Provided by: xrsh_5.92-8_all bug

NAME

       xrsh - start an X program on a remote machine

SYNOPSIS

       xrsh  [  -help  ] [ -version ] [ -l username ] [ -e rshprog ] [ -auth authtype ] [ -screen
       screen-# ] [ -pass envlist ] [ -debug ] [ -debug2 ] remote-host [  X-command  [  arguments
       ... ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       Xrsh  runs  the  given  X  command  on a remote host.  It sets up the environment for that
       command such that  it  will  display  its  windows  on  the  current  server's  screen  by
       propagating  the  $DISPLAY  environment variable.  If not specified, the default client is
       xterm.  Xrsh automatically selects ssh(1), rsh(1), remsh(1) or rcmd(1) to  execute  remote
       commands, depending on what is available the O/S environment.

       Xrsh  automatically  handles  authentication  so that the remote client will be allowed to
       open windows on the server.  It does this in several different ways depending on the value
       of the $XRSH_AUTH_TYPE environment variable or the -auth argument.

       By  default,  xrsh will use xhost to enable the remote client to open a server connection.
       It can also be told to use xauth to merge local keys into  a  remote  authorization  file.
       Or it can pass the $XAUTHORITY environment variable to the remote host in order to share a
       common NFS mounted authority file.  It can also be directed to  do  nothing  in  the  case
       where no explicit authorization is necessary.

       Users  who  just  want  a  remote  terminal  window  might  look at xrsh's sister command,
       xrlogin(1).  Xrlogin uses a locally running xterm to open an rlogin connection to a remote
       host.   The decision on whether to use "xrsh host xterm" or "xrlogin host" should be based
       on several factors.  If X is unavailable on the remote host or the local terminal emulator
       has  better  features,  use  xrlogin.   In  general, the author recommends using xrsh over
       xrlogin in most situations.

       If the command to execute on the remote host is an xterm, xrsh  automatically  passes  the
       -name argument to xterm with a value of "xterm-hostname" where hostname is the name of the
       remote host.  This allows the user to specify resources in their server's resource manager
       which  are specific to xterms from a given host.  For example, this feature can be used to
       make all xterm windows from a given remote host be the same color or use a  specific  font
       or start up in a specific place on the screen.  Xrlogin passes the same string so they are
       compatible in this regard.  This feature can be overridden by specifying  your  own  -name
       argument on the xterm command line.

       If  the command to execute on the remote host is an xterm, xrsh specifies that the default
       title for the new xterm will be "xterm@hostname" where hostname is the name of the  remote
       host.   This  can  also  be overridden by specifying your own -title argument on the xterm
       command line.

       Xrsh is very careful not to leave any extra  processes  on  either  the  local  or  remote
       machine  waiting around for the client to exit.  In some remote environments (particularly
       some Sys V implementations of csh and rsh), this is impossible and xrsh should be run as a
       background command.

OPTIONS

       Note that xrsh options precede the given X command and its arguments.

       -auth authtype
              Choose  what  type  of  X  authorization  (or  access control) is going to be used.
              Authtype can be one  of  "xhost",  "xauth",  "xhost-xterminal",  "environment",  or
              "none".   The  default is xhost, but the default can be set by setting the value of
              the environment variable $XRSH_AUTH_TYPE.

              If xhost is specified and the X server is running on the local machine, xhost  will
              be run locally to enable the remote host to open an X connection.  If the server is
              on a third host (not the one where xrsh is running and not the one where  you  wish
              to  run the command), rsh will be used to run xhost on the server host to authorize
              the host where the command will be run.

              If xauth is specified, then xrsh will merge the entries for  the  server  from  the
              local $XAUTHORITY file into that of the remote host using rsh.

              The  authtype  xhost-xterminal is intended for use by people using X terminals.  If
              xhost-xterminal is used, then the first time xrsh is run, it runs xhost locally  to
              enable  the  remote  host  for  access.  This should work since (theoretically) the
              first time it is run is on the XDMCP host for the X  terminal.   From  then  on  it
              propagates  the  name of that host to all remote hosts via the environment variable
              $XHOST.  In subsequent invocations from remote hosts, xrsh uses rsh to  connect  to
              the host $XHOST and run xhost to enable new remote hosts.

              Authtype  "none"  does  no explicit work for access control.  Use this if you don't
              enable access control or if you use another mechanism for access control.

              Finally, authtype "environment" automatically propagates the  environment  variable
              $XAUTHORITY  to  remote hosts, assuming that it is an NFS mounted location that can
              be accessed from all hosts.

       -debug Normally xrsh redirects standard input and  standard  output  to  /dev/null  in  an
              effort  to  cause unneeded rshd and shell processes to exit.  As a result, the user
              can't usually see any errors that might occur (like  a  "Permission  denied."  from
              rsh).   If  you  are  having  trouble  getting xrsh to work with a remote host, try
              giving the -debug switch to see if any errors are being generated.

