Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

As a quick feature suggestion, I wonder if it's possible to have a shortcut key to get into the menu, and then possibly shortcut keys to every entry in the list?

PascalW2• 13 years ago

Nice job, for me it can't beat a ~/.ssh/config entry though.

I wonder why it's not reading ~/.ssh/config btw, should be doable.

zeckalpha• 13 years ago

"... it makes it easy to generate a dynamic list of hosts from your hosting provider (if they have an API), so you're always up-to-date."

It should at least provide a mapping from the json to ~/.ssh/config formats.

sneak6• 13 years ago

The Host directive in an ssh_config file supports wildcards.

schrodingersCat3• 13 years ago

They said the purpose of using a .json file was so that your configuration could be synced by dropbox or some other cloud service. I would NOT put my .ssh with all my private keys on dropbox.

eieio• 13 years ago

You could just make ~/.ssh/config a symlink to your config file in your dropbox folder. No need to put private keys on dropbox.

parsabg• 13 years ago

^ this. Please provide a migration tool.

emehrkay• 13 years ago

Im such a noob. Thank you for introducing me to this

oogali• 13 years ago

I use ~/.ssh/config and have the following in my .bashrc:

https://gist.github.com/oogali/5975670

Tab completion for scp/sftp/ssh based on my ~/.ssh/config.

bert2002• 13 years ago

yah I would love to these feature implemented

geeksunny2• 13 years ago

I agree with you there. I have an app that I've been building that works exactly like Shuttle but reads from ~/.ssh/config and has a front-end for editing as well.

nicholassmith• 13 years ago

This is a clever little utility, I've got my setup mostly scripted off but I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

ch0wn• 13 years ago

Not to be confused with sshuttle, a transparent proxy server that forwards over SSH: https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle

cpenner4612• 13 years ago

This looks pretty sweet. Seems like it'd work well with EC2 for transparently getting you into the private hostnames without having to open security groups and use something like FoxyProxy. Anyone used it for this?

jlgaddis3• 13 years ago

I haven't looked at it all, but it sounds like you're wanting something like the functionality that SSH's "ProxyCommand"?

As an example, we lockdown our servers so that they are only accessible via SSH from a few hosts. I got tired of SSH'ing into server A just to SSH into server B, so I set up my ~/.ssh/config file so that when I "ssh serverB", it uses the ProxyCommand functionality to basically do that for me.

Here's what it looks like in ~.ssh/config:

    Host serverB
        ProxyCommand ssh serverA.example.com -W %h:%p

When I "ssh serverB", it connects to serverA first and then connects to serverB. I could be wrong but it sounds like that is what you were talking about.

andyhmltn2• 13 years ago

This looks pretty awesome! I will try it out when I get back. I usually just add a load of shortcuts to my hosts file but even that's a pain.

yankcrime• 13 years ago

For me you can't beat the combination of Alfred [0] and the SSH workflow [1].

[0] http://alfredapp.com

[1] https://github.com/isometry/alfredworkflows/tree/master/net....

Osmium• 13 years ago

Or (in Alfred) just type:

ssh [host]

If you keep your ~/.ssh/config up to date and can remember your host names, I find it quicker to do that than bothering with the workflow.

aidos• 13 years ago

I had no idea you could execute commands from Alfred that way. Top tip! Thanks.

hydrozen2• 13 years ago

I don’t think alfred does that by default, does it? Even with the powerpack.

Spiritus• 13 years ago

You should probably add some install instruction for the workflow, because I have no idea where to start.

antr• 13 years ago

Just download the "ssh.alfredworkflow" file and run it, it should automatically be imported to Alfred's Worflows: https://github.com/isometry/alfredworkflows/blob/master/ssh....

tuananh• 13 years ago

This is what I'm currently doing.

* Alfred for '>' command * an alias for each server. * Autologin using ssh keys.

