Index: common.scm
==================================================================
--- common.scm
+++ common.scm
@@ -1805,13 +1805,11 @@
     (let* ((actual-hostname (or remote-host (get-host-name) "localhost")))
       (or (common:get-cached-info actual-hostname "cpu-load")
 	  (let ((result (if remote-host
 			    (map (lambda (res)
 				   (if (eof-object? res) 9e99 res))
-			         (with-input-from-pipe 
-				  (conc "ssh " remote-host " cat /proc/loadavg")
-				  (lambda ()(list (read)(read)(read)))))
+			         (common:raw-get-remote-host-load remote-host))
 			    (with-input-from-file "/proc/loadavg" 
 			      (lambda ()(list (read)(read)(read)))))))
 	    (match
 		result
 	      ((l1 l2 l3)
@@ -1850,13 +1848,20 @@
 
 (define (common:get-normalized-cpu-load-raw remote-host)
   (let* ((actual-host (or remote-host (get-host-name)))) ;; #f is localhost
     (or (common:get-cached-info actual-host "normalized-load")
 	(let ((data (if remote-host
-			(with-input-from-pipe 
-			    (conc "ssh " remote-host " \"cat /proc/loadavg;cat /proc/cpuinfo;echo end\"")
-			  read-lines)
+			(let ((inp #f))
+			  (handle-exceptions
+			      exn
+			    (begin
+			      (close-input-port inp)
+			      '())
+			    (set! inp (open-input-port (conc "ssh " remote-host " \"cat /proc/loadavg;cat /proc/cpuinfo;echo end\"")))
+			    (let* ((res (read-lines inp)))
+			      (close-input-port inp)
+			      res)))
 			(append 
 			 (with-input-from-file "/proc/loadavg" 
 			   read-lines)
 			 (with-input-from-file "/proc/cpuinfo"
 			   read-lines)
@@ -2053,20 +2058,37 @@
 						   (loop (if (string-match "^processor\\s+:\\s+\\d+$" inl)
 							     (+ numcpu 1)
 							     numcpu)
 							 (read-line))))))
 				   (result (if remote-host
-					       (with-input-from-pipe 
+					       (common:generic-ssh
 						(conc "ssh " remote-host " cat /proc/cpuinfo")
-						proc)
+						proc -1)
 					       (with-input-from-file "/proc/cpuinfo" proc))))
 			      (if (and (number? result)
 				       (> result 0))
 				  (common:write-cached-info actual-host "num-cpus" result))
 			      result))))
 	  (hash-table-set! *numcpus-cache* actual-host numcpus)
 	  numcpus))))
+
+(define (common:generic-ssh ssh-command proc default #!optional (msg-proc #f))
+  (let ((inp #f))
+    (handle-exceptions
+	exn
+      (begin
+	(close-input-port inp)
+	(if msg-proc
+	    (msg-proc)
+	    (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "Command: \""ssh-command"\" failed. exn="exn))
+	default)
+      (set! inp (open-input-pipe ssh-command))
+      (with-input-from-port inp
+	(lambda ()
+	  (let ((res (proc)))
+	    (close-input-port inp)
+	    res))))))
 
 ;;======================================================================
 ;; wait for normalized cpu load to drop below maxload
 ;;
 (define (common:wait-for-normalized-load maxnormload msg remote-host #!optional (rem-tries 5))

Index: launch.scm
==================================================================
--- launch.scm
+++ launch.scm
@@ -817,19 +817,25 @@
 	(if (eq? (length output) 0)
 	   #f
 	   #t))
       #t))
 
+;; this is a close duplicate of:
+;;    process:alist-on-host?
+;;    process:alive
+;;
 (define (launch:is-test-alive host pid)
   (let* ((same-host (equal? host (get-host-name)))
 	 (cmd (conc 
 	       (if same-host "" (conc "ssh "host" "))
 	       "pstree -A "pid)))
     (if (and host pid
 	     (not (equal? host "n/a")))
 	
-	(let* ((output (with-input-from-pipe cmd read-lines)))
+	(let* ((output (if same-host
+			   (with-input-from-pipe cmd read-lines)
+			   (common:generic-ssh cmd read-lines '())))) ;; (with-input-from-pipe cmd read-lines)))
 	  (debug:print 2 *default-log-port* "Running " cmd " received " output)
 	  (if (eq? (length output) 0)
 	      #f
 	      #t))
 	#t))) ;; assuming bad query is about a live test is likely not the right thing to do?

Index: process.scm
==================================================================
--- process.scm
+++ process.scm
@@ -195,25 +195,33 @@
        (and (number? rpid)
 	    (equal? rpid pid)))))
 
 (define (process:alive-on-host? host pid)
   (let ((cmd (conc "ssh " host " ps -o pid= -p " pid)))
-    (handle-exceptions
-	exn
-      (begin
-	(debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "failed to identify if process " pid ", on host " host " is alive. exn=" exn)
-	#f) ;; anything goes wrong - assume the process in NOT running.
-     (with-input-from-pipe 
-      cmd
-      (lambda ()
-	(let loop ((inl (read-line)))
-	  (if (eof-object? inl)
-	      #f
-	      (let* ((clean-str (string-substitute "^[^\\d]*([0-9]+)[^\\d]*$" "\\1" inl))
-		     (innum     (string->number clean-str)))
-		(and innum
-		     (eq? pid innum))))))))))
+    (common:generic-ssh
+     cmd
+   ;; 
+   ;; handle-exceptions
+   ;; 	exn
+   ;;  (begin
+   ;; 	(debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "failed to identify if process " pid ", on host " host " is alive. exn=" exn)
+   ;; 	#f) ;; anything goes wrong - assume the process in NOT running.
+   ;;  (with-input-from-pipe 
+   ;;   cmd
+     (lambda ()
+       (let loop ((inl (read-line)))
+	 (if (eof-object? inl)
+	     #f
+	     (let* ((clean-str (string-substitute "^[^\\d]*([0-9]+)[^\\d]*$" "\\1" inl))
+		    (innum     (string->number clean-str)))
+	       (and innum
+		    (eq? pid innum))))))
+     #f
+     (lambda ()
+       (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "failed to identify if process "
+		    pid", on host "host" is alive. exn="exn)))))
+
 
 (define (process:get-sub-pids pid)
   (with-input-from-pipe
    (conc "pstree -A -p " pid) ;; | tr 'a-z\\-+`()\\.' ' ' " pid)
    (lambda ()