remote background jobs

[Paul Svensson]

Problem: How do I start a background server process on another machine?
	 I have tried using rsh, but it refuses to exit when I want it to.
	 I have also looked at rexec(), but it seems to require username
	 and password info to be availiable; a real pain in the ***.

What I'm trying to do: Given a mixed network (mostly suns and goulds,
		       but also others) I would like to start a server
		       on any availiable machine; this should be done
		       only when a client notices that no server is
		       availiable - note that the machine running the
		       client is possibly not able to run the server.

Question: How do I achieve this, without leaving rsh, in.rshd or
          other processes waiting for the server to die ?

Note: I would really prefer if this could be done without installing
      something suid root, for pure beurocratic reasons.

I'd be thankful for any help, but if you're going to barf RTFM -
  _please_ at least give me a hint where to look :-)

		   /Paul
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Paul Svensson			psv at ida.liu.se			SM5SJS