on.1 (2010 09)

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on(1) on(1)
NAME
on - execute command on remote host with environment similar to local
SYNOPSIS
on [-i  -n][-d
] host [ command [ argument ] ... ]
DESCRIPTION
on executes a command on a remote host, using an environment similar to that of the invoking user
where:
host specifies the name of the host on which to execute the command.
command specifies the command to execute on host
If command is not specified, on
starts a shell on host. argument ... is a list of arguments for command.
The user’s environment variables are copied to the remote host, and the file system containing the user’s
current working directory is
NFS mounted on the remote host (see nfs(7)). The command is executed on
the remote host in the user’s current working directory.
Commands using relative path names that reference file system objects within the user’s current working
file system have the same behavior as running the command on the client. The behavior of commands
using relative path names that cross the file system boundary or commands using absolute path names
depends on the organization of the remote host’s file system.
Implicit and explicit use of environment variables may also cause a command’s behavior to be dependent
on the organization of the remote host’s file system. For example, the
$PATH environment variable usu-
ally contains absolute path names.
Standard input, output and error of the remote command are connected to the appropriate file descriptors
on the client.
The remote execution daemon (
rexd) does not allow root to execute a remote command.
The signals
SIGINT, SIGTERM, and SIGQUIT are propagated to the remote command. SIGTSTP and
SIGSTOP are ignored by the remote command. All other signals are delivered to the on command.
In order to execute a remote command, the remote host must be configured to execute
rexd (see
rexd(1M)).
Options
on recognizes the following options:
-i Interactive mode. This option is required for commands that must communicate with a ter-
minal such as vi, ksh,ormore. Terminal mode changes are propagated to the
rexd
server. The standard input for an interactive on command must be a tty device. The -i
and -n options are mutually exclusive.
-d Debug mode. Print diagnostic messages during startup of the on command. These mes-
sages are useful for detecting configuration problems if the on command to a specific host
is failing.
-n No input mode. This option causes the remote command to get end-of-file (EOF) when it
reads from standard input, instead of connecting the standard input of the on command to
the standard input of the remote command. The -n option is required when running com-
mands in the background. The -n and -i options are mutually exclusive.
DIAGNOSTICS
on: unknown host host
The host name host was not found in the hosts database.
on: cannot connect to server on host
The host host is down, unreachable on the network, or not running rexd.
on: can’t find current_dir
A problem occurred trying to find the user’s current working directory ( current_dir ).
on: can’t locate mount point for current_dir
A problem occurred trying to determine the mount point of the user’s current working direc-
tory ( current_dir ).
HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1