[mosh-devel] Application specific agents, side-channel file transfers and triggers

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 11:46:08PM +0100, Nathaniel Smith wrote:
> Tramp is great, but it would be very useful to have some way to do
> callbacks *from* a remote server, inside a terminal session, *to* the
> local client.

There is zssh for that: http://zssh.sourceforge.net/ -- it uses the
zmodem protocol over an ssh terminal session.

> For instance an oft-requested feature for ssh is some
> command that you could type in the terminal to fetch a file back:
> 
>   remotehost:~/some/obscure/directory$ mosh-fetch the-file.txt
>   <a file save dialog opens on your desktop>

Another way I've achieved that is to create a port forwarding from the
remote machine to port 22 on my local machine, e.g. with
"RemoteForward 2222 localhost:22" in my .ssh/config.

Then I just have to do "scp -P 2222 somefile localhost:" and I copied
it back to my workstation. Even easier if ssh keys are used. I also
have a host alias "home" defined in my .ssh/config on some remote
hosts, so that boils down to an easy to type and remember "scp
somefile home:".

I even wrote a mutt macro, so that if I press "x" on some attachment,
it gets copied to my local machine and then an appropriate viewer is
called on my local machine, too. (Unfortunately GDM3 fucked up that
setup by putting the .Xauthority file somewhere else.)

HTH.

> I've even seen the ssh-agent protocol abused for this purpose, which
> is... suboptimal.

Not sure if you meant the above, but I like it. :-)

		Kind regards, Axel
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