Fabric is a Python library and command-line tool for streamlining the use of SSH for application deployment or systems administration tasks.

It provides a basic suite of operations for executing local or remote shell commands (normally or via sudo ) and uploading/downloading files, as well as auxiliary functionality such as prompting the running user for input, or aborting execution.

Typical use involves creating a Python module containing one or more functions, then executing them via the fab command-line tool. Below is a small but complete “fabfile” containing a single task:

from fabric.api import run def host_type(): run('uname -s')

Once a task is defined, it may be run on one or more servers, like so:

$ fab -H localhost,linuxbox host_type [localhost] run: uname -s [localhost] out: Darwin [linuxbox] run: uname -s [linuxbox] out: Linux Done. Disconnecting from localhost... done. Disconnecting from linuxbox... done.

In addition to use via the fab fool, Fabric’s components may be imported into other Python code, providing a Pythonic interface to the SSH protocol suite at a higher level than that provided by e.g. Paramiko (which Fabric itself leverages.)