TheBrockEllis• 13 years ago

This is amazing! I am currently in the process of moving from a Windows machine to a Mac (first Mac of my life...) and was looking for a replacement to AutoPuTTY (http://www.r4dius.net/autoputty/). This looks like it does just about the same thing. Thanks a ton!

coreymaass• 13 years ago

Congrats and welcome to the fold :-)

duiker101• 13 years ago

Is it just me or people are really lacking with names? Rocket, shuttles and similar seems a bit overused...

daviddoran• 13 years ago

Installed. Nice little utility. As others probably do, I have ~/.ssh/config set up so that it's as easy as `ssh us1` to SSH into a server.

oellegaard• 13 years ago

Instant win

jrode2• 13 years ago

I love this more than for just ssh. I added a few other common commands into the menu for easy access.

nickpersico• 13 years ago

That is a great idea. Thanks!

jrode2• 13 years ago

Yep. Also, I understand what other people are saying about already having aliases, I do too. But, as a visual list of servers I can ssh into it is a nice reminder. Plus there are some files that I edit only from time to time (php.ini, apache config, etc). I made shortcuts that throw those files into my editor. Call me an amateur, but when I have to edit some of those my first question is usually, where the hell is that file again? Anyway, I find this tool useful.

mimiflynn• 13 years ago

I made alias' in my .bash_profile to handle this shortcut need, although, for servers that I don't access often, it might be nice to have the dropdown list as a reminder.

sneak6• 13 years ago

I have two-byte aliases for ssh to all of the hosts I use commonly, doesn't everyone? (It even reattaches my remote screen session.)

Why would I want to touch the mouse?

rickhanlonii2• 13 years ago

This was my first thought too, but then I considered the case where I'm already using the mouse and want to open a terminal and ssh to an app server. With this it would be two clicks, where without out it requires a move to the keyboard, a hotkey, and two keystrokes. However, moving to the keyboard is necessary after the SSH anyway, so that step doesn't really count against the latter.

Is it for me? I'll try it, but I don't think so. But I think it serves a need for some people, and I can always get behind ideas that serve or improve--successful or not--workflow/dev needs.

Great work Trevor!

sneak6• 13 years ago

Command-space t e r enter

Command-n

zz enter

alphakappa• 13 years ago

Why is this even a question? It's a tool that someone will want to use. As long as there is a mouse, there will be tools that use it. You are essentially asking 'why does this tool exist', which is an irrelevant question and is needless negativity.

sbochins• 13 years ago

I'm not sure that is completely fair. He was just making the point that using only your keyboard is much faster and there are already built in tools for doing that. He may have just been asking why someone would want to use a mouse over a keyboard for this type of thing.

cmer• 13 years ago

Curious. How do you automatically reattach screen? Thanks!

inopinatus2• 13 years ago

ssh -t myhost.example.net 'screen -D -RR'

inopinatus2• 13 years ago

Answer: as a browser for hosts you don't use commonly.

Long ago I wrote a similar ssh target browser, in just a few lines of Perl/Tk, that pulled all the hosts from my then-employer's server database (several hundred of them, thousands if you included our dev/test VMs, and constantly changing) and created a simple tree view for reviewing and navigating the set, based on location, functional role, sequence number, customer, software level etc.

Also handy/dangerous was having it launch mirrored gterms for a given set.

Half the staff used this tool. I'd be surprised if most admins of moderate-to-large installations didn't have something similar.

HendrikR2• 13 years ago

Yet another way to have clickable short-cuts for opening SSH connections using OS X (Safari only): OS X understands URL schemes like ssh://username@hostname.tld:port. Throw it into the address bar or even save this as a bookmark. Safari asks for permission before opening such non-http protocols nowadays and transfers you to Terminal.app. Pro: Less clutter in menu bar. Con: Safari only. (As for me, I prefer ~/.profile and 'alias').

fitztrev5• 13 years ago

I was actually going to do this at first. Something as simple as openURL:"ssh://username@example.com", then let OS X handle opening the default terminal. But I wasn't able to easily specify things like a different private key (for AWS or Vagrant). This at least gives the user the ability to specify any option that they could also specify on the command line.

jlgaddis3• 13 years ago

You can specify per-host keys in ~/.ssh/config (hint: "IdentityFile").

