Provided by: clustershell_1.9.3-1_all 
NAME
clush - execute shell commands on a cluster
SYNOPSIS
clush -a | -g group | -w nodes [OPTIONS]
clush -a | -g group | -w nodes [OPTIONS] command
clush -a | -g group | -w nodes [OPTIONS] --copy file | dir [ file | dir ...] [ --dest path ]
clush -a | -g group | -w nodes [OPTIONS] --rcopy file | dir [ file | dir ...] [ --dest path ]
DESCRIPTION
clush is a program for executing commands in parallel on a cluster and for gathering their results. clush
executes commands interactively or can be used within shell scripts and other applications. It is a
partial front-end to the ClusterShell library that ensures a light, unified and robust parallel command
execution framework. Thus, it allows traditional shell scripts to benefit from some of the library
features. clush currently makes use of the Ssh worker of ClusterShell, by default, that only requires
ssh(1) (OpenSSH SSH client).
INVOCATION
clush can be started non-interactively to run a shell command, or can be invoked as an interactive shell.
To start a clush interactive session, invoke the clush command without providing command.
Non-interactive mode
When clush is started non-interactively, the command is executed on the specified remote hosts in
parallel. If option -b or --dshbak is specified, clush waits for command completion and then
displays gathered output results.
The -w option allows you to specify remote hosts by using ClusterShell NodeSet syntax, including
the node groups @group special syntax and the Extended Patterns syntax to benefits from NodeSet
basic arithmetic (like @Agroup\&@Bgroup). See EXTENDED PATTERNS in nodeset(1) and also
groups.conf(5) for more information.
Unless the option --nostdin (or -n) is specified, clush detects when its standard input is
connected to a terminal (as determined by isatty(3)). If actually connected to a terminal, clush
listens to standard input when commands are running, waiting for an Enter key press. Doing so
will display the status of current nodes. If standard input is not connected to a terminal, and
unless the option --nostdin is specified, clush binds the standard input of the remote commands to
its own standard input, allowing scripting methods like:
# echo foo | clush -w node[40-42] -b cat
---------------
node[40-42]
---------------
foo
Please see some other great examples in the EXAMPLES section below.
Interactive session
If a command is not specified, and its standard input is connected to a terminal, clush runs
interactively. In this mode, clush uses the GNU readline library to read command lines. Readline
provides commands for searching through the command history for lines containing a specified
string. For instance, type Control-R to search in the history for the next entry matching the
search string typed so far. clush also recognizes special single-character prefixes that allows
the user to see and modify the current nodeset (the nodes where the commands are executed).
Single-character interactive commands are:
clush> ?
show current nodeset
clush> @<NODESET>
set current nodeset
clush> +<NODESET>
add nodes to current nodeset
clush> -<NODESET>
remove nodes from current nodeset
clush> !COMMAND
execute COMMAND on the local system
clush> =
toggle the output format (gathered or standard mode)
To leave an interactive session, type quit or Control-D.
Local execution ( --worker=exec or -R exec )
Instead of running provided command on remote nodes, clush can use the dedicated exec worker to
launch the command locally, for each node. Some parameters could be used in the command line to
make a different command for each node. %h or %host will be replaced by node name and %n or %rank
by the remote rank [0-N] (to get a literal % use %%)
File copying mode ( --copy )
When clush is started with the -c or --copy option, it will attempt to copy specified files and/or
directories to the provided cluster nodes. The --dest option can be used to specify a single path
where all the file(s) should be copied to on the target nodes. In the absence of --dest, clush
will attempt to copy each file or directory found in the command line to their same location on
the target nodes.
Reverse file copying mode ( --rcopy )
When clush is started with the --rcopy option, it will attempt to retrieve specified file and/or
dir from provided cluster nodes. If the --dest option is specified, it must be a directory path
where the files will be stored with their hostname appended. If the destination path is not
specified, it will take each file or directory's parent directory as the local destination.
OPTIONS
--version
show clush version number and exit
-s GROUPSOURCE, --groupsource=GROUPSOURCE
optional groups.conf(5) group source to use
-n, --nostdin
do not watch for possible input from stdin; this should be used when clush is run in the
background (or in scripts).
