https://github.com/fboender/sshbg

Change terminal background when SSH'ing (on specific terminals)
https://github.com/fboender/sshbg

background color ssh terminal tilix xterm

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Change terminal background when SSH'ing (on specific terminals)

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/fboender/sshbg
• Owner: fboender
• License: mit
• Created: 2017-09-19T20:25:45.000Z (over 7 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2022-07-16T07:01:15.000Z (over 2 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-08-16T16:22:46.266Z (4 months ago)
• Topics: background, color, ssh, terminal, tilix, xterm
• Language: Python
• Size: 220 KB
• Stars: 49
• Watchers: 7
• Forks: 7
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
sshbg

=====

Change terminal background color when SSH'ing.

**Important notice**: I do not provide support

for this repository. Please do not file feature requests for different

terminals or bug reports if this setup does not work for you.

![Demo](demo.gif)

(Yes, all the hosts are actually localhost. I was lazy).

## Supported emulators, caveat and problems

This **doesn't work** with:

* Almost every terminal emulator in existence (Terminator, Gnome terminal,

  XFCE terminal, anything based on libvte). **Update**: Seems to work now with

  libvte v2.91+. Maybe older versions too.

* When you're using `ControlMaster auto` in your SSH config.

The following terminal emulators are supported:

* [Tilix](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix) v1.7.7.

* Xterm

To check if your terminal is supported, paste the following in your terminal:

     echo -e "\033]11;#007F00\a"

If the background of your terminal changes to green, it is supported.

Tilix supported this in v1.7.7 and below. Since v1.7.7 it has been broken. See

[this bugreport](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/issues/1759).  You can

downgrade to [v1.7.7](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/releases/tag/1.7.7) to

get it working again.

**Don't ask me for support for your specific terminal**. Chances are

very good that it can't be supported.

## How does it work?

Black unix magic. Well, not really. Well, kinda...

SSH lets you run a local command before the connection to the remote host is

established. Some terminals allow you to set the background color with an

escape sequence. It's possible to detect if the SSH command has exited from

the locally executed command by polling the parent process PID in the

background. Combine the three and presto! Background colors.

sshbg matches (regex) entries in a configuration file against the provided

hostname. That results in a profile name, which has a background color

associated with it. See the "Config file" section at the bottom of this page

for more info.

## Installation and usage

Requirements:

* Python v3.x+

* A supported terminal

Clone this repo:

    git clone [email protected]:fboender/sshbg.git

    cd sshbg

Copy the `sshbg` script to some dir in your PATH, for example:

    sudo cp sshbg /usr/local/bin/

Copy the `sshbg.conf` file to `~/.config/sshbg.conf`:

    cp sshbg.conf ~/.config/

Enable the `LocalCommand` configuration setting in your SSH config. You can do

this on a host-by-host basis, or with wildcards. To enable it for all hosts,

make your SSH config look like this:

    $ cat ~/.ssh/config

    PermitLocalCommand yes

    Host *

        LocalCommand sshbg "%n"

## Config file

The config file is a JSON file that looks like this:

    {

        "normal_bg_color": "#000000",

        "profiles": {

            "prod": "#2F0100",

            "uat": "#1A1400",

            "test": "#011A00"

        },

        "hostnames": {

            "test.dev.local": "test",

            "uat.dev.local": "uat",

            "prod.dev.local": "prod",

            ".*-prod.*": "prod",

            "acc.*": "uat"

        }

    }

The keys:

* `normal_bg_color`: The normal background color of your terminal, which

  sshbg will reset your terminal to when the SSH command returns.

* `profiles`: The list of profile names and their associated colors. You

  can name these whatever you want.

* `hostnames`: Regular expressions that are matched against the hostname

  you're SSH'ign too. If the regex matches, the profile is selected.

## Remarks, weirdness and bugs.

* The hostname is the one you specify on the commandline, **NOT** necessarily

  the real remote hostname.

* Manually chained SSH (`ssh machine_a -> ssh machine_b`) will not work.

  Automatically chained SSH (through `ProxyCommand`) *will* work.

* When SSH exits, the terminal background color is reset to the value of

  `normal_bg_color` in the configuration file. I have not yet found a way to

  reset the original terminal color as defined in your terminal.

* After the background color is set by sshbg, your terminal probably can't

  change the background color itself anymore. No idea why.

* Probably a million different strange behaviours. Did I mention I don't

  support this project already?

## License

MIT license. See `LICENSE` file.