README for DSSH; http://dssh.subverted.net/
Copyright 2003 Colin Stubbs <cstubbs@subverted.net>

RELEASE NOTES 

DSSH 0.1 - Initial release to the general public

REQUIREMENTS

DSSH uses Perl, but requires no special modules. Any version should suffice.
OpenSSH, you should be using 3.6.1 or greater for security reasons, but any
version should work.
I have not tested DSSH with anything other than OpenSSH, I'd appreciate it 
if someone could let me know if it works with any, or what is required to 
make it work. Testing with other SSH variants is on my TODO list, however
it's not of great priority.

INSTALLATION

install -m 0755 -o root -g wheel dssh /usr/bin/dssh
install -m 0644 -o root -g wheel dssh.1 /usr/man/man1/dssh.1
gzip /usr/man/man1/dssh.1

The main program is now installed, but before it can be of much use, you 
will need to create atleast the default node group called ALL.

mkdir -p /etc/dssh/node_groups
touch /etc/dssh/node_groups/ALL

In the ALL file, you can add hosts of the format:

username@host:port

For example:

fred@anduril.local:2222
apache@webserver.somedomain.com

To create more node groups, you simply create more text files in 
/etc/dssh/node_groups/, using the same format as above.

USAGE EXAMPLES

You can do alot with DSSH, provided you understand how to use the remote
shell correctly. Here are some simple examples to get people started.

Display the date and time on each system:

dsh -a -e 'date'

Set the date on each system using ntpdate (assumes that ntpd is not running):

dsh -a -e 'ntpdate -b ntp.local'

Use the ALL node group (-a), transfer and install a new /etc/hosts file. Use
/var/tmp to store the new file prior to installation, and remove it from there
once installed.

dssh -a -tf /var/dist/etc/hosts -td /var/tmp \
  -e 'install -o root -g wheel -m 0644 /var/tmp/hosts /etc/hosts && \
      rm -f /var/tmp/hosts'

The default username used to connect to nodes is the username of the
user executing dssh. The default port number is 22, or the port known as
'ssh' in /etc/services. If you use a non-standard ssh port site wide, you
could change the services file to reflect your standard.

Colin Stubbs <cstubbs@subverted.net>