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SSH managers on Linux? (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
 

Curious what folks are using to organise their remote connections? I liked WinSSHTerm and have tried replacing it with Remote Desktop Manager, but it seems a bit broken (fonts look terrible in a terminal, sftp doesn't work, RDP sort of works, but it's not great).

RDP is not a must. Folders, ssh, key auth, sftp and scp are the main things I'm looking for. Currently considering Remmina but though I would check if ppl have strong views on this topic before trying the next app.

I'm using cinnamon with mint 22.

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[–] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 6 points 15 hours ago

Just the old .ssh/config file, works like a charm on all terminals :)

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

Konsole has an SSH Manager plugin you can enable.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 19 hours ago

ssh.serverdomain scripts that immediately can do things like turn on the required vpn. In combo with SSH keys and non port 22, it's ideal

I hear ya on RDP. Sadly I still need to use that at times so reminna is good.

Otherwise, I just use tmux. Colleagues use https://midnight-commander.org/ for SCP and stuff of you like. I prefer simple rsync and whatever but they seem to like it. Something to look into.

[–] thenextguy@lemmy.world 79 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I just use ~/.ssh/config

e.g.

Host website
    Hostname some.hostname.foo
    User bob
    Port 1500
[–] markstos@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

For a shared set of hosts at work, you can check a shared SSH include file into got so changes to the cluster can be updated in one place.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And most secondary apps, e.g. git and sshfs, even Gigolo, recognize these aliases. It's the best.

[–] thenextguy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

And vscode uses them for remote ssh development.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is the way. Even if you have a lot, it's not hard to pull up a list of options;

❯ cat ~/.ssh/config | grep 'Host ' | awk '{print $2}'

Or you can make it interactive;

❯ ssh $(cat ~/.ssh/config | grep 'Host ' | awk '{print $2}' | fzf)

ez pz

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Meh. ssh<space><tab><tab> does the same.

Also, useless use of cat. And grep.

awk '/Host / {print $2}' ~/.ssh/config | fzf
[–] elmicha@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Or just use completion: press tab once or twice after the ssh command (and a space). If that doesn't work, install the bash-completion package.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 3 points 16 hours ago

Shell completion ftw. Once you grok the double-tab you might start using the terminal more than your filemanager.

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.org 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)
[–] flubba86@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for the reminder, I always forget about this feature, I should use it more.

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.org 1 points 11 hours ago

I had to be a KDE user for 7 years or something to first notice it is there.

[–] CocaineShrimp@lemm.ee 41 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Not a GUI, but I keep my ~/.ssh/config clean by splitting my configs into folders, and including them in the main ~/.ssh/config.

I have the folder, ~/.ssh/config.d/, and here's what it looks like:

~/.ssh/config.d
.
├── work
│   ├── dev.config
│   ├── staging.config
│   └── prod.config
└── server
    ├── development.config
    ├── containers.config
    ├── home.config
    ├── pis.config
    └── server.config

Then my ~/.ssh/config looks like this:

Include config.d/work/*
Include config.d/server/*
Include config.d/other/*
[–] ashley@lemmy.ca 5 points 21 hours ago

(looks at my 230 line config)

yeah.. maybe

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

Oh well that's just sexy. Never knew ssh config recognized Include.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Cool, I did it with my git config a couple weeks ago, I didn't know you could do it with ssh too.

for those interested:

[include]
path = ~/.config/git/shared.ini
path = ~/.config/git/dev-machine.ini
path = ~/.config/git/aliases.ini
path = ~/.config/git/self.ini
[–] gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 7 points 1 day ago

in my terminal I press ctrl + r and then type the name of the machine

[–] BrilliantantTurd4361@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The reason you are having trouble finding a replacement is because thats not really how the linux world approaches things.

Learn the terminal, scp, ssh (esp key auth if you havent), sshfs, tmux, vim or emacs and you will find you are incredibly effective at modern admin tasks. If you havent already, look into something like saltstack or ansible to make your life even easier.

