CS(1)NAMEcs — concurrent ssh client
SYNOPSIScs [-qrsVv1] [-c file] [-d file] [-f script.sh] [-h hosts_file]
[-i identity_file] [-l login_name] [-o output_file] [-P port]
[-p path] [-t timeout] [command] [[user@]host] ...
DESCRIPTIONcs is a program for concurrently executing ssh(1) or scp(1) on a number
of hosts. It is intended to automate running remote commands or copying
files between hosts on a network. Public key authentication is used for
establishing passwordless connection.
The options are as follows:
-c file
Copy file to the remote machine.
-d file
Download file from the remote machine. It will be saved in a
directory named after the remote host only when you download from
multiple servers.
-f script.sh
Runs a shell script on the remote host.
-h hosts_file
Reads hostnames from the given hosts_file. Lines in the
hosts_file can include commented lines beginning with a ‘#’ and
only one host per line is allowed.
-i identity_file
Selects a file from which the identity (private key) for public
key authentication is read. The default is ~/.ssh/id_rsa.
-l login_name
Specifies the user to log in as on the remote machine. This also
may be specified on a per-host basis on the command line.
-o output_file
Saves standard output and standard error to a file.
-P port
Port to connect to on the remote host.
-p path
Specifies remote or local path for files in a remote copy or
download mode.
-q Quiet mode. Supresses verbose standard output from remote
machines. This mode reports success or failure only.
-r Recursively copy entire directories. It follows symbolic links
encountered in the tree traversal.
-s Sorts output by lines.
-t timeout
Specifies the timeout (in seconds) used when connecting to the
SSH server. The default value is 5 seconds.
-V Displays the version number and exit.
-v Verbose mode. Causes cs to print debugging messages from ssh(1)
about its progress. This is helpful in debugging connection,
authentication, and configuration problems. Multiple -v options
increase the verbosity. The maximum is 3.
-1 One line mode, useful for sorting output later.
AUTHENTICATION
The default method for authentication is a public key authentication
which serves its purpose when dealing with multiple hosts. You can read
more about public key authentication in ssh(1).
EXIT STATUS
The cs utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
EXAMPLES
Run a series of commands on hosts foo and bar:
$ cs 'uptime; uname -a' foo bar
Run a command on multiple hosts specified in a hosts_file:
$ cs-h hosts_file uptime
Run a shell script on multiple hosts:
$ cs-f script.sh foo{1..100}
Copy file to multiple hosts using specified remote path:
$ cs-c file -h hosts_file -p /foo/bar
Download file from host foo to a current working directory:
$ cs-d file foo
Download recursively files from /foo/bar from multiple hosts to a speci‐
fied local path /tmp with subdirectories named after remote hosts:
$ cs-r -d /foo/bar/\* -h hosts_file -p /tmp
Run a command on multiple hosts and sort the output:
$ cs-1 -h hosts_file 'free -m | grep Swap' | sort -rnk4 | head
SEE ALSOscp(1), ssh(1), ssh_config(5)AUTHORS
Andy Kosela ⟨akosela@andykosela.com⟩
BSD May 11, 2015 BSD
