local-machine.md

Getting Started on Local Machine

Soft Skill Dependencies

Find the person responsible for maintaining the remote machine and ask for the following.

• REMOTE_MACHINE_IP_OR_HOSTNAME — IP or hostname. Examples: 24.24.24.24, remote.domain.com.
• REMOTE_MACHINE_SSH_PORT — SSH port. Example: 42.
• REMOTE_MACHINE_USERNAME — username, most likely a personalized, not shared one. Example: john_doe.

Think about an alias for the remote machine.

• REMOTE_MACHINE_SSH_ALIAS — SSH alias. Example: mainframe.

Authentication

1. Generate SSH key and remember the resulting file name as {SSH_KEY_FILE_NAME}.

   $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "{REMOTE_MACHINE_USERNAME}"

2. Append the following content to ~/.ssh/config.

   Host {REMOTE_MACHINE_SSH_ALIAS}
     User {REMOTE_MACHINE_USERNAME}
     HostName {REMOTE_MACHINE_IP_OR_HOSTNAME}
     Port {REMOTE_MACHINE_SSH_PORT}
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/{SSH_KEY_FILE_NAME}
     PreferredAuthentications publickey
     ControlMaster auto
     ControlPath /tmp/%r@%h:%p
     ControlPersist 1h
   

   • ControlMaster enables reusing SSH connection.
   • ControlPersist specifies SSH connection timeout.

3. Send SSH public key to a person responsible for the remote machine maintenance.

4. Once you’ve received a confirmation that the remote machine is ready for you, try the connection.

   $ ssh {REMOTE_MACHINE_SSH_ALIAS}

Installation

macOS

$ brew tap buildfoundation/homebrew-tap
$ brew install mainframer

Configuration

• Is the Mainframer already used in the project? You’ll need to create the config file.
• Is the Mainframer not used in the project? You’ll need to create the config file and ignore rules.

Please refer to the documentation.

Running

$ mainframer 'echo "It works" > success.txt'
$ cat success.txt

Congratulations! You’ve created a success.txt file on the remote machine and viewed the resulting content on the local machine.