drist

NOTE: This is a fork of the origional drsit. See the HISTORY section below.

BRIEF

drist is a tool to configure and synchronize configurations to, and/or run scrips on remote host(s) via ssh(1).

SYNOPSIS

drist [-p] [-d] [-e [sudo|doas]] [-S script] [-f files-directory] [-F file-to-copy] destination [...]

DESCRIPTION

Remote host configuration preformed with files and scripts without any special configuration syntaxes/languages, daemons, or agents. drist relies on base tools like sed(1), and ssh(1) and aims at being a simple to use and a pluggable automation tool.

When executed without optional "-F", "-f", "-S" flags, drist will execute the following steps from the current working directory:

1. If folder 'files' or 'files-HOSTNAME' exists, its content is copied to server.
2. If file 'script' or 'script-HOSTNAME' exists, executed on remote server via ssh(1).

In the previous list, files are copied to or scripts executed on remote server if it's hostname matches 'HOSTNAME' (e.g. a directory called: "files-server.local" would only copy files to a host whos hostname is: "server.local").

If the 'folder' or the 'script' file does not exist, drist will skip it.

drist also supports execution from a different working directory via the use of optional command flags to specify the script or files to be uploaded. See the options and examples sections below.

OPTIONS

-p Use persistent ssh connection, allowing ssh only once for the different steps. This uses ControlMaster feature from ssh(1).

-d Truncate reported hostname. Tells drist to truncate the reported remote hostname to the left-most component.

-e [sudo|doas] execute as priviliged command (as root) on the remote server via binary. Default is doas.

-S (script) Use a specified script instead of a file called script found in local directory.

-f (directory) Use a specified directory to upload instead of a local directory of files directory.

-F (file) A single file to upload instead of one found in a files directory.

destination Specify the remote servers you want drist to work on. The destination can be a file containing a list of hosts, one per line or it can be addresses passed in the command line. If you specify multiples servers, drist will loop over the list respecting the list order. Note that only one file can be used in the command line.

PORTABLE, FRICTIONLESS REMOTE DEPLOYS

drist is built for maximum reach: it only needs a POSIX-compatible /bin/sh, an ssh(1) client and tar(1) on the control system. No heavy runtimes, no daemon to install, no language-specific toolchains — just the standard Unix tools that are already on most servers. That means you can push scripts and files to systems (Linux, *BSD, minimal containers, appliances that include a shell) with one tiny, auditable script.

• Minimal requirements: POSIX sh(1) + ssh(1) + tar(1)
• No persistent server-side service: no need to install or run a client/server agent.
• Fast streaming transfers: streams files over a single ssh(1) connection (reducing IO and latency).
• Works over plain SSH: leverages standard ssh(1) semantics and optional connection persistence (ControlMaster) when available so transfers are secure by default.
• Streaming file transfer: tar(1) over ssh(1) keeps transfers simple, fast, and compatible with both BSD/GNU tar(1).
• Auditable & lightweight: small, readable code you can audit in seconds — ideal for ops, incident response, and constrained environments.
• Few dependencies (wide compatibility): designed to run where heavyweight tooling can’t.

Use drist when you want a small, dependable tool that just works with the ubiquitous Unix toolset.

BUILD

default install location: /usr/local/bin default man path location: /usr/local/share/man/man1

    # doas make install

To change the default install locations the included "configure" script can be used.

    # ./configure --preflix=/location/to/instal/to
    # ./configure --mandi=/location/for/man/pages

EXAMPLES

The following examples demonstrate usage with the optional file and directory specifier flags for clarity.

Upload and execute a script ("setup.sh") on the ACME host.

   # drist -S /place/where/scripts/reside/setup.sh ACME

Upload and execute a script ("setup.sh") on the ACME host using elevated permissions with doas.

   # drist -e -S /place/where/scripts/reside/setup.sh ACME

Upload and execute a script ("setup.sh") on the ACME host using elevated permissions with sudo.

   # drist -e sudo -S /place/where/scripts/reside/setup.sh ACME

Upload a file ("upload.file") to the ACME host.

    # drist -F /place/where/files/reside/upload.file ACME

Upload all files in a directory to the ACME host.

    # drist -f /place/where/files/reside/ ACME

HISTORY

• Originally created by Solène Rapenne solene@perso.pw The original drist is located: https://dataswamp.org/~solene/page-drist-official-website.html

• Updated by John Kaul. Please see the CHANGELOG for updates.