--groupsconf=FILE
use alternate config file for groups.conf(5)
--conf=FILE
use alternate config file for clush.conf(5)
-O <KEY=VALUE>, --option=<KEY=VALUE>
override any key=value clush.conf(5) options (repeat as needed)
Selecting target nodes:
-w NODES
nodes where to run the command
-x NODES
exclude nodes from the node list
-a, --all
run command on all nodes
-g GROUP, --group=GROUP
run command on a group of nodes
-X GROUP
exclude nodes from this group
--hostfile=FILE, --machinefile=FILE
path to a file containing a list of single hosts, node sets or node groups, separated by
spaces and lines (may be specified multiple times, one per file)
--topology=FILE
topology configuration file to use for tree mode
--pick=N
pick N node(s) at random in nodeset
Output behaviour:
-q, --quiet
be quiet, print essential output only
-v, --verbose
be verbose, print informative messages
-d, --debug
output more messages for debugging purpose
-G, --groupbase
do not display group source prefix
-L disable header block and order output by nodes; if -b/-B is not specified, clush will wait
for all commands to finish and then display aggregated output of commands with same return
codes, ordered by node name; alternatively, when used in conjunction with -b/-B (eg. -bL),
clush will enable a "life gathering" of results by line, such as the next line is displayed
as soon as possible (eg. when all nodes have sent the line)
-N disable labeling of command line
-P, --progress
show progress during command execution; if writing is performed to standard input, the live
progress indicator will display the global bandwidth of data written to the target nodes
-b, --dshbak
display gathered results in a dshbak-like way (note: it will only try to aggregate the
output of commands with same return codes)
-B like -b but including standard error
-r, --regroup
fold nodeset using node groups
-S, --maxrc
return the largest of command return codes
--color=WHENCOLOR
clush can use NO_COLOR, CLICOLOR and CLICOLOR_FORCE environment variables. NO_COLOR takes
precedence over CLICOLOR_FORCE which takes precedence over CLICOLOR. When --color option
is used these environment variables are not taken into account. --color tells whether to
use ANSI colors to surround node or nodeset prefix/header with escape sequences to display
them in color on the terminal. WHENCOLOR is never, always or auto (which use color if
standard output/error refer to a terminal). Colors are set to [34m (blue foreground text)
for stdout and [31m (red foreground text) for stderr, and cannot be modified.
--diff show diff between common outputs (find the best reference output by focusing on largest
nodeset and also smaller command return code)
--outdir=OUTDIR
output directory for stdout files (OPTIONAL)
--errdir=ERRDIR
output directory for stderr files (OPTIONAL)
File copying:
-c, --copy
copy local file or directory to remote nodes
--rcopy
copy file or directory from remote nodes
--dest=DEST_PATH
destination file or directory on the nodes (optional: use the first source directory path
when not specified)
-p preserve modification times and modes
Connection options:
-f FANOUT, --fanout=FANOUT
do not execute more than FANOUT commands at the same time, useful to limit resource usage.
In tree mode, the same fanout value is used on the head node and on each gateway (the
fanout value is propagated). That is, if the fanout is 16, each gateway will initiate up to
16 connections to their target nodes at the same time. Default fanout value is defined in
clush.conf(5).
-l USER, --user=USER
execute remote command as user
-o OPTIONS, --options=OPTIONS
can be used to give ssh options, eg. -o "-p 2022 -i ~/.ssh/myidrsa"; these options are
added first to ssh and override default ones
-t CONNECT_TIMEOUT, --connect_timeout=CONNECT_TIMEOUT
limit time to connect to a node
-u COMMAND_TIMEOUT, --command_timeout=COMMAND_TIMEOUT
limit time for command to run on the node
-m MODE, --mode=MODE
run mode; define MODEs in <confdir>/*.conf
-R WORKER, --worker=WORKER
worker name to use for connection (exec, ssh, rsh, pdsh, or the name of a Python worker
module), default is ssh
--remote=REMOTE
whether to enable remote execution: in tree mode, 'yes' forces connections to the leaf
nodes for execution, 'no' establishes connections up to the leaf parent nodes for execution
(default is 'yes')
For a short explanation of these options, see -h, --help.
