Quiet

Quiet simplifies repetitive SSH config management tasks. Allows listing, editing, copying, exporting (to share with others).

Installation

1. Install Go (brew install go, or whatever)

2. Set up a go dev environment: mkdir -p ~/go/{src,bin}

3. Add some stuff to your .bash_profile:

Your GOROOT is probably not in the same place as mine.

export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin
export GOROOT=/opt/boxen/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.5.1/libexec
export PATH=$PATH:$GOBIN

4. Get thee to the Go-ery: cd ~/go

5. Fetch the source: go get github.com/lthurston/quiet

6. Compile and install: go install src/github.com/lthurston/quiet/quiet.go

Usage

General Usage

Help output says most of it:

Usage:
  quiet [flags]
  quiet [command]

Available Commands:
  version                   Print the version number of Quiet
  config                    Lists / modifies configuration
  dump                      Dumps everything Quiet knows
  list                      Lists all hosts
  export                    Exports config snippet and keys for sharing
  undo                      Undo the last quiet action
  warp                      Generates warp config
  rm                        Deletes a host
  new                       Appends new host using other host as template
  help [command]            Help about any command

 Available Flags:
      --help=false: help for quiet

Use "quiet help [command]" for more information about that command.

New Command

New is currently the most useful command. It will create a new host snippet from an existing snippet and allow manipulation of each of the config values ( host aliases currently excluded). Here's the output of quiet help new:

New appends a new host to your SSH configuration based on other host

Usage:
quiet new [flags]

Available Flags:
-f, --from="": host to use as template
--help=false: help for new
-n, --name="": new host name
-s, --skip-interactive=false: just copy; don't allow interactive
-o, --stdout=false: output to stdout rather than appending SSH config file


Use "quiet help [command]" for more information about that command.

The -f / --from setting can also come from .quiet configuration as new.from. The value should be an existing hostname or a template that you've created for purpose of providing common defaults.

-s / --skip-interactive will skip the interactive modification of values from the copied configuration snippet, making new behave more like a copy action.

-n / --name allows the name of the new host to be specified in the command.

-o / --stdout will output the new snippet rather than writing to the ssh config file.

Examples

You want to copy an existing configuration snippet, but modify one or more of the host configuration lines:

$ quiet new -foldhostname
Copying host "oldhostname"
Name: newhostname
Hostname [default is "oldhostname.com"]: newhostname.com
User [default is "frank"]: ubuntu
IdentityFile [default is "~/.ssh/id_oldhostname"]: ~/.ssh/id_ubuntu

You want to copy your default new configuration snippet, and keep everything but the hostname the same:

In your .quiet config, make sure that new.from is set to your default host to use as a template.

[new]
from = "ubuntu"

Then invoke quiet like this:

quiet new -nnewhost -s

Copying host "ubuntu"

Here's what quiet added to your SSH configuration:

Host newhost
  Hostname test.com
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_default
  User ubuntu

Note that the hostname wasn't updated. I might add a way to do that from the command line, perhaps by repurposing the -n/--name as to the hostname value.

Also, you can use the -o flag as a kind of dry run to see what quiet will append to your hosts file before you have it actually modify the file.

List Command

List will output hosts one per line, with the config options configurable in your .quiet file. This makes scanning your config file much quicker. Just run

quiet list

Want them sorted alphabetically by name? Then pipe through sort!

quiet list | sort

Export Command

Export will locate the specified host by name, then output the configuration and any keys associated with that configuration. By default it only looks at the IdentityFile option for a private key, but you can configure it to look at other options as well. It will also look for and display the public key as well, but only if the public key filename and path is the same as the private key filename and path with ".pub" appended. This works for me, but could be easily made more flexible.

Look, just look at this if you don't believe me:

$ quiet export something

Host something
	Hostname something.blahblah.com
	User ubuntu
	IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_something

~/.ssh/id_something
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

... a private key ...

-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

~/.ssh/id_something.pub
ssh-rsa BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH ... a public key ... BLAHBLAHBLAH

Isn't that nice?

Backups

When quiet updates your config file it backs up the most recent version of the file, and keeps the last 5 versions. The backup file has the same name as the SSH configuration file with .quiet.bak.# appended to the filename, where the octothrombulus is replaced by a numbrosimbel (1 - 5).

You can revert to the last backup with quiet undo. This just swaps the most recent backup with the current file.

I'm not gonna promise Quiet won't mangle your config file in some sort of permanent way, especially while it's still alpha, so maybe you should just back up your own stuff in your own way before you start using it. I'm only a human being.

Roadmap

Modify Command

This isn't implemented yet. I'm thinking one could modify / add / remove individual options, add / remove aliases, rename hosts.

Release Notes

0.3 alpha

• Updated this readme
• rm command implemented
• dump command implemented
• refactoring of the parser / hosts collection

0.2 alpha

• refactored hosts / host positions

0.1 alpha

• made it work