SSHEXEC Task

## SSHEXEC

### Description

since Apache Ant 1.6

Runs a command on a remote machine running SSH daemon.

Note: This task depends on external libraries not included in the Ant distribution. See Library Dependencies for more information. This task has been tested with jsch-0.1.29 and above and won't work with versions of jsch earlier than 0.1.28.

See also the scp 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 known hosts file to use to validate the identity of the remote host. This must be a SSH2 format file. SSH1 format is not supported. | No, defaults to ${user.home}/.ssh/known_hosts.
failonerror | Whether to halt the build if the command does not complete successfully. | No; defaults to true.
password | The password. | Not if you are using key based authentication or the password has been given in the file or todir attribute.
keyfile | Location of the file holding the private key. | Yes, if you are using key based authentication.
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
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

### Examples

Run a command on a remote machine using password authentication

      <sshexec host="somehost"
    	username="dude"
    	password="yo"
    	command="touch somefile"/>

Run a command on a remote machine using key authentication

      <sshexec host="somehost"
    	username="dude"
    	keyfile="${user.home}/.ssh/id_dsa"
    	passphrase="yo its a secret"
    	command="touch somefile"/>

Run a command on a remote machine using key authentication with no passphrase

      <sshexec host="somehost"
    	username="dude"
    	keyfile="${user.home}/.ssh/id_dsa"
    	command="touch somefile"/>

Run a set of commands from a command resource (file) on a remote machine using key authentication with no passphrase

      <sshexec host="somehost"
    	username="dude"
    	keyfile="${user.home}/.ssh/id_dsa"
    	commandResource="to_run"/>

Security Note: Hard coding passwords and/or usernames in sshexec task can be a serious security hole. Consider using variable substitution and include the password on the command line. For example:

      <sshexec host="somehost"
    	username="${username}"
    	password="${password}"
    	command="touch somefile"/>

Invoking ant with the following command line:

        ant -Dusername=me -Dpassword=mypassword target1 target2

Is slightly better, but the username/password is exposed to all users on an Unix system (via the ps command). The best approach is to use the `<input>` task and/or retrieve the password from a (secured) .properties file.