EXIT STATUS
By default, an exit status of zero indicates success of the clush command but gives no information about
the remote commands exit status. However, when the -S option is specified, the exit status of clush is
the largest value of the remote commands return codes.
For failed remote commands whose exit status is non-zero, and unless the combination of options -qS is
specified, clush displays messages similar to:
clush: node[40-42]: exited with exit code 1
EXAMPLES
Remote parallel execution
# clush -w node[3-5,62] uname -r
Run command uname -r in parallel on nodes: node3, node4, node5 and node62
Local parallel execution
# clush -w node[1-3] --worker=exec ping -c1 %host
Run locally, in parallel, a ping command for nodes: node1, node2 and node3. You may also use -R
exec as the shorter and pdsh compatible option.
Display features
# clush -w node[3-5,62] -b uname -r
Run command uname -r on nodes[3-5,62] and display gathered output results (integrated
dshbak-like).
# clush -w node[3-5,62] -bL uname -r
Line mode: run command uname -r on nodes[3-5,62] and display gathered output results without
default header block.
# ssh node32 find /etc/yum.repos.d -type f | clush -w node[40-42] -b xargs ls -l
Search some files on node32 in /etc/yum.repos.d and use clush to list the matching ones on
node[40-42], and use -b to display gathered results.
# clush -w node[3-5,62] --diff dmidecode -s bios-version
Run this Linux command to get BIOS version on nodes[3-5,62] and show version differences (if any).
All nodes
# clush -a uname -r
Run command uname -r on all cluster nodes, see groups.conf(5) to setup all cluster nodes (all:
field).
# clush -a -x node[5,7] uname -r
Run command uname -r on all cluster nodes except on nodes node5 and node7.
# clush -a --diff cat /some/file
Run command cat /some/file on all cluster nodes and show differences (if any), line by line,
between common outputs.
Node groups
# clush -w @oss modprobe lustre
Run command modprobe lustre on nodes from node group named oss, see groups.conf(5) to setup node
groups (map: field).
# clush -g oss modprobe lustre
Same as previous example but using -g to avoid @ group prefix.
# clush -w @mds,@oss modprobe lustre
You may specify several node groups by separating them with commas (please see EXTENDED PATTERNS
in nodeset(1) and also groups.conf(5) for more information).
Copy files
# clush -w node[3-5,62] --copy /etc/motd
Copy local file /etc/motd to remote nodes node[3-5,62].
# clush -w node[3-5,62] --copy /etc/motd --dest /tmp/motd2
Copy local file /etc/motd to remote nodes node[3-5,62] at path /tmp/motd2.
# clush -w node[3-5,62] -c /usr/share/doc/clustershell
Recursively copy local directory /usr/share/doc/clustershell to the same path on remote nodes
node[3-5,62].
# clush -w node[3-5,62] --rcopy /etc/motd --dest /tmp
Copy /etc/motd from remote nodes node[3-5,62] to local /tmp directory, each file having their
remote hostname appended, eg. /tmp/motd.node3.
FILES
$CLUSTERSHELL_CFGDIR/clush.conf
Global clush configuration file. If $CLUSTERSHELL_CFGDIR is not defined,
/etc/clustershell/clush.conf is used instead.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clustershell/clush.conf
User configuration file for clush. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not defined,
$HOME/.config/clustershell/clush.conf is used instead.
$HOME/.local/etc/clustershell/clush.conf
Local user configuration file for clush (default installation for pip --user)
~/.clush.conf
Deprecated per-user clush configuration file.
~/.clush_history
File in which interactive clush command history is saved.
SEE ALSO
clubak(1), cluset(1), nodeset(1), readline(3), clush.conf(5), groups.conf(5).
<http://clustershell.readthedocs.org/>
BUG REPORTS
Use the following URL to submit a bug report or feedback:
<https://github.com/cea-hpc/clustershell/issues>
AUTHOR
Stephane Thiell <sthiell@stanford.edu>
COPYRIGHT
GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 or later (LGPLv2.1+)
1.9.3 2025-01-23 CLUSH(1)