TextWrangler remote control

This project makes it possible to be logged into an remote server and launch from there the local TextWrangler with the remote file.

Usage

local:~/$ ssh my-server
my-server:/path$ edit file

That will result in opening sftp://my-server/path/file on the local computer.

my-server:/path$ ls -la | edit

That will result in opening the list in TextWragngler (useful on diff and other utilities).

my-server:/path$ crontab -e

That will result in opening the temporary file from the remote server, and the program waits until the text is closed, so it works really great.

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You have two "commands" available: edit and editw. edit just opens the file in TextWrangler and then returns to promt, just like edit on your mac (TextWrangler command line utility). With the option -w or the command editw the file is also openend in TextWrangler, but the command exits on closing the text, this is useful for interactive editors, like crontab, svn ci and so on.

It's also possible to open stdin and not a file, in this case the -w flag has no meaning. Interactive stdin mode is not possible.

Requirements

Local machine

• gcc
• php (almost any version will do, see edit-ssh.sh)

Remote machine

• netcat

Installation

Compilation

Compile the server with:

gcc -Os -std=c99 -o edit-server edit-server.c

Local setup

Install the command line tools from TextWrangler.

Run the server with:

./edit-server

See for options below.

Copy edit-ssh.sh to a safe place (e.g. /Users/USER/bin/edit-ssh.sh).

Edit your ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc or similar file, append:

alias ssh=/Users/USER/bin/edit-ssh.sh

(or where ever you've placed your file)

Remote setup

Copy edit-remove.sh to the remove server (e.g. /home/USER/edit-remote.sh).

Edit your ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc or similar file, append:

if test \( -n "$LC_EDIT_HOST" \) -a \( -n "$LC_EDIT_PORT" \)
then
		alias edit='/home/USER/edit-remote.sh'
		alias editw='/home/USER/edit-remote.sh -w'
		export EDITOR='/home/USER/edit-remote.sh -w'
else
		alias edit=joe
		alias editw=joe
		export EDITOR=joe
fi

Use the correct path, in the second part enter a editor of your choice for alternate use.

Server options

• -f: run in foreground, don't daemonize, log to stderr
• -p port: run on another port than 3333 - this port is hardcoded into edit-remote.sh so you have to change it there to
• -l logfile: log also to logfile

How it works

• The ssh connection opens a reverse portforward, which allows it our program on the remote server to connect to a randomly choosen port on the server, which is forwarded to the localhost's port 3333 (the default server port).
• The two variables LC_EDIT_HOST and LC_EDIT_PORT are pushed to the remote server, I had to choose LC_* variables, because the ssh-server default is to only accept those variables.
• The variable LC_EDIT_PORT contains the randomly choosen port number on the remote server.
• The variable LC_EDIT_HOST contains the host of the remote server, as seen from the local machine, the file to be openend looks like sftp://${LC_EDIT_HOST}/path/file.

License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License