       -debug2
              This switch causes xrsh to turn on the -x option in the shell so that the user  can
              see  every  shell  command  executed  by  xrsh.   Only  use  this script if you are
              debugging the xrsh code itself.

       -help  Print out the argument list to standard output.

       -l username
              Use the -l switch to specify a different user name to use for logging in via rsh on
              the remote host.

       -e rshprog
              The  -e  switch can be used to set a different remote shell program, e.g.  ssh. The
              default is remsh or rsh, depending on your system. This flag overrides $XRSH_RSH.

       -pass envlist
              Envlist is a  quote  delimited  string  naming  an  arbitrary  set  of  environment
              variables to pass on to the shell environment on the remote host.  If one wanted to
              set $XRSH_AUTH_TYPE and $XAUTHORITY to  the  remote  host,  one  could  use:  -pass
              "XRSH_AUTH_TYPE XAUTHORITY".  A default set of environment variables to pass may be
              set using the environment variable $XRSH_ENVS_TO_PASS.

       -screen screen-#
              Specify a different screen on the server on which to display the remote client.

       -version
              Print out version information and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

       The environment variables XRSH_AUTH_TYPE and XRSH_ENVS_TO_PASS which can be  used  to  set
       switch defaults are overridden if the equivalent switch is specified as well.

       XAUTHORITY
              The  $XAUTHORITY  environment variable is passed to the remote host if the authtype
              specified by -auth or $XRSH_AUTH_TYPE is "environment".

       XRSH_AUTH_TYPE
              This environment variable can be used to specify the default type of  authorization
              or  access control.  The values it can be set to are the same as the values for the
              argument -auth.

       XRSH_RSH
              This variable can redefine the remote shell program to use, e.g. ssh.

       XRSH_RSH_ERRORS
              If the environment variable XRSH_RSH_ERRORS is set to the name of a file,  any  rsh
              errors  will  appear  in  that file on the remote host.  If that variable is unset,
              error messages will be thrown away unless the -debug switch is given. (Note:  don't
              use ~ in the filename because it will expand to ~ on the local host, but try to put
              the errors in that file on the remote host.)

       XRSH_ENVS_TO_PASS

COMMON PROBLEMS

       Make sure your PATH environment variable on the remote host  is  set  in  your  .cshrc  or
       .bashrc  so  that rsh programs have access to it.  (/bin/sh and /bin/ksh users have a hard
       time time here since their shells don't execute any init files under rsh.  You can use the
       XRSH_ENVS_TO_PASS environment variable to pass the PATH environment variable to the remote
       host.  Optionally, you can type  a full path to xrsh in that case.   (E.g.   xrsh  remote-
       host /usr/bin/X11/xterm))

       Make  sure  your  PATH  environment  variable  on  the  remote host includes the directory
       containing the X programs.  This is often /usr/bin/X11 or /usr/local/bin/X11.

       Make sure you have rsh configured to work on the  remote  host.   You  can  test  this  by
       typing:  rsh remote-host echo '$PATH' This will prove that rsh works and show you the PATH
       that will be used on the remote host.  If you get "Permission denied." you  probably  need
       to update your ~/.rhosts file on the remote host.  See rlogin(1).

EXAMPLES

       xrsh yoda
              Start  an xterm on the host yoda which displays on the current X server.  Use xhost
              for access control.

       xrsh -auth xauth underdog emacs
              Start an emacs on the host underdog.  Merge xauth authorization  entries  for  this
              server into the authority file on the remote host.

       xrsh -l mjd -auth none -pass XRSH_AUTH_TYPE -debug tigger xterm -fn 5x7
              Start  an  xterm on the host tigger in a very small font, propagate the environment
              variable $XRSH_AUTH_TYPE to the remote host, login to the remote host using the  id
              "mjd", don't do any specific authorization and don't redirect standard/error output
              to /dev/null so I can see any errors.

BUGS

       If the values of the  environment  variables  specified  in  -pass  or  $XRSH_ENVS_TO_PASS
       contain quote characters, xrsh will have difficulty.

       If  the remote host can't resolve the hostname of the server host (through /etc/hosts, DNS
       or NIS), the remote client will not be able to open a connection to the server.

       System V users may need to make the first line of the script begin with colon (:).

       If you think you have found a bug, the first thing you should do is to check on  ftp.x.org
       in  the  contrib  directory  using  anonymous FTP to see if there is a new version of xrsh
       there that already fixes the bug.  If not, send email to "jjd@jjd.com" and be sure to have
       the  token  xrsh  somewhere  in the Subject: line.  Be sure to report the operating system
       type and version at both ends of the xrsh connection and a description of the command  you
       are using and what authentication mode you are using.

SEE ALSO

       xrlogin(1), rsh(1), xhost(1), xauth(1)

AUTHOR

       James  J.  Dempsey  <jjd@jjd.com>  with  help  and  suggestions from many people including
       gildea@intouchsys.com,    dm@bbn.com,     dgreen@cs.ucla.edu     and     rosen@cns.bu.edu,
       <eero@whitechapel.media.mit.edu>, and  <martin@whitechapel.media.mit.edu>.