[TUHS] Be there a "remote diff" utility?

[arnold at skeeve.com]

Ralph Corderoy <ralph at inputplus.co.uk> wrote:

> > Maybe
> >
> >     diff -u <(ssh host1 cat file1) <(ssh host2 cat file2)
>
> This is annoyingly noisy if the remote SSH server has sshd_config(5)'s
> ‘Banner’ set which spews the contents of a file before authentication,
> e.g. the pointless
>
> [....]
>
> It appears on stderr so doesn't upset the diff but does clutter.

All true, I didn't think about that.

> And discarding stderr is too sloppy.

But the author of a personal script knows his/her remote machines
and can decide if

     diff -u <(ssh host1 cat file1 2>/dev/null) <(ssh host2 cat file2 2>/dev/null)

is appropriate or not.

My main point was that the problem is easily solved with a
few lines of shell, so no need for a utility, especially one
written in C or some other compiled language.

Thanks,

Arnold