[–] plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I use those tools already and have been administering Linux/bsd/docker for years. What's new for me is using it as a desktop. The existence of scp, ssh etc dont solve this problem and while I find it interesting to learn how other admins are essentially making their own central console out of these components, it is a bit much seeing commenters insist that this is the same thing, or suggesting that anyone who wants a central console for their remote systems must be somehow incompetent. Sysadmins can have different workflow and tooling preferences.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Folders, ssh, key auth, sftp and scp are the main things I’m looking for.

suggesting that anyone who wants a central console for their remote systems must be somehow incompetent

IMHO that's exactly what ~/.ssh/config using its Include directive as shown in https://lemmy.ml/post/29858248/18510482

       Include
               Include the specified configuration file(s).  Multiple
               pathnames may be specified and each pathname may contain
               glob(7) wildcards, tokens as described in the “TOKENS”
               section, environment variables as described in the
               “ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES” section and, for user
               configurations, shell-like ‘~’ references to user home
               directories.  Wildcards will be expanded and processed in
               lexical order.  Files without absolute paths are assumed
               to be in ~/.ssh if included in a user configuration file
               or /etc/ssh if included from the system configuration
               file.  Include directive may appear inside a Match or Host
               block to perform conditional inclusion.

from https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/ssh_config.5.html

So what I think people are highlighting is not that your need is wrong, rather that you rather than going back to fundamentals (e.g. lower command-line or even configuration here level stuff) you are looking for more complex and specialize tools. That tends to be reasonable in the Windows world where people are often looking for GUI but in Linux, started from Unix and thus CLI, this is a process that will often lead to disappointment. I believe people who are saying things perceived negatively here are pointing out, maybe poorly, a cultural difference that will be problematic in the future, thus why they are insisting.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago
[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I've been using Linux for almost 30 years, and I agree with you completely. There should be a plethora of tools to organize SSH hosts, but unfortunately none of them are great, or at least I've never particular gelled with any. I just remember the hostnames and what user I happen to use for each, and copy my keys around, because I jump around between a lot of computers.

I did use SSHwifty for a while because then I could just jump into a browser and go to a webpage with all of them. Dunno why I got away from that, it was handy.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (18 children)

ssh config? Not sure what you're looking for. Like a list of preconfigured connections?

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[–] suicidaleggroll@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

How about XPipe?

https://xpipe.io/

It can even auto-configure itself by parsing out your ~/.ssh/config so you can keep everything defined there for easy CLI access but also use the GUI when desired.

[–] flubba86@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

+1 for XPipe. This is pretty much exactly what OP is asking for. It also does SSH tunneling, SSH reverse-tunneling, manages connections into containers, and many other things. I'm a big fan.

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[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Uh, I just type ssh or rsync into the terminal and that's it. It's a manageable amount of computers/servers I connect to, so I can remeber their names. Regular ssh stores all the keys or custom ports / IPs in its config. What's the advantage of using some manager?

XPipe is what I use, supports syncing via git, SSH, sftp, RDP, vnc, etc.. And can manage docker containers too. It also has scripts you can define that automatically work on any SSH connection.

[–] RandomChain@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I really like Asbru and have been using it for a couple of years. I used Remmina for a little while but never liked its look and feel.

Not too much active development has been going on lately, sadly, but the latest version still works very well.

https://www.asbru-cm.net/

[–] plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago

This looks great - thanks!

[–] Valon_Blue@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Use Tabby. It is, by far, the closest to a Linux terminal experience. Likely because it's cross platform. I say this as someone that absolutely despises Windows terminal experiences.

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[–] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

I just install my keys as needed to the machines and then configure aliases for quick connections. For file transfer with SFTP I'm using Filezilla because its queuing functionality and site management are nice.

I think for what you are looking for, both puTTY and Remmina should be capable as well as the other options suggested here

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'll be watching this discussion, as I'm currently using Remmina. It meet the bare minimum of SSH & RDP, but it doesn't have a clear method to organize connections and instead uses a big list. I also find the interface a tad counterintuitive, so maybe I'm just using it wrong.

It also seems to have a bug where it launches twice whenever I start my computer. So I have to close one.

It has groups FYI. Set it under your specific connection settings.

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[–] Marthirial@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Take a look at PortX. Just installed it today in Windows and Fedora 42. I have a Synchthing server where I store a Veracrypt vault with the public keys.

Remmina is great but no Windows option.

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[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago

Muon.

Does SSH, SFTP and other stuff.

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