https://api.github.com/repos/cngarrison/rbbedit/contents/{+path}

AboutBBEdit.png

Edit local files on remote workstation using BBEdit

MIT License

rbbedit

<div id="readme" class="md" data-path="README.md"><article class="markdown-body entry-content container-lg"><h1 id="user-content-rbbedit" dir="auto">rbbedit</h1>
<p dir="auto">Edit local (server) files on remote (users) workstation using <a href="http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/" rel="nofollow">BBEdit</a>.</p>
<h2 id="user-content-usage" dir="auto">Usage</h2>
<p dir="auto">Connect to <code>server-host</code> from the BBEdit workstation.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="workstation$ ssh server-host"><pre class="notranslate"><code>workstation$ ssh server-host
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Open <code>filename</code> in BBEdit on workstation, using default copy method (sftp).</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="server-host$ rbbedit filename"><pre class="notranslate"><code>server-host$ rbbedit filename
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Open <code>filename</code> in BBEdit, connecting to workstation as <code>myuser</code>.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="server-host$ rbbedit -u myuser filename"><pre class="notranslate"><code>server-host$ rbbedit -u myuser filename
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Open <code>filename</code> in BBEdit, using scp method.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="server-host$ rbbedit -m scp filename"><pre class="notranslate"><code>server-host$ rbbedit -m scp filename
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Open <code>filename</code> in BBEdit, using ExpanDrive with volume named <code>expandrive-volume</code>.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="server-host$ rbbedit -x expandrive-volume filename"><pre class="notranslate"><code>server-host$ rbbedit -x expandrive-volume filename
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Send SSH public key from <code>server-host</code> to workstation.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="server-host$ rbbedit -u myuser -k send"><pre class="notranslate"><code>server-host$ rbbedit -u myuser -k send
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Get SSH public key from workstation.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="server-host$ rbbedit -u myuser -k get"><pre class="notranslate"><code>server-host$ rbbedit -u myuser -k get
</code></pre></div>
<h2 id="user-content-requirements" dir="auto">Requirements</h2>
<h4 id="user-content-local-machine" dir="auto">Local machine</h4>
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>sshd</code> must be enabled, and if needed, with firewall and port forwarding configured to allow access to BBEdit workstation</li>
<li>BBEdit command line utilities</li>
<li>SSH keys for user account <em>(to avoid entering password repeatedly)</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="user-content-remote-machine" dir="auto">Remote machine</h4>
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>sh</code></li>
<li><code>ssh</code></li>
<li>common unix utilities (such as <code>basename</code>, <code>dirname</code>, <code>curl</code>)</li>
<li>SSH keys for user account <em>(to avoid entering password repeatedly)</em></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="user-content-installation" dir="auto">Installation</h2>
<h4 id="user-content-server-host" dir="auto">Server Host</h4>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>Automatic installation with:
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cngarrison/rbbedit/master/install.sh | bash</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Or install manually from GitHub:
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>wget https://github.com/cngarrison/rbbedit/raw/master/rbbedit</code></li>
<li><code>chmod 755 rbbedit</code></li>
<li>Copy <code>rbbedit</code> somewhere in <code>PATH</code></li>
<li><code>cp rbbedit /usr/local/bin/</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Or clone from GitHub:
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>git clone https://github.com/cngarrison/rbbedit.git</code></li>
<li><code>cd rbbedit</code></li>
<li><code>./install.sh</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Create SSH key pair for user account (unless already done)
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>ssh-keygen</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="user-content-bbedit-workstation" dir="auto">BBEdit workstation</h4>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>Enable SSH (remote login)</li>
<li>Configure firewall and port forwarding to allow SSH connections</li>
<li>Copy SSH public key from server(s) to .ssh/authorized_keys (keys can be copied with the <code>-k</code> option)</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="user-content-script-options" dir="auto">Script options</h2>
<ul dir="auto">
<li><code>-U username</code>: server-host/SFTP user; specify username to use in hostname argument for SFTP command - will default to $USER</li>
<li><code>-H hostname</code>: server-host/SFTP host; specify hostname or IP address - will default to $HOSTNAME</li>
<li><code>-u username</code>: workstation/SSH user; specify username to use in hostname argument for SSH command</li>
<li><code>-h hostname</code>: workstation/SSH host; specify hostname or IP address, optionally prefix with USER@, eg. <a href="mailto:myuser@myworkstation.example.com">myuser@myworkstation.example.com</a></li>
<li><code>-p port</code>: workstation/SSH port; connect to SSH using port other than 22</li>
<li><code>-m copy-method</code>: <code>sftp | ftp | expan | scp | rsync</code>  - method used to copy files between hosts</li>
<li><code>-x expandrive-volume</code>: volume name as configured in drives list of ExpanDrive, implies <code>-m expan</code></li>
<li><code>-k copy-direction</code>: <code>get | send</code>  - direction to copy the SSH key</li>
<li><code>-i identity-file</code>: path to identity file if <code>ssh-copy-id</code> can't find default public key file</li>
<li><code>-y understood</code>: confirmation that you understand the implication of the 'copy SSH public key' command <em>(not required in current version)</em></li>
<li><code>-b /path/to/bbedit</code>: path to <code>bbedit</code> on the workstation</li>
<li><code>-v</code>: verbose</li>
<li><code>-w</code>: Enable BBEdit wait mode (default)</li>
<li><code>-w</code>: Disable BBEdit wait mode (only sftp, ftp &amp; expan methods)</li>
<li><code>-+</code>: self-update</li>
<li><code>-?</code>: help usage</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="user-content-user-defaults" dir="auto">User Defaults</h4>
<p dir="auto">All options specified in the users ~/.rbbedit file will be used as defaults. Options specified on the command line will override user defaults.</p>
<p dir="auto">The following options can be set in ~/.rbbedit file. These are the script default values.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="host_sftp_user=&quot;&quot;
host_sftp_host=&quot;&quot;

