Mersey

A command line (CLI) tool written in PHP to simplify establishing/interacting an SSH connection to multiple servers quickly.

Some cool things you can do:

• Connect to servers.
• Connect to a server and got to a projects directory.
• Connect to a server and run a script of your choice.

I also wrote a blog post when Mersey was first released you might find interesting.

Upgrading from Mersey v1 to v2?

Prerequisites

• OS X is the only supported operating system but Linux should be fine!.
• Composer.

Installation

If it isn't already, add composers bin directory to your PATH by adding the below to your ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.bashrc).

export PATH=~/.composer/vendor/bin:$PATH

Now, install Mersey globally so you have access to it anywhere by running

composer global require dannyweeks/mersey

Initialise Mersey. This creates a hidden directory in your home to store your servers.

~/.composer/vendor/dannyweeks/mersey/init.sh

Your servers are loaded via a json file which is located ~/.mersey/servers.json. It comes populated with some example servers to help you on your way. Read the Defining Servers section for more information.

Assumptions/Default Settings

Mersey assumes your SSH key is stored ~/.ssh/id_rsa.

Mersey uses port 22 to connect the server.

However, these can be set manually on a per server basis.

Usage

Below are the commands to interact with the mersey tool.

Description	Command	Options/Notes
Add a server to the config	mersey add	Interactive questions
Edit the server config	mersey edit	Opens in default text editor
Edit global scripts	mersey scripts	Opens in default text editor
Ping servers and show results	mersey ping
Connect to a server	mersey <servername>	-f/--force Skip reachable test. -p/--projects List projects
Go to a project	mersey <servername> <projectname>	-f/--force Skip reachable test. -s/--scripts List scripts
Run a script	mersey <servername> <projectname> <scriptname>	-f/--force Skip reachable test.

Defining Servers

There is a small amount of setting required to get up and running. Each server is an object in a json array. A server object needs a minimum of the following:

• name: The alias of the server which will be used on the command line.
• displayName: The name of the server.
• username: The username used to logon of which the SSH key is associated with.
• hostname: The IP address or domain name of the server.

You can get started by running mersey add which will ask a series of questions and then add the defined server to your config file.

servers.json

[
    {
        "name": "personal",
        "displayName": "Personal Server",
        "username": "danny",
        "hostname": "192.168.0.1"
    }
]

Additional Server Settings

There are optional setting for servers which help facilitate your needs.

• sshKey: Use this private key to connect rather than the default.
• port: Use this port to make connections instead of the default for this server.
• projects: An array of project objects. Read more in the projects section

servers.json

[
    {
        ...
        "sshKey": "/path/to/another/id_rsa",
        "port": 2222,
        ...
    }
]

Projects

Add a project to a server by creating an object in the projects array of the server.

• name: The alias of the project which will be used on the command line.
• root: Location of the project root on the server.
• scripts: An array of objects. (Optional) See Scripts

servers.json

[
    {
        ...
        "projects": [
            {
                "name": "project",
                "root": "/var/www/project",
                "scripts": []
            }
        ],
        ...
    }
]

Scripts

Scripts are a way of running a command on a project and then exiting the session. They can be defined in two ways; either on a per project basis or globally.

A script object contains three required properties:

• name : The alias of the script which will be used on the command line.
• description : A brief description for use in Mersey.
• command : The command to be run on the server.

Before the command you define is ran mersey connects to the server and changes directory to the project's root.

An example of a script object would be:

{
    "name": "pull",
    "description": "Pulls the latest changes from git.",
    "command": "git fetch --all; git reset --hard origin/master"
}

Per Project

A script can be defined on a project by adding it to the project's scripts array.

servers.json

[
    {
        ...
        "projects": [
            {
                "name": "project",
                "root": "/var/www/project",
                "scripts": [
                    {
                        "name": "pull",
                        "description": "Pulls the latest changes from git.",
                        "command": "git fetch --all; git reset --hard origin/master"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
        ...
    }
]

Global Scripts

Global scripts are defined in their own file: ~/.mersey/scripts.json. Global scripts can be run on any project.

The scripts.json must be a json array containing script objects.

scripts.json

[
    {
        "name": "pull",
        "description": "Pulls the latest changes from git.",
        "command": "git fetch --all; git reset --hard origin/master"
    }
]

Full Example Server Definition.

Below is a an example of a server called personal with one project called project. project has a script attached to it called clean.

[
    {
        "name": "personal",
        "displayName": "Personal Server",
        "username": "danny",
        "hostname": "192.168.0.1",
        "sshKey": "/path/to/another/id_rsa",
        "port": 2222,
        "projects": [
            {
                "name": "project",
                "root": "/var/www/project",
                "scripts": [
                    {
                        "name": "clean",
                        "description": "Empty the log.",
                        "command": "cat /dev/null > /var/www/project/project.log"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
]

Upgrade Guide

Upgrading To Version 2

Update Mersey via Composer.

composer global require dannyweeks/mersey:^2

Create global scripts file.

cp -i ~/.composer/vendor/dannyweeks/mersey/scripts.json.example ~/.mersey/scripts.json

Convert project scripts to objects.

The way scripts are defined has changed therefore must be updated open ~/.mersey/servers.json. See the scripts per project section for more details.

Contributing

All pull requests and bug fixes are welcomed. Please check the CONTRIBUTING file for more information.