xdshbak.1

NAME

xdshbak - Formats the output of the xdsh command.

SYNOPSIS

xdshbak [-c | -x [ -b ] | -h | -q]

DESCRIPTION

The xdshbak command formats output from the xdsh command. The xdshbak command takes, as input, lines in the following format:

host_name: line of output from remote command

The xdshbak command formats the lines as follows and writes them to standard output. Assume that the output from node3 and node4 is identical, and the -c (collapse) flag was specified:

HOSTS --------------------------------------------------------
node1
--------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
lines from xdsh for node1 with hostnames stripped off
.
.
HOSTS --------------------------------------------------------
node2
--------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
lines from xdsh for node2 with hostnames stripped off
.
.
HOSTS --------------------------------------------------------
node3, node4
--------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
lines from xdsh for node 3 with hostnames stripped off
.
.

When output is displayed from more than one node in collapsed form, the host names are displayed alphabetically. When output is not collapsed, output is displayed sorted alphabetically by host name.

If the -q quiet flag is not set then xdshbak command writes “.” for each 1000 lines of output processed (to show progress), since it won’t display the output until it has processed all of it.

If the -x flag is specified, the extra header lines that xdshbak normally displays for each node will be omitted, and the hostname at the beginning of each line is not stripped off, but xdshbak still sorts the output by hostname for easier viewing:

node1: lines from xdsh for node1
.
.
node2: lines from xdsh for node2
.
.

If the -b flag is specified in addition to -x, the hostname at the beginning of each line is stripped.

Standard Error

When the xdshbak filter is used and standard error messages are generated, all error messages on standard error appear before all standard output messages. This is true with and without the -c flag.

OPTIONS

-b

Strip the host prefix from the beginning of the lines. This only works with the -x option.

-c

If the output from multiple nodes is identical it will be collapsed and displayed only once.

-x

Omit the extra header lines that xdshbak normally displays for each node. This provides more compact output, but xdshbak still sorts the output by node name for easier viewing. This option should not be used with -c.

-h

Displays usage information.

-q

Quiet mode, do not display “.” for each 1000 lines of output.

EXAMPLES

1. To display the results of a command issued on several nodes, in the format used in the Description, enter:

xdsh node1,node2,node3 cat /etc/passwd | xdshbak

2. To display the results of a command issued on several nodes with identical output displayed only once, enter:

xdsh host1,host2,host3 pwd | xdshbak -c

3. To display the results of a command issued on several nodes with compact output and be sorted alphabetically by host name, enter:

xdsh host1,host2,host3 date | xdshbak -x