bbedit_ssh_user=&quot;&quot;
bbedit_ssh_host=&quot;&quot;
bbedit_ssh_port=&quot;&quot;
	
copy_method=&quot;sftp&quot; # scp | expan | rsync | sftp | ftp
expan_volume=&quot;&quot;

bbedit_prog=&quot;/usr/local/bin/bbedit&quot;
bbedit_wait_args=&quot; --wait --resume&quot;
bbedit_wait=&quot;$bbedit_wait_args&quot;

local_ssh_copy_id_command=&quot;ssh-copy-id&quot;
local_key_identity=&quot;&quot;
bbedit_ssh_copy_id_command=&quot;/usr/local/bin/ssh-copy-id&quot;
bbedit_key_identity=&quot;&quot;
yes_agree=&quot;&quot;

verbose=0"><pre class="notranslate"><code>host_sftp_user=""
host_sftp_host=""

bbedit_ssh_user=""
bbedit_ssh_host=""
bbedit_ssh_port=""
	
copy_method="sftp" # scp | expan | rsync | sftp | ftp
expan_volume=""

bbedit_prog="/usr/local/bin/bbedit"
bbedit_wait_args=" --wait --resume"
bbedit_wait="$bbedit_wait_args"

local_ssh_copy_id_command="ssh-copy-id"
local_key_identity=""
bbedit_ssh_copy_id_command="/usr/local/bin/ssh-copy-id"
bbedit_key_identity=""
yes_agree=""

