17 KiB
You stuffed command shell with aliases, tools and colors but you lose it all when using ssh. The mission of xxh is to bring your favorite shell wherever you go through ssh without root access and system installations.
If you like the idea of xxh click ⭐ on the repo and tweet.
Portable. Preparing portable shells and plugins occurs locally and then xxh uploads the result to the host. No installations or root access on the host required. Security and host environment a prime focus. | Hermetic. Deleting ~/.xxh directory from the remote host will make the remote environment function as if xxh was never there. By default your home is the .xxh directory and you can choose the hermetic level of your xxh session. |
Careful. No blindfold copying config files from local to remote host. Following privacy and repeatability practices the best way is to fork the xxh plugin or shell example and pack your configs into it. |
Be open and fork-ready. Every xxh repo could be forked, customized and reused without waiting for a package management system, xxh release or any third party packages. Five shells are currently supported and more could be added by the community. | Do more. The xxh packages are not only about shells. Any type of tool or code could be behind an entrypoint. If you want to run browsh on the remote host, just put its portable version as an entrypoint in the xxh-shell. | Chameleon. Switching the shells is as easy as possible and you don't have to be locked in to one shell. Choose your current shell based on the task you want to solve: xxh anyhost +s xonsh for a python environment, osquery for simple querying, fish for modern features or time-tested zsh and bash for speed. |
Installation methods
PyPi 3
pip3 install xxh-xxh
pipx - good alternative to brew and pip, read comparison
pipx install xxh-xxh
Conda-forge feedstock
conda config --add channels conda-forge
conda install xxh-xxh
Homebrew
brew install xxh
Macports
sudo port install xxh
Linux portable binary
mkdir ~/xxh && cd ~/xxh
wget https://github.com/xxh/xxh/releases/download/0.8.7/xxh-portable-musl-alpine-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf xxh-portable-musl-alpine-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
./xxh
Linux AppImage
mkdir ~/xxh && cd ~/xxh
wget -O xxh https://github.com/xxh/xxh/releases/download/0.8.7/xxh-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x xxh && ./xxh
To run AppImage on Alpine Linux install alpine-pkg-glibc with localedef.
Shells
Currently supported OS for target host is Linux on x86_64.
xxh-shell | status | xxh-plugins | seamless | demo |
---|---|---|---|---|
xonsh | stable | autojump, [+] | xxh.xsh |
demo |
zsh | stable | ohmyzsh, p10k, [+] | xxh.zsh |
demo |
fish | stable | ohmyfish, fisher, userconfig, [+] | todo | |
bash | stable | ohmybash, [+] | xxh.bash |
demo |
osquery | beta | |||
fish-appimage | alpha | |||
elvish | alpha |
Search xxh shell on Github or Bitbucket or create your shell entrypoint to use another portable shell.
Prerun plugins
Prerun plugins allow you to bring any portable tools, dotfiles or aliases to xxh session before running shell.
Pinned plugins: core (xxh-sudo, xxh-screen), dotfiles, docker, python, xxh, vim, zoxide. There is cookiecutter template to create prerun plugin.
Usage
Use xxh
instead of ssh
when connecting to Linux hosts without changing ssh arguments:
xxh <host from ~/.ssh/config>
xxh [ssh arguments] [user@]host[:port] [xxh arguments]
xxh local [xxh arguments]
Common examples (use xxh --help
to get info about arguments):
xxh anyhost # Connect to the host
xxh -i id_rsa -p 2222 anyhost # Using ssh arguments: port and key
xxh anyhost +s zsh +i # Set the shell and install it without yes/no question
xxh anyhost +s xonsh +hhh "~" # Set /home/user as home directory (read Q&A)
xxh anyhost +s bash +I xxh-plugin-bash-vim # Preinstall a plugin
xxh anyhost +if +q # Force reinstall xxh on the host in quiet mode
xxh anyhost +hh /tmp/xxh +hhr # Upload xxh to /tmp/xxh and remove when disconnecting
source xxh.zsh anyhost +I xxh-plugin-zsh-ohmyzsh # Connect in seamless mode with ohmyzsh plugin
xxh local +s xonsh # Experimental: build xxh environment inplace and without ssh
For reusing arguments and simplifying xxh usage (like shortening to xxh anyhost
) there is a config file.
Why the plus sign for the xxh arguments? The xxh is using the plus sign for the xxh arguments to save the ability to use minus sign for the original ssh arguments. This allows just replace the first two letters in the ssh
command to convert it to the xxh
command.
