cas-toolbox
Cluster Automation Scripts Toolbox — one stop shop for tool scripts used in cluster automation operations in high performance computing.
cas-toolbox is a meta-package: it ships no code of its own. It pins exact
releases of the nine tools below and installs all of their console commands in a
single step, so a fresh host gets the whole toolbox with one pip install.
Every bundled tool is a single self-contained .py file — copy one onto a
host and it runs, no packaging required. (multiSSH3's optional shell
autocomplete is the one exception: it needs mssh_complete.py next to
multiSSH3.py.)
Project metadata
| Current version | 2026.43.1 |
| Released | 2026-10-21 |
| Python | >= 3.6 |
| Platform | Linux (POSIX); macOS for multiSSH3, simple-iotest, statblk, tee-logger, TSVZ |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Author | Yufei Pan (pan@zopyr.us) |
| Homepage | github.com/yufei-pan/cas-toolbox |
| PyPI | pypi.org/project/cas-toolbox |
| Build backend | setuptools (pyproject.toml) |
| Bundled tools | 9 |
Versioning and release cadence
Versions are YYYY.WW.hotfix — calendar year, ISO week number, and a hotfix
counter. For example 2026.40.1 is the first release cut in week 40 of 2026.
The bundle is deliberately semi-stable:
- Mondays are the normal re-cut. Last week's accumulated upstream changes are
rolled into one release: the
==pins of everything that moved are updated and the version bumps to the newYYYY.WW. - Mid-week releases are for emergency fixes only. Only the affected tool's
pin changes and the
hotfixsegment increments (2026.39.1→2026.39.2), leaving the week number alone. - Releasing an individual upstream tool is independent and can happen any day. Its pin bump normally rides along in the next Monday roll-up.
Upstream tools use their own x.y / x.y.z schemes; the pins in this package
record exactly which release is in the bundle.
Included tools
Versions listed are the ones pinned by the current release of cas-toolbox.
| Tool | Module | PyPI package | Pinned | Commands | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hpcp | hpcp.py |
hpcp |
9.78 | hpcp |
Highly-parallel cp / imaging for HPC storage |
| multiCMD | multiCMD.py |
multicmd |
1.54 | mcmd, multicmd, multiCMD |
Run many subprocesses in parallel (base library) |
| multiSSH3 | multiSSH3.py |
multissh3 |
6.37 | mssh, mssh3, multissh, multissh3, multiSSH3, mssh-complete |
Parallel SSH across hosts, curses TUI |
| simple-iotest | iotest.py |
simple-iotest |
3.70.0 | iotest, simple-iotest |
Dead-simple filesystem I/O benchmark |
| statbtrfs | statbtrfs.py |
statbtrfs |
0.36 | statbtrfs |
Btrfs status / scrub orchestration |
| Tee_Logger | src/Tee_Logger.py |
tee-logger |
6.42 | (library only) | Logger that tees to dated files + stdout |
| TSVZ | TSVZ.py |
tsvz |
4.9 | tsvz, TSVZ |
Key-value store / in-memory DB backed by a TSV file |
| statblk | statblk.py |
statblk |
1.55 | statblk |
Block-device / partition info table |
| firewatcher | firewatcher.py |
firewatcher |
1.60 | firewatcher |
Journal/log incident capture with off-box context |
Internal dependency graph worth knowing when a pin moves:
multiCMDis the foundation —hpcp,statbtrfsandstatblkall depend on it.simple-iotestdepends ontee-logger.
Recent releases
| Version | Date | What changed |
|---|---|---|
2026.43.1 |
2026-10-21 | multissh3 6.31 → 6.37. Breaking: mssh no longer takes an abbreviation of one of its options (--user for --username, -c for -ci); spell them in full. Hosts skipped as recently unreachable now fail the run (hosts excluded with -X do not), and targets that name no hosts are an error. The word after -ea and -ia is their value also when it starts with - (-ea -v); a bare ssh or ipmitool option that needs its own value there (-ea -p 2222, quotes forgotten), or an mssh password option, still stops mssh. Safety, and it needs a reinstall: in a shell with nocasematch on (or after a completion file turned it on), bash's completion read complete -f cmd as -F, and TAB ran the remote command locally (6.31–6.36). The shell glue is a copy installed per user account, so for every account on every host where mssh --completion install was run, run it again as that account: until then the old glue, and the bug, stay. With bash's completion-ignore-case on, completion now matches the word in any case, as the shell's locale lowers letters; bash's completion gives the shell its nocasematch back after a Ctrl-C, keeps its variables from the shell's own completion functions, and works with any IFS. ssh can no longer prompt behind the curses view or show a typed password; ConnectTimeout 30 s and keepalives are the default (your ssh config wins), so one hung host no longer stops a run. File copies: -ea's ssh options no longer reach rsync as files (a private key passed with -i was copied to the hosts). Passwords reach sshpass and ipmitool through their environment, not their command line; a -p password is not echoed, and the > mssh line and the history say -p - (MSSH_PASSWORD gives one; --store_config_file still writes it to the config file). --ipmi tries admin/admin only when no other login is configured. root@dbs with an alias whose members carry their own user no longer logs in as root@postgres@db1. The TUI no longer polls (1000 waiting hosts: 0.13 cores instead of 1.47), and output lines that hosts print alike are kept once (200 hosts × 20,000 identical lines with -P: 3.0 GB → 0.17 GB). A bare mssh with DEFAULT_HOSTS null no longer crashes (it means all hosts), and with $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR set, mssh reads its unreachable-host state where it writes it. hpcp 9.73 → 9.78: hpcp -rm / is refused (9.73 hung on it). Plain -rm and -rme remove by directory descriptor, so a directory swapped for a symlink in a tree others can write to no longer leads them outside it. Legacy -fl -rme with a bare relative destination (data, .) no longer builds its extras under / (9.73 removed /data/extra). -rme leaves a filesystem mounted below the destination alone with its files, as rsync -x does: bind mounts, btrfs subvolumes, and automounts and NFSv4 submounts mounted on entering a directory. Trees deeper than Python's recursion limit are listed, copied and removed. On Python 3.6, -rm -pfl -F, non-UTF-8 file names and -rme's automount checks work. -dd no longer leaves /hpcp-ext-feature-probe in /: e2fsprogs 1.45 and 1.46 (EL8, EL9, Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04, Debian 11) created it when 9.61–9.77 probed mke2fs as root, so delete it there. The probe reads mke2fs in the C locale: a translated mke2fs made every feature count as known. tsvz 4.7 → 4.9: a read is redone when another tool rewrites a part in place under it (a scrub), and a read still changing after three tries is incomplete: get and read exit 1 and the handler refuses pop and setdefault. Reads start at the last snapshot part (#_snapshot_#, spec §19.10). scrub refuses a store declaring a spec version newer than it implements and writes nothing; so does clear on a single-part store (on a multi-part one it still appends tombstones). A marker value ending in a newline (0<LF>) no longer crashes the read. simple-iotest 3.69.1 → 3.70.0: new --json summary, -bs/--block_size, --verify (a CRC-32 trailer checked on every read), meta mode (create, stat and unlink of empty files), --start_at for synchronized multi-host starts, and an opt-in per-operation timeline (-tl). Fixed: lost results on long -d paths, the report printed twice, and misleading cache-drop and sync figures; invalid sizes exit 2. multicmd 1.53 → 1.54, with statblk 1.54 → 1.55 and statbtrfs 0.35 → 0.36 embedding it: the terminal-size fallback reads the columns, not the rows, so `statblk |
2026.42.2 |
2026-10-16 | Hotfix: hpcp 9.72 → 9.73. -rm with a destination (a move) no longer deletes sources it did not copy: it is skipped after any copy error (Remove skipped, 212), and otherwise removes only the files and links the copy listed, then empty directories, so files written during the move, FIFOs, sockets, device nodes and the files of a -do copy stay; a move onto itself (hpcp -rm /data/x -d /data/) is refused, and -rm -di NEW.img creates the image first (9.72 removed the sources and made no image). The move's removal goes by directory descriptors without following symlinks, so a source or directory swapped for a symlink during the copy is not removed from, and it needs about half of 9.72's metadata operations. -rme -di no longer empties the image it just filled; -rme keeps the copy of an excluded path (absolute or not, -e 'cache/' included) and a filesystem's lost+found; a -d glob no longer yields /. One unreadable file or directory no longer stops a copy (Listing error, 209; the rest is copied), and -diff refuses a partial listing instead of writing delete rows. Link tracking is opt-in (-lt; it had been inactive since May 2025). -dd mounts source partitions read-only unless they are mounted live, and xfs clones mount with nouuid. Pool workers get the run's settings (-co, -ncd, -hs, -ctl on macOS, Windows and Python 3.14+). |
2026.42.1 |
2026-10-13 | tsvz 3.39 → 4.7 (major): .tsvz / .csvz / .nsvz / .psvz files now follow tsvz-spec-v1, so a file 3.39 wrote under one of those names reads differently — rename it to .tsv (see TSVZ's Breaking changes from 3.39); .tsv / .csv get bug fixes only. 4.7 passes the whole spec conformance suite: carriage returns and zero bytes in values are written as <CR> and <NUL> (older versions read those as text, so stop older tsvz serve handlers before upgrading; a value 4.2/4.3 wrote with a raw zero byte now reads as damage), parts names codecs, and a part in a codec this Python lacks (zstd before 3.14) is refused. Damaged compressed members and zero-filled lines are recovered, skipped or stop the read as the store's #_on_corruption_# says (recover by default); appends never read the store; a key ending in whitespace can be read and deleted by name, so `tsvz keys s |
2026.40.1 |
2026-09-28 | simple-iotest 3.67.0 → 3.68.0: IOPS (call/sync) and op counts in every mode's report, including index; fixed worker count for repeated role keys (e.g. write s), which over-reported size and call bandwidth. |
2026.39.2 |
2026-09-23 | Mid-week hotfix. Restored requires-python >= 3.6 (2026.39.1 had raised it to 3.8 for TSVZ 4.0 while still pinning tsvz 3.39, so pip on 3.6 silently stayed on 2026.38.1). hpcp 9.62 → 9.64, multissh3 6.24 → 6.25, firewatcher 1.57 → 1.58. |
Full history is in the commit log.
Requirements
- Python >= 3.6
Nothing outside the standard library is required; the optional libraries below only add features or speed.
Optional Python libraries
Heavier libraries are imported defensively — every tool runs without them, just with reduced functionality or performance.
| Library | Used by | Effect when present |
|---|---|---|
curses |
multiSSH3 |
Interactive TUI instead of the plain text output |
numpy |
iotest |
Much faster random-number generation in the I/O benchmark |
xxhash |
hpcp |
Faster hashing; falls back to hashlib.blake2b |
resource |
multiSSH3, TSVZ |
Resource-usage reporting |
argcomplete |
TSVZ, statblk, statbtrfs |
Shell tab completion (pip install '<tool>[completion]') |
xxhash is declared by hpcp but imported defensively, so hpcp still works
without it.
Installation
Use pip:
pip install cas-toolbox
Use pipx:
pipx install cas-toolbox
Use uv (as an isolated tool, with numpy for the iotest benchmark):
uv tool install --with numpy cas-toolbox
Use uv to add it as a dependency:
uv add cas-toolbox
Note on
numpy: it is only used byiotest's random-number generator and is not needed anywhere else in the toolbox.
To install one tool on its own, install its PyPI package directly instead of this meta-package.
Commands provided
| Command | Tool |
|---|---|
hpcp |
hpcp |
mcmd / multicmd / multiCMD |
multiCMD |
mssh / mssh3 / multissh / multissh3 / multiSSH3 |
multiSSH3 |
mssh-complete |
multiSSH3 (autocomplete engine behind mssh --completion) |
iotest / simple-iotest |
simple-iotest |
statbtrfs |
statbtrfs |
tsvz / TSVZ |
TSVZ |
statblk |
statblk |
firewatcher |
firewatcher |
Every command supports --help / -h and -V / --version, except
mssh-complete, the engine the shell glue runs (run it bare for its usage).
Verifying an install
hpcp -V && mcmd -V && mssh3 -V && iotest -V && statbtrfs -V \
&& TSVZ -V && statblk -V && firewatcher -V
cas-toolbox itself exposes no command — it is a dependency bundle only.
From a checkout that has the nine upstream repositories side by side,
getCASVersions.sh prints every tool's version at once:
./getCASVersions.sh
Development
This repository holds only the meta-package (pyproject.toml, uv.lock,
README.md, getCASVersions.sh). The upstream sources live in their own
repositories — see the links below.
uv sync --frozen # resolve the locked dependency set
uv build # build wheel + sdist into dist/
Pins are exact (==) on purpose: the bundle is meant to be reproducible.
Author
- Yufei Pan (pan@zopyr.us)
License
GPL-3.0-or-later
Links
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for cas-toolbox 2026.43.1
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