verbose=0
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Set default for username on BBEdit workstation:</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="echo 'bbedit_ssh_user=&quot;<workstation-username&quot;' >> ~/.rbbedit"><pre class="notranslate"><code>echo 'bbedit_ssh_user="&lt;workstation-username"' &gt;&gt; ~/.rbbedit
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Set default copy method to 'ftp':</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="echo 'copy_method=&quot;ftp&quot;' >> ~/.rbbedit"><pre class="notranslate"><code>echo 'copy_method="ftp"' &gt;&gt; ~/.rbbedit
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Set path for <code>bbedit</code>:</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="echo 'bbedit_prog=&quot;/usr/bin/bbedit&quot;' >> ~/.rbbedit"><pre class="notranslate"><code>echo 'bbedit_prog="/usr/bin/bbedit"' &gt;&gt; ~/.rbbedit
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Disable the <code>--wait</code> option for <code>bbedit</code>:</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="echo 'bbedit_wait=&quot;&quot;' >> ~/.rbbedit"><pre class="notranslate"><code>echo 'bbedit_wait=""' &gt;&gt; ~/.rbbedit
</code></pre></div>
<h4 id="user-content-set-as-editor" dir="auto">Set as EDITOR</h4>
<p dir="auto">Use rbbedit as your EDITOR, eg:</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="export EDITOR=&quot;rbbedit -w&quot;"><pre class="notranslate"><code>export EDITOR="rbbedit -w"
</code></pre></div>
<h2 id="user-content-copy-methods" dir="auto">Copy Methods</h2>
<p dir="auto">The default copy method is 'sftp'. The 'sftp' method will construct an sftp url and use <code>bbedit</code> to open the file using BBEdit's built-in SFTP functionality.</p>
<p dir="auto">The 'ftp' copy method is almost identical to the 'sftp' method. The difference is that the home directory will be stripped from the filename, under the assumption that the FTP server is chrooting connections. So a relative path for the filename is used, if the first part of the path matches <code>$HOME</code>. You can disable the relative path behaviour by setting <code>ftp_absolute=1</code> in your <code>~/.rbbedit</code> file.</p>
<p dir="auto">The 'scp' method uses <code>scp</code> to copy each file to edit to the user's <code>TMPDIR</code>, then opens the file using <code>bbedit</code>. Once the file closes (editing is finished) then <code>scp</code> is used to copy file back to the server.</p>
<p dir="auto">The 'rsync' method is identical to 'scp' except that <code>rsync</code> is used to copy the file each direction.</p>
<p dir="auto">The 'expan' method will instruct ExpanDrive on the workstation to mount <code>expandrive-volume</code>, and then opens the file using <code>bbedit</code>. The script can't get response indicating whether ExpanDrive has finished mounting the volume successfully, other than checking path exists, so we just sleep for 3 seconds and hope for the best.</p>
<p dir="auto">All the commands sent from server to the workstation use <code>ssh</code>.</p>
<p dir="auto">Multiple files can be specified at once. Only one file will opened/edited at a time.</p>
<p dir="auto">Only files can be specified for <code>scp</code> and <code>rsync</code> methods, while the <code>sftp</code>, <code>ftp</code> and <code>expan</code> methods will also open directories.</p>
<h2 id="user-content-ssh-key-copy" dir="auto">SSH Key Copy</h2>
<p dir="auto"><strong>WARNING: <em>Be very sure you understand the implications of copying SSH public keys between hosts.</em></strong> You could easily, and unitentionally,  allow user access between hosts for more than just editing files with BBEdit. This key copy feature has been added as a convenience for the <code>ssh-copy-id</code> command. Use it only if you understand what is happening.</p>
<p dir="auto">The key copy feature depends on the <code>ssh-copy-id</code> command. It is not installed by default on OSX systems. I suggest installing the <code>ssh-copy-id-for-OSX</code> <a href="https://github.com/beautifulcode/ssh-copy-id-for-OSX">version from GitHub</a>:</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/beautifulcode/ssh-copy-id-for-OSX/master/install.sh | sh"><pre class="notranslate"><code>curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/beautifulcode/ssh-copy-id-for-OSX/master/install.sh | sh
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">There is also a homebrew version; it has not been tested with <code>rbbedit</code>.</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="brew install ssh-copy-id"><pre class="notranslate"><code>brew install ssh-copy-id
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">For easiest use of <code>rbbedit</code>, it's best to have the <strong>public</strong> SSH key on both the BBEdit workstation and the server host. (<strong>Important:</strong> never share or copy your <em>private</em> SSH key.) Passing the <code>-k</code> command option with either <code>get</code> or <code>send</code> will transfer the SSH public key between hosts. Note, <code>put</code> works as an alias for <code>send</code>.</p>
<p dir="auto">The <code>send</code> option will transfer the server host SSH public key to the BBEdit workstation. The <code>get</code> option will transfer the BBEdit workstation SSH public key to the current user account on the server host. Both options will attempt to use <code>ssh-copy-id</code> to tranfer the public key. If the <code>get</code> option fails with <code>ssh-copy-id</code>, then it will fallback to a simple <code>cat $bbedit_key_identity &gt;&gt; ~/.ssh/authorized_keys</code> method.</p>
<p dir="auto">If the SSH identity file containing the public key cannot be found, you can specify which file to use with the <code>-i</code> option. Default values can also be specified in <code>~/.rbbedit</code> with either <code>local_key_identity</code> or <code>bbedit_key_identity</code> options. In addition, you can specify defaults for the path to the <code>ssh-copy-id</code> executable on each host using the <code>bbedit_ssh_copy_id_command</code> or <code>local_ssh_copy_id_command</code> options.</p>
<p dir="auto">[<em>The <code>-y</code> option is not required in current version of <code>rbbedit</code>.</em>] You must specify <code>-y understood</code> on the command line to show your understanding of the implications of copying SSH public keys. You can also set <code>yes_agree="understood"</code> in the <code>~/.rbbedit</code> file.</p>
<p dir="auto">The contents of <code>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</code> on both BBEdit workstation and server host should be checked after running either the <code>get</code> or <code>send</code> key copy option.</p>
<h2 id="user-content-self-updating" dir="auto">Self Updating</h2>
<p dir="auto">Use the <code>-+</code> option to update <code>rbbedit</code> using the latest version from GitHub. The update is done by downloading the install.sh script and running it.</p>
<h2 id="user-content-known-issues" dir="auto">Known Issues</h2>
<p dir="auto">No error checking is done for any of the <code>ssh</code> commands (or 'copy' commands).</p>
<p dir="auto">To allow copying files back to server for the 'scp' and 'rsync' methods, the <code>bbedit</code> <code>--wait</code> option must be specified.</p>
<p dir="auto">Only real (existing) files can be edited; not text passed via STDIN.</p>
<p dir="auto">There is no simple/reliable way to determine whether ExpanDrive has finished mounting the remote volume, or whether there was an error. Existence of volume's path could be checked; currently the script just sleeps for 3 seconds before trying to open the file.</p>
<p dir="auto">Copying SSH public keys between hosts should make people uncomfortable. This script only uses commonly accepted methods for copying public keys, so the author doesn't believe the script is adding additional security concerns. But neither does the author believe that using this script to simplify copying SSH public keys should absolve the user from understandind the implications of copying SSH public keys.</p>
<h2 id="user-content-project-home" dir="auto">Project Home</h2>
<p dir="auto"><a href="https://github.com/cngarrison/rbbedit/">rbbedit @GitHub</a></p>
<h2 id="user-content-license" dir="auto">License</h2>
<p dir="auto"><a href="http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT" rel="nofollow">The MIT License (MIT)</a></p>
</article></div>