Scripting actions over tramp

[Gary <help-gnu-emacs@garydjones.name>]

Maybe I should just try this, and am "worrying" over nothing, but I am
absolutely cream-crackered after being woken twice by alarms last night,
so my brain isn't working.

Is there a way to perform automated actions via tramp (or some other
method in emacs) on remote hosts?

Something like:

(tramp-ssh-connect some.host)
(tramp-exec "ls -la") ;; list directory contents on some.host
(tramp-disconnect some.host)

or something. I'm not bothered about having to type in username/password
combinations at this stage in order to login, more about executing some
commands on the remote host.

I'm also not interested in editing remote files in this scenario, what I
want is to be able to have the mode I am writing be able to interact
with the host to which I have just uploaded a script, say (that's not it
exactly but it's the easiest way to describe it).

-- 
Gary        Please do NOT send me 'courtesy' replies off-list.
GNU Emacs 23.2.1
emacsclient 23.2