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Expand README.md, giving a better sense of whats going on here

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Cassowary Rusnov
2026-02-09 11:15:06 -08:00
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Run commands across a set of hosts interactively!
=================================================
## Core Concepts
At its core, multiball allows you to run commands on multiple target hosts via ssh. The actual commands are run
non-interactively, and when complete show their output.
Multiball has a list of 'default' hosts that it loads from a specified configuration file.
Multiball has a list of 'targeted' hosts that it will run the commands on. This list is arbitrary, and is set to the
default host list at startup.
Multiball includes a set of commands to manipulate the target list.
Multiball has a safety system: By default multiball is "safe", preventing any commands from being run on the target
list, while still allowing manipulation of the host list and other commands that would not run on the remote hosts. Once
it is unsafetied (using the `/safety off` command), any command that isn't a multiball command will be run on the remote
hosts in the target list.
## Quickstart
Basic configuration file is in `multiball.cfg.example` in the distribution. Customize to your liking.
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Planned features, see __main__.py's comments.
Installation
-------------------------------------------------
### Installation
Install dependencies:
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cd multiball
make
```
### Usage
The `multiball` command starts an interactive shell. It looks in the current working directory for its configuration
file (`multiball.cfg`). Typically, a different configuration for each project, client, etc would be created. For
example at Autonomic, we have a multiball.cfg in our infrastructure repository, in `infrastructure-data`, so to work
on Autonomic hosts, run multiball from that directory.
Commands:
* /help, help, ? - This help
* /targethosts, /targethosts, /targets, /hosts - Show the current list of target hosts.
* /clear - Clear target host list.
* /host, /add, /target - Set the target host list. /host clears the list first. Supports wildcards.
* /remove, /removehost, /removetarget - Remove hosts from target host list. Supports wildcards.
* /all - Reset the target host list to all known hosts.
* /allhosts, /alltargets - Show list of all known hosts.
* /exit, exit - Exit.
* /environment, /env, /set - Set (or print) environment to send to remote host before running commands.
* /clearenv - Clear environment (entire or single variable)
* /safety, safety - Turn on safety or turn off with `off`.
* /safe - Run this command as if it were safe even if safety is on.
* /confirm - [scripting] Prompt for confirmation
* /echo - [scripting] print string
* /arguments - [scripting] Abort if no arguments are specified.
* /unsafe - [scripting] Abort command if safety is on.
* /save - Save last run log to file.