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Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

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Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#61

Post by montroser »

cyanf wrote: post #55
montroser wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is for when you have to ssh into some machine that's not yours, in order to do debugging or troubleshooting -- and you need your precious dotfiles while you're in there, but it would be not nice to scatter your config and leave it as a surprise for the next person. This installs into temp dirs and cleans it all up when you disconnect. Personally, my old-man solution to this problem is different: always roll with…

Why would you want to ssh into a machine that's not yours? That's a violation of the Computer Frauds and Abuse Act, up to 10 years in prison!

I think you're joking, but to clarify -- not personally yours. A misbehaving worker box, an app server in the staging environment, etc. A resource owned by the organization for which you work, where it would not be appropriate for you to customize it to your own liking

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#62

Post by goku12 »

oasisaimlessly wrote: post #59
goku12 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate?

Now anybody with root/sudo/physical access to the remote machine has full R/W access to your entire home directory.

Well, what if it's a separate directory meant exclusively for remote systems alone? And what if the remote mount is read-only, perhaps with a writable layer on top using overlayfs that can be discarded on logout?

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#64

Post by goku12 »

cl3misch wrote: post #48
goku12 wrote: post #13

How about mounting your dotfiles directory (~/.config) or even your entire home directory on the remote system using SSHFS or NFS? I'm sure somebody would have tried it or some project may already exist. Any idea why that isn't as prevalent as copying your dotfiles over?

That requires the remote machine to be configured to SSH into your local machine. In the scenario where OP's project is useful (SSH to foreign machines) I might not want that. On the other hand, if the remote machine is mine, it will have my config anyway.

There should be some way to mount a local directory onto a remote system without requiring the remote system to log in to the local system. SSH provides a secure bidirectional communication channel between the two systems. While we normally use sshfs to mount a remote directory to the local system, why should the reverse be impossible? Besides, you could also use NFS over SSH or TLS.

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#65

Post by lights0123 »

Bender wrote: post #25
grepfru_it wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this will copy your 9gb Mozilla cache directory as well? Still one liners like this is all you need lol

My mozilla cache would be under ~/.mozilla/firefox. Is the nightly version moving to ~/.config? Reason I say would be is that I disable disk cache among other things performed by Arkenfox [1] [1] - https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js

Yes, Firefox 147 will respect XDG dirs.

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#66

Post by yoan9224 »

I love the concept but I'd be worried about security in enterprise environments. Some of the dotfiles (especially .bashrc) could override security policies or compliance settings that IT has configured.

That said, for personal servers this is brilliant. I've been using a git repo for dotfiles but having them automatically cleanup on disconnect is clever.

One improvement: consider using SSH's ProxyCommand or LocalCommand instead of wrapping SSH entirely. That way it works transparently with tools that call SSH directly (git, rsync, etc).

Also curious - does this handle tmux sessions properly? I often SSH in, start tmux, disconnect, then reconnect later. Would the dotfiles still be there?

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#67

Post by grepfru_it »

Bender wrote: post #47
grepfru_it wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does config have to do with the one liner?

Prevents some data from ending up in ~/.mozilla. We dont sync what does not exist.

My guy, the one liner as written copies all dot files. Mozilla included

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#68

Post by Bender »

grepfru_it wrote: post #67
Bender wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prevents some data from ending up in ~/.mozilla. We dont sync what does not exist.

My guy, the one liner as written copies all dot files. Mozilla included

My guy, the one liner as written copies all dot files. Mozilla included

Exactly why I apply Sun Tzu methodology.

Re: Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

#70

Post by vbernat »

goku12 wrote: post #62
oasisaimlessly wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now anybody with root/sudo/physical access to the remote machine has full R/W access to your entire home directory.

Well, what if it's a separate directory meant exclusively for remote systems alone? And what if the remote mount is read-only, perhaps with a writable layer on top using overlayfs that can be discarded on logout?

This now looks very complex.
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