Patent ID: 7085853

Claim:
A distributed shell for use in a distributed computer environment where the distributed shell enables sharing of resources, comprising: a shell server located on a server computer system, the shell server being capable of processing commands for distribution to particular client computer systems, the shell server includes a synchronization unit that facilitates task synchronization; and a plurality of shell clients, each shell client executed on a separate client computer system, each shell client being in communication with the shell server, the shell client includes a synchronization filter to filter outputs from the shell client, the synchronization filter of the shell client configured to be connected to the synchronization unit of the shell server, wherein the shell server selects a particular shell client to perform a task in response to receiving a command, and wherein the selected shell client executes the task, whereby the synchronization unit facilitates task synchronization by monitoring filtered output received from the synchronization filters of the plurality of shell clients for specific patterns, and the shell server further includes an output collection unit to collect the filtered output received from the plurality of shell clients.