SSH Exec

Description

The com.dovetail.ant.ssh.SSHExec task is an enhanced version of the optional SSHExec task, based on Ant version 1.9.8. It includes the following enhancements:

Runs a command on a remote machine running SSH daemon.

Note: This task is used as an antlib with external libraries that are distributed with the Dovetail ant-ssh distribution.

See also the scp task, the ssh session task, and the ssh sftp task

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
host The hostname or IP address of the remote host to which you wish to connect. Yes
username The username on the remote host to which you are connecting. Yes
command The command to run on the remote host. Either this or commandResource must be set
commandResource The resource (file) that contains the commands to run on the remote host. Since Ant 1.7.1 Either this or command must be set
port The port to connect to on the remote host. No, defaults to 22.
trust This trusts all unknown hosts if set to yes/true.
Note If you set this to false (the default), the host you connect to must be listed in your knownhosts file, this also implies that the file exists.
No, defaults to No.
knownhosts This sets the list of known hosts file(s) to use to validate the identity of the remote host. This must be a SSH2 format file. SSH1 format is not supported. The special file name "putty" may be used to refer to PuTTY host keys stored in the Windows registry. The first known hosts file in this list will be updated with a new host key if trust=yes. A mismatched host key will never be replaced with a new key. No, defaults to "putty,${user.home}/.ssh/known_hosts" on Windows if PuTTY is installed or "${user.home}/.ssh/known_hosts" otherwise. On non-Windows systems, the default is "${user.home}/.ssh/known_hosts,/etc/ssh_known_hosts". Dovetail enhancement
failonerror Whether to halt the build if the command does not complete successfully. No; defaults to true.
password The password. No.
keyfile Location of the file holding the private key. No.
passphrase Passphrase for your private key. No, defaults to an empty string.
suppresssystemout Whether to suppress system out. since Ant 1.9.0 No, defaults to false
suppresssystemerr Whether to suppress system err. since Ant 1.9.4 No, defaults to false
output Name of a file to which to write the output. No
errorOutput The file to which the standard error of the command should be redirected. since Ant 1.9.4 No
append Whether output file should be appended to or overwritten. Defaults to false, meaning overwrite any existing file. No
errAppend Whether errorOutput file should be appended to or overwritten. Defaults to false, meaning overwrite any existing file. since Ant 1.9.4 No
outputproperty The name of a property in which the output of the command should be stored. If you use the commandResource attribute, each command's output will be prefixed by the command itself. No
errorproperty The name of a property in which the standard error of the command should be stored. since Ant 1.9.4 No
resultproperty the name of a property in which the return code of the command should be stored. Only of interest if failonerror=false. since Ant 1.9.4 No
timeout Stop the command if it doesn't finish within the specified time (given in milliseconds unlike telnet, which expects a timeout in seconds). Defaults to 0 which means "wait forever". No
input A file from which the executed command's standard input is taken. This attribute is mutually exclusive with the inputstring and inputproperty attributes.
When executing more than one command via commandResource, input will be read for each command. since Ant 1.8.0
No
verbose Determines whether sshexec outputs verbosely to the user.
Similar output is generated as the ssh commandline tool wit the -v option. since Ant 1.8.0
No, defaults to false
sshVerbose Determines whether verbose messages from the JSch ssh library are output. Dovetail enhancement No; defaults to false.
inputproperty Name of a property who's content serves as the input stream for the executed command. This attribute is mutually exclusive with the input and inputstring attributes.
When executing more than one command via commandResource, input will be read for each command. since Ant 1.8.0
No
inputstring A string which serves as the input stream for the executed command. This attribute is mutually exclusive with the input and inputproperty attributes.
When executing more than one command via commandResource, input will be read for each command. since Ant 1.8.3
No
usepty Whether to allocate a pseudo-tty (like ssh -t). since Ant 1.8.3 No, defaults to false
useSystemIn Whether to pass the current standard input to the remote process. since Ant 1.9.4 No, defaults to false
serverAliveIntervalSeconds Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received from the server, the task will send a message through the encrypted channel to request a response from the server. since Ant 1.9.7 No, the default is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server
serverAliveCountMax The number of server alive messages which may be sent without receiving any messages back from the server. Only used if serverAliveIntervalSeconds is not 0. since Ant 1.9.7 No, defaults to 3

Examples

See Ant Scp Task for examples on using the original task.

This task is packaged in an Antlib. To run, you must point to the Dovetail ant-ssh library jars:

   ant -lib /path/to/ant-ssh/lib

Run a command on a remote machine.

  <project name="test1" 
	xmlns:ssh="antlib:com.dovetail.ant.ssh">
  ...	
  <ssh:exec host="somehost"
	username="dude"
	command="touch somefile"/>

An ssh-agent will be used for authentication if available, otherwise a password will be prompted.