bluedino• 13 years ago

Doesn't everyone do this with sessions in iTerm? Right-click on the dock icon and then pick your server...

normalocity• 13 years ago

I like how the name "Shuttle" implies that this is going to make your SSHing experience "take off", but anyone with an SSH config file is like:

"You mean you weren't doing this years ago? Why do I need a UI to get to a shell command? I'm already in the shell!"

igravious• 13 years ago

Aargh. Only works in 10.8.x - I like new tech but I see no need to upgrade beyond 10.6.8 at the mo' :(

joshstrange• 13 years ago

I'm not trying to be jerk but, why?

diggan• 13 years ago

Instead of asking yourself why you should'nt upgrade you should probably ask youself why you should. So what's the reason for upgrading?

roryokane2• 13 years ago

I stay on OS X 10.6 because later versions drop support for PowerPC (Rosetta) applications. Many programs - abandoned programs and games - do not have Intel versions. And some games have Intel versions, but the Intel version costs money or is incompatible with previous saved games. I use these old programs rarely, but like to have the option of opening their files or playing those games.

Such applications include Airburst Extreme, the Fountain Music iTunes visualizer, Marble Blast Gold, N-Ball, Noise, SilverCreator v1.5, Sonic Robo Blast II, Super DX Ball, Super Phoenix, Water Tower, and Wire Hang Redux. There may be some plug-ins for various apps I'm forgetting, too.

kunai• 13 years ago

Because SL had a far better workflow. 10.8 may have a cleaner, flatter, better-looking UI and some nice kernel features underneath, but Mission Control is a disaster compared to Spaces + Exposé.

I still dual-boot 10.6 and 10.8. I find myself in 10.8 more often now, but 10.6 is still a better user experience.

diroussel• 13 years ago

Either you have a need, and upgrade. Or you don't have a need and don't need shuttle.

Targetting the latest release make life easier for devs.

eddieroger• 13 years ago

The extension of this is that most people will update, so targeting the latest version isn't bad.

arnehormann2• 13 years ago

If anyone needs something similar for Windows, use https://gist.github.com/arnehormann/5975783 and put all shortcuts with a folder into the quickstart part of the taskbar. The hta file I link to is html with visual basic instead of JS - executable on click, pretty compact, shows a dialog. Don't know if this breaks in later Win versions though, I wrote this some years ago and it worked fine in Vista...

kryten2• 13 years ago

Or even better, right click putty on your taskbar in windows 7 and all your profiles are listed.

arnehormann2• 13 years ago

Maybe I should have upgraded before switching to OS X :)

My approach still has one advantage: I have 60 user/server combinations and can order them by user/rack/whatever by using subfolders. And it's possible to assign custom icons, which I never did...

asayers• 13 years ago

For a similar set-up for Linux, see [1]. Here we use dmenu to displays hosts defined in .ssh/config, and open a connection to the selected host in a new window. See [2] for the relevant script.

[1] http://www.asayers.org/blog/ssh.html

[2] https://gist.github.com/asayers/5975856

kevin818• 13 years ago

Could anyone recommend a good/free program for making these kind of animated gifs that record your computer (like the one on Shuttle's homepage)?

I've been trying to add the same kind of thing to my site but I don't know how to do it.

fitztrev5• 13 years ago

I used the built-in Quicktime Player to do a screen recording. Then I used an online mov-to-gif converter. I had a hard time getting it down to a decent size, though. Hope that helps!

loupeabody• 13 years ago

I've heard and seen many good things about LICEcap[0]. There doesn't appear to be a Linux install, just so you know.

[0]http://www.cockos.com/licecap/

D9u• 13 years ago

I use ffmpeg to record my desktop and convert the output to animated gif.

I'm not sure about OS X, but FreeBSD and Linux distros should have ffmpeg in ports/repos.

There's also byzanz for ubuntu.

Axsuul• 13 years ago

Something like this would be awesome for vagrant!

fitztrev5• 13 years ago

It actually works pretty well with Vagrant. In fact, I even have Vagrant in the sample config file to show how it's done. :)

https://github.com/fitztrev/shuttle/blob/master/Shuttle/shut...

