sshme - opens a shell to known location using an alias.

sshme.rb

#!/usr/bin/ruby
#
# sshme - opens a shell to a known location, defined in the user's ~/.sshme file
#
# by Eron Hennessey
#
# The .sshme file is simply a file that contains a list of aliases to ssh
# locations, like this:
#
#    serveralias1   path.to.server1
#    serveralias2   [email protected]
#
# No spaces are allowed in either the aliases or in the ssh locations. If you
# want to set ssh arguments, do it in the SSH constant.
#

# The ssh command (or whatever can take similar arguments). You can modify this
# if you want ssh to include special arguments before the location.
SSH = "ssh"

# Some insults, in case the user (that would be me) is clueless and needs help.
INSULTS = [
   "cad", "blackguard", "scoundrel", "toad", "good-for-nothing", "worm", "rat",
   "lummox", "dolt", "oaf", "bumpkin", "idiot", "fool", "donkey", "wretch",
   "goats-for-brains"
]

# A function to print the known locations.
def print_locations
   puts "** I know about these locations:"
   # LOCATIONS is defined and populated later in the script.
   LOCATIONS.each { |k,v|
      puts "#{k}\t => #{v}"
   }
end

#
# Here's the script...
#

# The path to the user configuration file (~/.sshme on unixes).
CONFIGFILE = File.join(Dir.home, ".sshme")

if(!File.exists? CONFIGFILE) then
   puts "** Whoa #{INSULTS.shuffle.first}, there's no config file at #{CONFIGFILE}!"
   puts "You need to fill it with values like this:"
   puts "serveralias1   path.to.server1"
   puts "serveralias2   [email protected]"
   exit 1
end

# A hash of locations loaded from the user's config file.
LOCATIONS = Hash[*File.read(File.join(Dir.home, ".sshme")).split(/\s+/)]

# accept only one argument: the location.
if(ARGV.length != 1) then
   puts "Usage: sshme <location>"
   exit 0
end

# special command to list locations
if(ARGV[0] == "list") then
   print_locations
   exit 0
end

# build the command and execute it!
loc = LOCATIONS[ARGV[0]]

# check to see if the user typed in an unknown location.
if loc.nil? then
   # if he did, reprimand him first, then show him the known locations.
   puts "** Hey #{INSULTS.shuffle.first}, I don't know anything about \"#{ARGV[0]}\"! :P"
   print_locations
   exit 0
end

cmd = (SSH + " " + LOCATIONS[ARGV[0]])
exec cmd

Since I can't remember all of the full URLs of servers I ssh into (and some of them have quite bizarre names), I've created this simple Ruby script to ssh to an easy-to-remember alias, instead.

These aliases and corresponding locations are stored in the user's home directory in a file called .sshme, which contains a number of lines with aliases and corresponding server locations, formatted like this:

server    [email protected]
laptop    eron@laptophostname:my/favorite/dir
desktop   eron@desktophostname

Any amount of whitespace is allowed between the alias and server location, but whitespace cannot be present within the alias or server location.

I put the script itself in ~/bin, name it "sshme" and make it executable. Windows users may need to create a .bat that calls this with the ruby executable.

If you grab this via git clone, you can also use ln -s /path/to/sshme.rb ~/bin/sshme to make it an executable command in your bash environment.

Example syntax:

$ sshme laptop

To get a listing of locations that you entered in the ~/.sshme file:

$ sshme locations

NOTE: This script requires ruby version 1.9 or newer, as it uses the Dir.home variable, which doesn't resolve on version 1.8.