omnitty.1

.TH omnitty "1" "August 2004" "Omnitty SSH multiplexer"

.SH NAME
omnitty \- A tool to ssh into several machines simultaneously

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B omnitty [-W list_width] [-T term_width]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
Omnitty is a curses-based program that allows one to log into several
machines simultaneously and interact with them, selectively directing
input to individual machines or groups of selected machines. You can run both
line-oriented and screen oriented in the target machines, because Omnitty
has built-in terminal emulation capability. When the terminal is large
enough, Omnitty also displays a "summary area" for each machine,
in which it shows what the latest output from the machine was.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB-W\fR
specifies the width of the list window, if the default is not
satisfactory. For example, if your machines have exceptionally long
names, you might have to use this parameter to configure the desired
width of the list window.

.TP
\fB-T\fR
specifies the width of the terminal window, if the default is not
satisfactory. For example, if you use omnitty in any X terminal with a 
small font you can increase the with to see longer lines without 
wrapping. The default is to give you an 80 column terminal and leave
the remaining width for the summary area. 

.SH PROJECT HOME PAGE
The Omnitty Project's official homepage is the following:
	

	\fBhttp://omnitty.sourceforge.net\fR

There you will find author information, FAQ, links to the latest
version of the program, etc.

.SH AUTHOR
This program was written by Bruno T. C. de Oliveira, a computer-science
student at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. My e-mail address is:

	\fBbtco@linux.ime.usp.br   or   brunotc@gmail.com\fR

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

When you specify '@foo' as a machine name when adding, the default program
behavior is to read a file named 'foo' in the current directory and add
all the machines listed there (one per line). If however you set the 
OMNITTY_AT_COMMAND environment variable, omnitty will, instead of trying
to open a file named 'foo', execute the command OMNITTY_AT_COMMAND supplying
it the argument 'foo'. The output of this command will be interpreted as a list
of machines to add (one per line).

.SH MORE DETAILS
Multiple-host network administration usually involves running the same
set of commands on several different machines. An administrator might
ssh into each of the machines in his network individually to perform
the required tasks, but the process soon becomes repetitive and
prone to errors. Scripts might help in the case of noninteractive
programs and when the administrator knows exactly what commands are
to be given. Error handling in these scripts is also difficult to
code, and the process becomes especially tedious if these tasks
have to be done regularly.

Omnitty tries to present a different approach to manipulating several
machines remotely. It simultaneously logs you into all the machines you
specify and then presents a screen in which you navigate through
the list of machines. When you select a machine, its "terminal" is shown
onscreen and they keypresses you type are sent to that machine while
it is selected. The user may freely navigate the list, interacting
with the machines in any order.

Another feature is that you can 'tag' machines on the list and enter
a mode where the input you provide is directed to ALL the machines
you tagged, simultaneously. Thus you might tag all the machines in
which you need to run a particular command and then type the command
once to have all machines execute it.

Omnitty not only works with regular commands, but also with visual
programs. For example, you might run 'vi' remotely on several machines
simultaneously, and every keystroke you supply will be reproduced
in every machine you tagged. Thus you might interactively edit
files in several machines at once.


.SH LICENSE INFORMATION
Copyright (c) 2004 Bruno Takahashi C. de Oliveira. All rights reserved.

This program is licensed under the GNU General Public License,
version 2 or, at your option, any later version. For full license
information, please refer to the COPYING file that accompanies
the program.