REXEC(1c,C)                 AIX TCP/IP User's Guide                 REXEC(1c,C)



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rexec



PURPOSE

Executes commands one at a time on a foreign host in a secure environment.

SYNTAX


         +--------+
rexec ---| +----+ |--- hostname --- command ---|
         +-| -d |-+
          ^| -n ||
          |+----+|
          +------+


DESCRIPTION

The rexec command executes a command on the specified foreign host.  The user
is prompted for a valid user ID and password (if applicable) for the foreign
host.  The rexec command sends and receives data over a TCP connection.

The rexec command also allows you to run interactive commands remotely,
provided that they do not require a full screen display.  In interactive
processing, rexec sends all characters typed at the local keyboard to the
foreign host until the EOF character is sent.  If the shell running on the
foreign host is csh, rexec sends SIGINT and SIGQUIT to the foreign host.

For each user who concurrently runs commands on a host with rexec, the host
must have one PTY configured.  That is, if three users on host1 are using rexec
to run commands on host2 concurrently, host2 must have three PTYs configured.
In the PTY definitions, the auto enable and logger keywords must be set to
false.

FLAGS

The rexec command options are:

-d          Is an optional flag that provides a debug service.  The -d flag
            causes rexec to print debug statements to the file rexec.log in the
            current directory.

-n          Is an optional flag that disables an automatic login feature.  By
            default rexec searches the $HOME/.netrc file for the user's ID and
            password on the foreign host.

PARAMETERS




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REXEC(1c,C)                 AIX TCP/IP User's Guide                 REXEC(1c,C)



hostname
    Is a required parameter that specifies the name of the host where the
    command is to be executed.  hostname can be in octal, dotted decimal, or
    name (alphanumeric) form.

command
    A required parameter that specifies the command to be executed on the
    foreign host.  If command (the command name, together with flags or
    parameters) contains embedded blanks, it may be enclosed in double quotes
    (""").

EXAMPLES

  1. To execute the date command on foreign host,host1:

      $ rexec host1 date
      Name (host1:tom):  tom
      Password (host1:tom):
      [date command output]
      $ _

  2. To list the directory of user tom on the foreign host, host1:

      $ rexec host1 "li -l /u/tom"
      Name (host1:tom):  tom
      Password (host1:tom):
      [listing of tom's directory on foreign host]
      $ _

  3. To list the /tmp directory of the foreign host, host1:

      $ rexec host1 "li /tmp"
      Name (host1:tom):  tom
      Password (host1:tom):
      [listing of /tmp on foreign host]
      $

  4. To start a shell (csh) on the foreign host, host1 enter:

      $ rexec host1 csh
      Name (host1:tom):  tom
      Password (host1:tom):
      %
      .
      .
      .
      [EOF to end the foreign shell.]

  5. To use the automatic login feature for the user ID "tom" on the foreign
    host, host1, create a file called .netrc in the user's home directory on
    host1 using the following format:




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REXEC(1c,C)                 AIX TCP/IP User's Guide                 REXEC(1c,C)



         machine hostname login userid password password

    where:
    hostname is the name of the host on which the userid exists, host1 in this
    example.  userid is the user ID on the host, tom in this example.  password
    is the password for the userid.

    For example,

      machine host1 login tom password tomspswd

    Now user "tom" will not be queried for his user ID and password when he
    executes a command such as:

      $ rexec host1 date

For more information on the format of the .netrc file, see "The .netrc File."

FILES

/etc/hosts               Name to address map table

./rexec.log              Debugging statements

$HOME/.netrc             User IDs and passwords for remote login.

RELATED INFORMATION

In this book:
"rexecd"
".rhosts"
"hosts.equiv"
".netrc"






















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