Basically just do `vagrant ssh-config box_name_here` to get the port and identity file that you need to specify in the SSH command.

txutxu• 13 years ago

Having exactly the same in fluxbox since more than 10 years ago...

And more "dynamic" and "generated" menus (all that is needed is the "include" directive in the menu handler and cron).

geeksunny2• 13 years ago

Very nice! This is almost exactly like an app I've been slowly chipping away at since last September, except my project acts as a front-end for reading and editing the ~/.ssh/config file.

Still haven't gotten anything released but my WIP builds have certainly proven useful in my daily workflow. Has been a nice project for teaching myself Obj-C too!

thedufer2• 13 years ago

Menu->Configure opens the configuration file in TextEdit, which is a disaster since it has smart quotes on by default. I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out was wrong with your json parser before I realized what was going on.

afshin• 13 years ago

You can change the TextEdit preferences to always open files up as plain text instead of rich text if this annoys you, by the way.

thedufer2• 13 years ago

It was opened as plain text. That option is orthogonal to smart quotes, although it turns out those can be turned off globally as well. Thanks for leading me in the right direction.

I still think there must be a better way to do it for Shuttle, though, given what the defaults are. Even something as hacky as replacing smart quotes with normal ones before json parsing would be pretty useful.

nicwolff• 13 years ago

Terminal already does most of this, right? Preferences -> Settings -> "+" -> Shell -> Run command "ssh user@hostname". And you can set the background color &c for each host.

jeffrogers• 13 years ago

Aliases in ~/.ssh/config are my preference, but if clicking with the mouse is your thing, why not throw Terminal.app in the Dock and click/hold the icon? Choose New Remote Connection... and you can save all your services and hosts right there. No additional processes running or clutter in the menubar.

CptCodeMonkey• 13 years ago

I have a widget like this for AWS+Virtualbox, it sorts all instances across all regions into tag name groups, by ip, by region, and by instance type. Unfortunately I know it only works for Windows and linux at the moment and my company hasn't given me a green flag to release it.

Still this project is a lot prettier and appears to have been more refined while mine was hobbled together in a hour or two and fit in one Python file ( reasonably, its not 10 files in one ).

sev• 13 years ago

Too bad it does not work with Leopard...so it becomes useless to me. Otherwise looked like a nice idea!

math0ne• 13 years ago

On windows 7+ putty does this by default.

jameswyse• 13 years ago

For a long time I was adding aliases to .ssh/config manually and managing things that way but a coworker introduced me to a couple of tools which made things much easier!

One is a tool similar to Shuttle to access all our EC2 instances called Elastics[1] (Mac). It provides a menu listing every EC2 instance, showing it's status, IPs, config details, cpu usage, etc and allows you to click to open SSH. It's not perfect but very handy!

I also use an in-house tool which queries the EC2 API to sync my .ssh/config with aliases for every server based on EC2 tags. If you're interested it's built with node.js using awssum [2] to query AWS and sshconf-upsert [3] to update the config.

[1] http://tundrabot.com/

[2] https://github.com/awssum/awssum

[2] https://github.com/hughsk/sshconf-upsert

jgarnham• 13 years ago

What's he using in the video to give the almost path bar effect for the prompt in terminal?

fitztrev5• 13 years ago

https://twitter.com/fitztrev/status/355340535659122688

It's actually the Solarized Dark, to be more specific. :)

laureny• 13 years ago

Cute idea but I prefer to set up these profiles in iTerm2 because when I ssh somewhere, I usually use a different background to differentiate the various hosts (production, staging, etc...).

I also tend to split iTerm2 horizontally and vertically and create ssh sessions in tabs, so I hardly ever need an ssh session in a brand new window.

pclark• 13 years ago

I love the design of this, from the animated gif tour, to the .json config

maslam• 13 years ago

Ignore the disparaging comments in Hacker News. This is really nice. Thanks for your heard work - I'm using it already!

Shuttle - A simple SSH shortcut menu for OS X

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