In the future out it be possible to add multi device support for ouwt? The idea is that a single device could SSH into the other devices to provision them all in a set manner. I realize this probably is possible with shell scripting but it would be nice to have it integrated.
This would be kind of like Ansible but much more lightweight and simple.
I'm not at all clear on what you're proposing here. Do you want to transfer a config from one device to another or something like that? Where does owut come into it?
The idea is that you could first use owut to build an image for one device and then have a automatic way to deploy it on multiple devices. It would be nice to be able to clone an image to a new device from the command line.
Maybe something like owut clone --to-target=10.1.1.5,10.1.1.6,10.1.1.7. This command would read the current device info, build the image, copy it and then flash it to a remote over SSH. A more advanced feature could be the ability to clone actual configs but that would be much more likely to bork things. Another potential command could be owut clone --from-target 10.1.1.6 which would pull the packages installed from the remote OpenWRT device, build it and then flash it local.
The whole idea of this would be to make it easier to push a change to a bunch of access points. Currently it is possible to generate an image via the firmware selector but it requires manual work to flash it to each device. I think it would be a nice feature to be able to bulk flash. (although dangerous)
Somehow I don't think specifying a whole command line syntax will help you, before defining in detail the semantics you expect them to have…
Your plan simply doesn't work that way, at all.
Devices have very different default packages (depending on target and model), they have very different configuration means (e.g. swconfig, dsa, switchdev, dedicated network cards), what do you do if device 'A' has one 2.4 GHz card, device 'B' a single dual-band/ single-channel WLAN card, device 'C' the now common 2.4+5 GHz concurrent dual-band WLAN card, device 'D' (think xiaomi ax3600) 2.4+5 GHz concurrent dual-band plus a third dual-band/ single channel 1x1 IoT radio, device 'E' a tri-radio mesh device (2.4+low-5+high-5) device, device 'F' a simple wifi 6e (2.4+5+6 GHz) device, device 'G' a wifi 6e mesh device (2.4+low-5+high-5+6 GHz), device 'H' a wifi 7 device with MLO (2.4+(5+6) GHz), device 'I' coming with an LTE modem, device 'J' is wired only (and yes, there's also DBDC, 'TBTC' with its special constraints to consider)…
owut aside, there simply isn't the kind of device independent and abstract configuration method for OpenWrt to begin with (and even with vendors who have tried it in the past, with a very limited set of rather similar devices, it utterly fails over time and becomes overly complex in itself). What may sound nice and easy, 'do what I mean, not what I say' simply doesn't work in practice.
Your expectations go way beyond what owut can do today, nor what it even has basic knowledge about. While everything imaginable may be done, this is pretty far away from what is reasonable to expect in a medium time frame.
I'll echo the sentiments already expressed here, but add that for OWUT is not the right tool for your task in general.
As referenced, managing a fleet of diverse hardware in a single management system is not trivial, especially when you consider how varied OpenWrt devices can be (from $10 travel routers up to large x86 boxes). The commercial players spend a lot of development resources on their products (think Unifi, Omada, Meraki, etc.) and they work with a relatively small set of devices that are built from the ground up to work within their management ecosystem.
With respect to OpenWrt fleet management, there are two tools that might fit the bill, broadly speaking, but they may have fairly steep learning curves and/or may be overkill for your needs. Check out DAWN and OpenWISP. These are both pretty cool open source projects that aim to provide something of a coordinated or single-pane-of-glass management approach to OpenWrt, but the complexity of these tools may not be warranted unless you're talking high 10's to hundreds of devices of more. But it is these tools, not OWUT, that would enable what you're talking about.
If devices are identical in package lists you can download owut composed image and sysupgrade airgapped siblings
What happens if the devices are the same make and model?
Anyway, I get that this is probably out of scope for owut. I'm just sharing a idea I had.
That's probably the best answer. It should be trivial with a shell script.
Yeah, simple owut download to get the easy part done, then some messing around with configs.
owut download
. /etc/os-release
firmware="firmware-${OPENWRT_ARCH}-${OPENWRT_RELEASE// /-}.bin"
echo "Saving ${firmware}..."
scp /tmp/firmware.bin "my_nas:/images/${firmware}"
sysupgrade -b /tmp/backup.tgz
# the hard part...
[mangle contents of backup to get rid of device specific junk]
config="config-${OPENWRT_ARCH}-${OPENWRT_RELEASE// /-}.tgz"
echo "Saving ${config}..."
scp /tmp/backup.tgz "my_nas:/images/${config}"
...