A command line tool to manage your ssh connections • Hacker News Board

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#21

Post by kijin » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:06 PM UTC

If this could make key management significantly easier (e.g. no need to rely on the buggy GNOME keychain app) or make it easier to manage persistent connections (ControlMaster is trivial, but juggling dozens of connections and gracefully terminating/resuming them is not), maybe it would be genuinely useful.

For the time being, though, this just looks like a lightweight editor for ssh_config.

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#22

Post by peterwwillis » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:08 PM UTC

ibotty wrote: post #17

peterwwillis wrote: post #9

I can see this being useful if you have lots of keys and the server kicks you when you try too many of them, but in theory you really shouldn't need more than one key. http://www.funtoo.org/wiki/Keychain

slightly exaggerated: by that logic only one password should also be enough.

If the integrity of a password was dependent on a one-time unlocking mechanism secured on my local machine, then yes, you would only need one password. Passwords are not public key cryptography.

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#23

Post by njharman » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:08 PM UTC

I agree with the comments to just freakin edit your .ssh/config. But, it clearly states "SSH like a boss". The implication I take means "configure ssh for people who don't know how to use an editor, can't read man page, don't know where man pages are, and can't find/don't know about .ssh."

So, not for us. We can move along and be happy someone else is taking care of those people.

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#24

Post by twunde » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:13 PM UTC

anonymouz wrote: post #4

What does this add over just editing ~/.ssh/config with $EDITOR?

It becomes useful when: You have a large number of items in your ssh config, say 20-100+ and you don't want to jump around in vim. When you want to control teams' ssh configs using scripts. If you have a team of developers that all have this installed, you can now update ssh configs just by having them run an executable or possibly by some sort of job queue. Want to switch to key-based access for an old server, delete a different old server and give devs access to a new server without having to coordinate and answer questions with 20+ people? You now have the ability.

Very nice work

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#25

Post by BCM43 » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:14 PM UTC

ibotty wrote: post #17

peterwwillis wrote: post #9

I can see this being useful if you have lots of keys and the server kicks you when you try too many of them, but in theory you really shouldn't need more than one key. http://www.funtoo.org/wiki/Keychain

slightly exaggerated: by that logic only one password should also be enough.

No, that's a little different. The problem with password reuse is that if someone breaks into a site and steals the passwords, or a malicious administrator steals your password, they can reuse it. The public/private key separation of ssh keys means that that is much less of an issue. You can't login to another server with my public key.

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#26

Post by twunde » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:17 PM UTC

Very cool. I'd love to actually set this up with some scripts as a way to manage server migrations or new servers

I'm actually working on a web-based gui for managing ssh configs and I'm likely to switch to python and reuse some of this

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#27

Post by dylanz » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:17 PM UTC

When I saw the project name, the first thing I thought of was: https://github.com/nathanmarz/storm

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#28

Post by emre-yilmaz » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:19 PM UTC

twunde wrote: post #26

Very cool. I'd love to actually set this up with some scripts as a way to manage server migrations or new servers I'm actually working on a web-based gui for managing ssh configs and I'm likely to switch to python and reuse some of this

happy to hear that :)

loading and dumping ssh configs would be tricky. let me know if you need further assistance.

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#29

Post by kaolinite » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:23 PM UTC

In OS X, by pressing Cmd+Shift+K whilst in Terminal.app, you can save SSH, SFTP, FTP and telnet connections. Personally I don't use it but some people might prefer it.

Re: A command line tool to manage your ssh connections

#30

Post by _b8r0 » Tue, May 21, 2013, 3:32 PM UTC

emre-yilmaz wrote: post #12

_b8r0 wrote: post #6

I hate to be snarky but having read through the code this really isn't a big thing. It's a tool for people that can't use .ssh/config. Manage your SSH like a boss? Perhaps, but only in the pointy-haired can't-read-man-ssh_config boss sense of the word. For those that don't want to install a script and would prefer to understand the tools they already have try this: http://nerderati.com/2011/03/simplify-your-life-with…

There are a lot of tools like that for years. like; - managing /etc/hosts - managing crontab It's just a preference to do it with a command line tool, or just doing it in the config with editor.

I don't have a problem with the tool. If it helps people it's doing a good job. My problem is only with the article title overplaying it's utility somewhat.