Installing xxh packages
xxh [+I xxh-package +I ...] [+L] [+RI xxh-package +RI ...] [+R xxh-package +R ...]
Different ways to set the xxh package source:
xxh +I xxh-shell-example # install from https://github.com/xxh
xxh +I https://github.com/xxh/xxh-shell-example # short url for github only, for other sources use examples below or add support
xxh +I https://github.com/xxh/xxh-shell-example/tree/mybranch # short url for github only, for other sources use examples below or add support
xxh +I xxh-shell-example+git+https://github.com/xxh/xxh-shell-example # long url for any git repo
xxh +I xxh-shell-example+git+https://github.com/xxh/xxh-shell-example/tree/mybranch # github only branch support
xxh +I xxh-shell-example+git+git@github.com:githubuser/xxh-shell-example.git # install from private repository using ssh
xxh +I xxh-shell-example+path+/home/user/my-xxh-dev/xxh-shell-example # install from local path
Using xxh inplace without ssh connection
This is experimental magic. Please read the text below twice.
If you have shell access on the host or you're in a docker container and you can't ssh to it
then you can download and build hermetic xxh environment inplace. The xxh local
command works
exactly like xxh remote_host
and creates a hermetic environment in ~/.xxh
by default.
At this time we don't have portable build tools like git
, wget
, curl
, tar
and others which
could be required by some xxh package build scripts. When running xxh local
it is expected that the tools are present on the host.
To run xxh inplace on Linux x86_64 just copy and paste these bash commands:
XH=~/.xxh \
&& XD=https://github.com/xxh/xxh-portable/raw/master/result/xxh-portable-musl-alpine-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz \
&& mkdir -p $XH && cd $XH \
&& ( [[ -x $(command -v curl) ]] && curl -L $XD || wget -O- $XD ) | tar zxf - xxh \
&& echo 'Usage: ./xxh local [+s xonsh/zsh/fish/osquery/bash]'
Next time you're on host just run ~/.xxh/xxh local
and you will enter your xxh environment.
Examples of use cases
Python with pip everywhere without installation
Way 1. Using xonsh
xxh anyhost +s xonsh
anyhost> python --version
Python 3.8.2
You'll get python-powered xonsh shell with portable python and pip on the host without any system installations on the host. You can install PyPi packages manually or bring them with you automatically by using xxh-plugin-prerun-dotfiles. Also don't forget about xxh-plugins like zoxide.
Way 2. Using portable python on any xxh shell
xxh +RI xxh-plugin-prerun-python
xxh anyhost +s zsh
anyhost> python --version
Python 3.8.2
anyhost> pip install pandas
Using xxh-plugin-prerun-python you'll get a portable Python AppImage which can be used on a host without python and with any xxh shell.
Using docker on host without root access
xxh +RI xxh-plugin-prerun-docker
xxh anyhost +if
anyhost> xxh-docker-run
anyhost> docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND
anyhost> docker run --rm hello-world | grep Hello
Hello from Docker!
anyhost> xxh-docker-stop
Bring dotfiles to xxh session
There is the xxh-plugin-prerun-dotfiles plugin which creates config files when you go to the host using xxh. You can fork it and create your cozy settings once and forever.
Seamless Oh My Zsh (demo)
source xxh.zsh anyhost +I xxh-plugin-zsh-ohmyzsh +if +q
This command brings your current Oh My Zsh session theme 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 anyhost +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
xxh is very agile. You can create your own xxh-shell
(the shell part means it has an entrypoint) which can have any portable tools
that could help you on the host. Bash xxh-shell is one of these
platforms that could be forked and stuffed.
Questions and answers
Development
In the xxh development environment there is full dockerised environment
for development, testing and contribution. The process of testing and development is orchestrated by xde
tool and is as
easy as possible.
We have teams. If you're in a team it does not mean you have an obligation to do something. The main goal of teams is to create groups of passionate people who could help or support solving complex problems. Some people could be an expert in one shell and a newbie in another shell and mutual assistance is the key to xxh evolution. Ask join.
Thanks
- niess for great python-appimage
- probonopd and TheAssassin for hard-working AppImage
- Anthony Scopatz, Gil Forsyth, Jamie Bliss, David Strobach, Morten Enemark Lund and @xore for amazing xonsh shell
- Roman Perepelitsa for incredible statically-linked, hermetic, relocatable Zsh
- Johannes Altmanninger and Fabian Homborg for extensive and portable fish shell