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.

No installations or root access on the host required.

If you like the idea of xxh click ⭐ on the repo and spread the word.

Installation methods

PyPi 3

pip3 install -U xxh-xxh

Linux portable binary

mkdir ~/xxh && cd ~/xxh
wget https://github.com/xxh/xxh-portable/raw/master/result/xxh-portable-musl-alpine-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf xxh-portable-musl-alpine-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
./xxh

AppImage

mkdir ~/xxh && cd ~/xxh
wget -O xxh https://github.com/xxh/xxh-appimage/releases/download/continuous/xxh-release-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x xxh && ./xxh

To use seamless mode run ./xxh ++extract-sourcing-files to extract xxh.*sh files to the current directory then run source xxh.zsh myhost command for seamless connecting.

Supported shells

xxh-shell-...	status	seamless	plugins	demo
xonsh-appimage	stable	xxh.xsh	pipeliner, bar, autojump, sample
zsh	stable	xxh.zsh	ohmyzsh, p10k, sample
fish	prestable		sample
bash-zero	prestable	xxh.bash	ohmybash, vim sample
osquery	beta
fish-appimage	alpha

The "zero" means the shell installed on host will be used.

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

Usage

Use xxh as replace ssh to connecting to the host without changing ssh arguments:

xxh <host from ~/.ssh/config>
xxh [ssh arguments] [user@]host[:port] [xxh arguments]
xxh [+I xxh-package ...] [+L] [+RI xxh-package ...] [+R xxh-package ...]

Common examples (use xxh --help to get info about arguments):

xxh myhost                                          # connect to the host
xxh -i id_rsa -p 2222 myhost                        # using ssh arguments: port and key
xxh myhost +s zsh                                   # set the shell
xxh myhost +s xonsh-appimage +hhh "~"               # set /home/user as home directory (read Q&A)
xxh myhost +s bash-zero +I xxh-plugin-bash-vim      # preinstall the plugin
xxh myhost +if +q                                   # install without questions in quiet mode
xxh myhost +hh /tmp/xxh +hhr                        # upload xxh to host /tmp/xxh and remove when disconnect 
source xxh.zsh myhost +I xxh-plugin-zsh-ohmyzsh     # connect in seamless mode with ohmyzsh plugin

To reusing arguments there is ~/.config/xxh/config.xxhc config file in YAML format:

hosts:
  ".*":                       # for all hosts
    +s: xxh-shell-fish          # use fish shell

  myhost:                     # settings for myhost
    -p: 2222                    # set special port
    +s: xxh-shell-zsh           # use zsh shell                         
    +I: xxh-shell-zsh           # install xxh-shell if needed
    +I: xxh-plugin-zsh-ohmyzsh  # install xxh-plugin if needed
    +e: ZSH_THEME="clean"       # set ohmyzsh theme
    +hhh: "~"                   # set /home/user as home directory

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

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

If you add +I arguments with appropriate xxh packages you can make your config file complete and simplify the usage command to xxh myhost.

The ideas behind xxh

Portable. By default building occurs locally and then xxh uploads the result to host. No installations or root access on the host required. The security and careful about environment on the host are behind it.

Careful. No blindfold copying config files from local to remote host. The privacy and repeatability reasons are behind it. Every xxh package, shell or plugin is the bridge that use only what required, no more.

Hermetic. If you delete ~/.xxh directory from the remote host then xxh has never been on the host. If files appears outside xxh home directory feel free to report about this cases.

Fork-ready. Every repo could be forked, customized and used without waiting of package management system, xxh releases or any third party.

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 five shells and the count could be grow by community.

Q&A

How it 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, root access and affection on the target host.

How to set /home/user as home instead of /home/user/.xxh?

Add +hhh '~' argument to the command or to config.xxhc.

By default xxh uses hermetic environment where $HOME is /home/user/.xxh. When you add +hhh '~' argument you set $HOME to your orinary user home directory. But XDG still in /home/user/.xxh. This is semihermetic because any tools you use during xxh session that aren't support XDG can write to your home directory.

Finally when you add +hhx '~' you also redirect XDG to user home directory and any tools you use during ssh session and xxh session has the same data, configs and cache. This is very useful when you don't need hermetization and you want just use xxh like ssh with saving all your configs, data and cache in your home directory.

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 plus speed of initializing the shell you used. You could monitor all process using +vv argument.

What if my host_internal can be reached only from my host_external?

Add ProxyCommand or ProxyJump to your ssh config as described and then do ordinary xxh host_internal.

What is xxh plugin?

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

Use cases

Python everywhere with xonsh

When you run xxh myhost +s xonsh-appimage you'll get portable 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)

source xxh.zsh myhost +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 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.

Use custom source to install your version of xxh packages:

xxh +I xxh-shell-sample+git+https://github.com/xxh/xxh-shell-sample
xxh +I xxh-shell-sample+path+/home/user/xxh/xxh-shell-sample
xxh myhost +s xxh-shell-sample

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 great linuxdeploy-plugin-python
• probonopd and TheAssassin for hard-working AppImage
• Roman Perepelitsa for incredible statically-linked, hermetic, relocatable Zsh
• Anthony Scopatz, Gil Forsyth, Jamie Bliss, David Strobach, Morten Enemark Lund and @xore for amazing xonsh shell