The ability to run both console and graphical programs securely on a remote system using SSH brings you a great deal of freedom. When the communications link to that remote system has high latency, however, running interactive programs such as a text editor on the remote machine can become a real test of your patience. The bcvi project lets you edit files on a remote system using gvim (or another editor) on your local desktop machine to avoid the latency.
Why do so difficult?
Type fish://user@sshserver in Konqueror
.. and click the file you’d like to edit.
KDE rules
Yes, actually KDE has managed to come up with the single most transparent way to handle these things. For this reason alone, I tend to use the Kate text editor over all others, simply because I DO NOT WANT to be interrupted and reminded about what is remote or local every time I edit a file.
Even better, if you open an remote file in Konqueror with a non-KDE application (which doesn’t support the KIOslaves) KDE will download the file, offer it to the application, an offer to upload it again if you did change the file automatically!
Thanks for the info. I do lot of remote text editing and don’t know about this. I always use fish coupled with split screen of konqueror to drag and drop remote files.
Gnome apps have the same functionality and will work over any gnome-vfs system too.
Example: gedit ssh://host/path/to/file
ssh: makes more sense to me than fish: anyway
.
Edited 2008-07-11 20:18 UTC
There is need for neither: just use sshfs on FUSE: sshfs user@server:path mount_path 😉
No need for Konqueror. Pretty much every KDE app can do this in the File dialog.
1. Open KDE editor of choise.
2. Type “sftp://user@host/path/to/dir/“ into the top textbox (location) and hit enter.
3. Enter password when prompted.
Voila! Instant access to all files on the remote system, same as if they were local. Open/Edit as needed.
You can do this with any KIO Slaves (dav, svn, http, sftp, etc).
What’s difference between this tool and standard Vim plugin Netrw?
:help netrw
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Emacs has this with tramp. Tramp allows you to use your local emacs to edit remote files through ssh, rsh, ftp, or local files through su (allows you to use your configured emacs to modify a file in /etc for example). Saving the file will transparently copy the file back to the remote location.
As an example, i would open a remote file as: /ssh:bender@futurama:/home/bender/.bashrc. A password will be asked as and if needed.
What I’ve really always wanted – in addition to a network transparent vim – is some sort of buffered bash readline support. Especially when logging in over my high-latency cell phone.
That combination would make shell logins via bluetooth cell phone very useful. Then port it to my cell phone itself (I’ve already got a keyboard)…
Just reading the comments on this article shows how bad it is to provide too many choices to your users…
<noFlames>
Well, I disagree that having many ways of doing something is a problem. It is a blessing having choices, and being able to pick the one you like most.
</noFlames>
Edited 2008-07-13 14:03 UTC