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

[Skip Tavakkolian]

To add to Ron's post, Plan 9's cpu exports the origination's namespace to
the destination; by convention it is mounted on /mnt/term at destination.

host1% cpu -h host2
host2% diff file2 /mnt/term/usr/me/file1


On Thu, May 16, 2024 at 10:09 AM ron minnich <rminnich at gmail.com> wrote:

> " The 9import tool allows an arbitrary file on a remote system, with the
> capability of running the Plan 9 exportfs(4) service, to be imported into
> the local name space. Usually file is a directory, so the complete file
> tree under the directory is made available."
> https://9fans.github.io/plan9port/man/man4/9import.html
>
> 9import host1 / /tmp/host1
> 9import host2 /tmp/host2
> diff /tmp/host1/a/b/c /tmp/host2/a/b/c
> (or whatever command you want that works with files. No need for stuff
> like 'rdiff' etc.)
>
> stuff you take for granted on some systems ...
>
> I have the plan 9 cpu command working (written in Go) and I think it's
> time I get import working more widely, it's just too useful.
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2024 at 2:01 AM <arnold at skeeve.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>
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