Multi-Machine Shell

• US 20090228821A1
• Filed: 01/31/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Paul Michael Tapper
• Original Assignee: Paul Michael Tapper
• Inventors: Tapper, Paul Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,627,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/541 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

A shell capable of operating a plurality of computer systems and possibly using a plurality of user credentials. An embodiment is described whereby a single command can involve a plurality of different processes operating on a plurality of machines under a plurality of user credentials.

Claims

1. A method of running a command involving a plurality of machines, said method comprising:

(a) providing code to interact with all the types of operating system used by the individual machines which comprise said plurality of machines,

(b) obtaining a group of one or more commands from a command source,

(c) parsing said group of commands according to a grammar which allows all of but may or may not require each of the following;

(c1) parameters including a machine, username and current working directory to be associated with labels,

(c2) commands from said group of commands to be split into a group of elements where elements from said group of elements may send output to or read input from other elements within said group of elements,

(c3) each element within said group of elements to be associated with one of said labels thereby associating the parameters associated with said label with said element,

(d) running said code to interact with operating systems where said code for interacting with operating systems is required in order to run said command and where said code for interacting with said operating systems is not already running in a suitable form as a result of previous commands executed using this method,

(e) instructing and coordinating said code for interacting with operating systems so as to execute said command,

whereby complex commands involving various elements on various machines can be executed

2. The method of claim 1 using a grammar substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to FIG. 6

3. The method of claim 1 used to implement a shell substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to FIG. 4

4. A method of running a command on a plurality of machines comprising:

(a) providing an area on a visual display for said command to interact with a user,

(b) providing means to detect attempts by said command to read input from said user on any of said plurality of machines,

(c) providing a visual indication to said user when an attempt to read input is detected by said detection means.

whereby said user can easily identify commands which require interaction.

5. The method of claim 4 where said area on said visual display is put into focus when an attempt to read input is detected by said detection means whereby allowing said user to easily interact with commands which require interaction or continue with other tasks where such interaction is not required.

6. The method of claim 4 where a means is also provided to determine whether said user is actively performing a task and said area on said visual display is put into focus when an attempt to read input is detected by said detection means and said user is not determined to be performing a task by said determining means whereby allowing said user to easily interact with commands which require interaction and continue with other tasks where such interaction is not required but preventing interruption when other tasks are being actively performed.

7. A method of specifying parameters for executing a command or partial command on one of a plurality of machines, comprising:

(d) obtaining said parameters,

(e) associating said parameters with a label,

(f) storing said parameters, said label and said association between said parameters and said label,

(g) associating said label with said command or partial command,

whereby said label allows said parameters to be specified for said command or partial command in an abbreviated manner.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said parameters include parameters selected from the group consisting of a host name, a set of user credentials, a current working directory, a set of system settings, a set of environment variables and a search path.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein:

(h) said command or partial command is in text format,

(i) said label is adjacent to said command or partial command,

(j) said label and said command or partial command are separated by a symbol.

10. The method of claim 9 where said command takes the form of a pipeline of processes.

11. The method of claim 9 where said command takes the form of a list of pipelines of processes, said pipelines in said list being executed in a predetermined sequence.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the execution of any of said pipelines may be dependent on a result obtained from a previously executed said pipeline.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the details of said dependency are indicated by a symbol, said symbol being placed between an adjacent pair of said pipelines, said symbol also acting as a separator for said adjacent pair of pipelines.

14. The method of claim 13 where said pipeline of processes includes means for selecting a set of streams to be redirected at each stage of the pipeline, said set of streams being selected from a group containing:

the standard output stream and the standard error stream.

15. The method of claim 14 using a grammar substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to FIG. 6