is there a package that will remotely run a unix command from a windows box?

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2005-09-22 at 12:35, Tim wrote:

> > I didn't think putty had any shell.  A cygwin install gives you
> > a bash nearly identical to the linux version.
> 
> Perhaps "shell" is the wrong term, but with PuTTY you do get a virtual
> remote terminal, with the same functionality as running a Linux terminal
> on the Linux box (i.e. BASH works the same as when it's run locally),
> plus it runs inside a properly resizable window with window-history
> scroll bars (unlike the abominable DOS boxes that Windows has, or the
> awful telnet client it has).  

Oh, you mean terminal emulation.  Putty is good for that and lets you
set font/background color etc, but running ssh from a cygwin bash
prompt gives you a resizable window and other than color everything
works the way you expect.  I agree that putty is nicer for interactive
logins, but cygwin is tolerable.  However, for more than a quick
command or file edit I'm beginning to prefer a remote X session. On
the local net, Cygwin X is good with 'Xwin -query servername' with
xdmcp logins enabled.  For remote connections, nxclient is better (and
even locally has the advantage of being able to reconnect to an existing
session.

> So, it is a terminal with some extra features wrapped around it - what
> constituted being called a "shell", back when I first started using
> terminals that were more than just one CLI (a shell being extra features
> around your interface, something beyond the bare functions).

Conversely, the cygwin environment lets you run scripts under windows
and includes the ability to ssh remote commands either directly
from the command line or as part of a script. 

> PuTTY's just one small program, as one small file, to run on Windows
> (without any installation required).  Cygwin, on the other hand, is a
> whole slew of functions that need installing and running on Windows, a
> rather large collection of files, giving you a unix-like environment
> running on the PC.

There is a handy installer at www.cygwin.com that does all the work
for you.  If you are going to run bash scripts, you'll need all the
utility programs that you expect to have available.  However, (maybe
all) of the programs can run separately and only need the cygwin .dll
file to work.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com