install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install dsh

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install dsh

MacPorts ports tree · net/dsh/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Debian aptverified · 92%

sudo apt install dsh

Debian stable package indexes · dsh · source: deb.debian.org

overview

Package summary

Dancer's shell, or distributed shell

Project links

Commands and aliases

dsh

history

Project history and usage

dsh, Dancer's shell, is Junichi Uekawa's C implementation of a distributed shell wrapper for running rsh, remsh, or ssh commands over many Unix hosts.

Project history

The official page says dsh grew from the author's own Debian cluster administration needs: repeatedly writing ad hoc scripts for many hosts was inefficient, so a personal tool was polished into a public program. The page's HTML creation stamp is 2001-08-31, and its public download index carries a long 0.22 through 0.25 release stream.

By the 0.24.2 note dated 2003-08-26, the project had already dealt with portability and security-advisory review around its asprintf implementation. Later releases moved into the 0.25 series, with Homebrew packaging 0.25.10 from the upstream download area.

Adoption history

dsh's adoption is old-school Unix administration adoption: package-manager availability, config files in /etc and ~/.dsh, and use on clusters where the same command must run across many hosts. The official page says it was installed on many clusters and was also used by the related dmachinemon system.

Homebrew analytics showed only 71 installs over the preceding 365 days during this batch, which fits a mature, niche sysadmin utility rather than an actively trendy tool.

How it is used

The canonical usage is to put host lists or groups in text config files and run commands such as `dsh -a -c -- uname -a` or `dsh -g group -c -- command`. The tool also supports limiting the number of simultaneous connections, hierarchical invocation, and NIS netgroups.

Why package nerds care

dsh is package-nerd significant because it captures a pre-cloud cluster-management pattern: small C utilities, text host lists, rsh/ssh wrappers, and distro packaging did the work that later orchestration systems absorbed. It is also an example of a name collision family: several unrelated tools called dsh existed in Perl, C, Python, and AIX-compatible forms.

Timeline

2001-08-31: The official HTML page records its creation date.
2002: The official references section links Japanese research reports evaluating dsh.
2003-08-10: A Bugtraq security advisory about dsh was posted; the maintainer later explained why the checked implementation was not affected on common platforms.
2003-08-26: The official page documents the 0.24.2 security-review note.
0.25.10: The upstream download index and Homebrew formula identify 0.25.10 as the packaged stable release.

Related projects

dmachinemon is named by the official page as a system that used dsh extensively.
The official related-work list points to other distributed-shell projects, including Perl dsh, another C dsh, and pydsh.
ssh, rsh, and remsh are the remote-shell mechanisms dsh wraps.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: yellow

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

Risk classifier

yellow risk · medium confidence · runtime

Why

generalized runtime or code generation signal

Signals

text:shell

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 13 platform targets.
Installs with 1 runtime dependencies.
Build metadata lists 1 build dependencies.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

local files

Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.

Configuration files

Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.

Unix: /etc/dsh/dsh.conf~/.dsh/dsh.conf/etc/dsh/machines.list~/.dsh/machines.list/etc/dsh/group/groupname~/.dsh/group/groupname

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`dsh`	cli	global executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08

manager version0.25.10

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/dsh.html.en

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/dsh.html.ennone confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:dsh
Version	0.25.10
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/dsh
Homepage	https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/dsh.html.en
Upstream docs	https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/dsh.html.en
License	GPL-2.0-or-later
Source archive	https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/downloads/dsh-0.25.10.tar.gz
Dependencies	libdshconfig
Build dependencies	gnu-sed
Bottle	available (on arm64_big_sur, arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, big_sur, catalina, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	dsh
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

Debian apt95%

dsh 0.25.10-2

dancer's shell, or distributed shell

https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/dsh.html

sudo apt install dsh

Section: net
Architecture: amd64
2 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Dsh

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: dsh from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Ubuntu apt95%

dsh 0.25.10-1.6build1

dancer's shell, or distributed shell

http://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/dsh.html

sudo apt install dsh

Section: universe/net
Architecture: amd64
2 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Dsh

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: dsh from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

MacPorts95%

dsh

sudo port install dsh

normalized package name match
Matched by: Dsh

MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: net/dsh/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/dsh.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
av.db category and tag curation
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated configuration and credential file locations
curated package history
external package-manager database matches
package relationship graph
package version freshness
package-page enrichment

Install dsh with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts