Note: adhocr is no longer actively developed. The repository is kept available for reference. For modern use cases, tools like Ansible or Fabric cover similar ground with broader community support.
adhocr is a small expect/SSH utility for running commands simultaneously across many Unix or Linux systems. In large environments where users authenticate via a central directory (LDAP, Active Directory), it provides a lightweight way to push commands to many hosts at once — similar in spirit to a minimal Ansible without the configuration management layer.
The tool works on HP-UX and Linux.
At T-Dose 2012 (Eindhoven, NL) this project was introduced in a session covering its design and usage: