praekelt / python-sshtail

Python library tailing file(s) via SSH.

python-sshtail

A simple set of Python classes to facilitate tailing of one or more files via SSH. At the moment it only supports key-based SSH'ing.

Quick installation

Install from PyPI:

> easy_install -U python-sshtail

Tailing a single file

from sshtail import SSHTailer
from time import sleep

# "1.2.3.4" is the IP address or host name you want to access
tailer = SSHTailer('1.2.3.4', '/var/log/path/to/my/logfile.log')

try:
    while 1:
        for line in tailer.tail():
            print line

        # wait a bit
        time.sleep(1)

except:
    tailer.disconnect()

Tailing multiple files

from sshtail import SSHMultiTailer

tailer = SSHMultiTailer({
    '1.2.3.4': ['/path/to/log1.log', '/path/to/log2.log'],
    '4.3.2.1': ['/path/to/log3.log'],
})

# will run until it receives SIGINT, after which it will
# automatically catch the exception, disconnect from the
# remote hosts and perform cleanup

for host, filename, line in tailer.tail():
    print "%s:%s - %s" % (host, filename, line)

Using a custom private key

from sshtail import SSHMultiTailer, load_dss_key

# if no path's specified for the private key file name,
# it automatically prepends /home/<current_user>/.ssh/
# and for RSA keys, import load_rsa_key instead.

tailer = SSHMultiTailer({
        '1.2.3.4': ['/path/to/log1.log', '/path/to/log2.log'],
        '4.3.2.1': ['/path/to/log3.log'],
    },
    private_key=load_dss_key('identity'))

for host, filename, line in tailer.tail():
    print "%s:%s - %s" % (host, filename, line)