You chosen a command shell and spent months to stuffed it with shortcuts and colors. But when you move from local to remote host using ssh you lose it all. The mission of xxh is to bring your favorite shell wherever you go through the ssh.

Install or update

python3 -m pip install --upgrade xxh-xxh

After install you can just using xxh command as replace ssh to connecting to the host because xxh has seamless support of basic ssh command arguments.

Usage

$ ./xxh -h 
usage: xxh <host from ~/.ssh/config>
usage: xxh [ssh arguments] [user@]host[:port] [xxh arguments]
usage: xxh [-p SSH_PORT] [-l SSH_LOGIN] [-i SSH_PRIVATE_KEY]
           [-o SSH_OPTION -o ...] [+P PASSWORD] [+PP]
           [user@]host[:port]
           [+i] [+if] [+s SHELL] [+e NAME=VAL +e ...] [+iff] [+hhr]
           [+hh HOST_XXH_HOME] [+hf HOST_EXEC_FILE] [+hc HOST_EXEC_CMD]
           [+xc XXH_CONFIG] [+lh LOCAL_XXH_HOME] [+v] [+vv] [+q]

There is ~/.xxh/.xxhc yaml config to save arguments and reuse it:

hosts:
  myhost:                     # settings for myhost
    -p: 2222                    # set special port
    +s: xxh-shell-zsh           # set zsh shell                         
    +e: ZSH_THEME="clean"       # set ohmyzsh theme

  "company-.*":        # for all hosts by regex pattern
    +if:                 # don't asking about install (++install-force)
    +hh: /tmp/.xxh       # use special xxh home directory (++host-xxh-home)
    +hhr:                # remove host xxh home after disconnect (++host-xxh-home-remove)

The arguments will be automatically added when you run xxh myhost or xxh company-server1.

Supported shells

Xonsh — stable version with pipeliner, bar, autojump plugins.

Zsh — beta version with Oh My Zsh and powerlevel10k plugins, waiting for feedback.

osquery — beta version, waiting for feedback.

Fish — alpha version, waiting for feedback.

Bash — zero version that just runs bash installed on the host with plugins like vim.

Search xxh shell on Github or Bitbucket or create your shell entrypoint to use another portable shell.

The ideas behind xxh

• Avoid building on remote host. The security and careful about environment on the host are behind it. This could be the optional future feature but not now.
• No copying config files from local to remote host "as is". The privacy and repeatability reasons are behind it. Every xxh package, shell or plugin is the bridge that use only what required, no more.
• Portable means clean. If you delete ~/.xxh directory from the remote host then xxh has never been on the host. Some temporary files of third party tools you use could be in the home directory after usage but we stand for moving them to the xxh home directory. Feel free to report about this cases.
• Be fork-ready. Every repo could be forked, customize and used without affection on package management system, xxh releases or any third party lags.
• Do more. The xxh packages are not only about shells. Any type of tool or code could be behind "shell entrypoint". If you want to play Super Mario on the remote host just put it as entrypoint.
• Be open. Currently supported four shells and the count could be grow by community.

Q&A

What is plugin? It is the set of scripts which will be run on the host when you go using xxh. It could be shell settings, environment variables, plugins, color themes and everything you need. You can find the links to plugins on xxh-shells repos. Feel free to fork it.

How xxh works? When you run xxh myhost command xxh download portable shell and store locally to future use. Then if it needed xxh upload the portable shell, init scripts and plugins to the host. Finally xxh make ssh connection to the host and run portable shell without any system installs and affection on the target host.

What about speed? The first connection takes time for downloading and uploading portable shell. It depends on portable shell size and channel speed. But when xxh is installed on the host and you do just xxh myhost then it works as ordinary ssh connection speed. You could monitor all process using +vv argument.

Use cases

Python everywhere with xonsh

When you run xxh myhost +s xonsh you'll get python, pip and python-powered shell on the host without any system installations on the host. Add plugins: autojump saves time, pipeliner manipulates lines and bar looks nice.

Oh My Zsh seamless SSH (demo)

Bring Zsh and Oh My Zsh with your current environment to the host:

zsh$ xxhp ri xxh-shell-zsh xxh-plugin-zsh-ohmyzsh
zsh$ echo $ZSH_THEME
agnoster
zsh$ source xxh.zsh myhost
myhost> echo $ZSH_THEME
agnoster

This source command get your current Zsh session theme and plugins and pass it to the xxh session. If you need more complex settings just fork the xxh-plugin-zsh-ohmyzsh and hack it.

Read host as a table with osquery

$ xxh myhost +s osquery
osquery> SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='news';
+-----+-----+----------+-------------+-----------------+-------------------+
| uid | gid | username | description | directory       | shell             |
+-----+-----+----------+-------------+-----------------+-------------------+
| 9   | 9   | news     | news        | /var/spool/news | /usr/sbin/nologin |
+-----+-----+----------+-------------+-----------------+-------------------+

All in one portable home

The xxh is very agile. You can create your own xxh-shell (shell word means it has entrypoint) which has any portable tools that you could help you on the host. Bash-zero xxh-shell is one of this platforms that could be forked and stuffed.

Development

In the xxh-dev repo there is full dockerised environment for development, testing and contribution. The process of testing and development is orchestrated by xde tool and as easy as possible.

Community

Spread the word! If you like the idea of xxh click ⭐ on the repo and tweet the link.

We have teams. If you're in team it does not oblige to do something. The main goal of teams is to create group of passionate people who could help or support in complex questions. Some people could be expert in one shell and newbie in another shell and mutual assistance is the key to xxh evolution. Ask join.

Thanks

• niess for https://github.com/niess/linuxdeploy-plugin-python/
• probonopd and TheAssassin for https://github.com/AppImage
• scopatz, gforsyth, astronouth7303, laloch, melund and all xore for https://github.com/xonsh/xonsh