horrible ssh wrapper hack that changes background of currently running roxterm window based on hostname.

sshwrap.sh

function sshwrap {
    # A wrapper for ssh that sets roxterm's background image based on the
    # hostname.

    # We do most of this in bash because it handles wrapping interactive
    # commands and TTYs well, which Python does not (at least not without
    # jumping through major hoops a la Pexpect).
    # The bits that I could not bear to do in bash are done in inline Python.
    # Yes, this is hideous.

    # Leaves behind large numbers of nearly-identical Roxterm profiles; since I never select
    # profile by hand, I don't care.

    # Does not work everywhere ssh does, notably `RSYNC_RSH=sshwrap` does not work.
    DEFAULT_PROFILE=kermit  # This needs to exist already
    FONT=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-liberation/LiberationSans-Bold.ttf

    ssh-agent-add

    function generate_image {
        IMG_DIR=~/.hostbackgrounds
        mkdir -p ${IMG_DIR}
        IMG_PATH=${IMG_DIR}/${1}.png
        export IMG_PATH
        if [ -f "${IMG_PATH}" ]; then
            # Already got an image for this hostname
            return 0
        fi
        # Try Googling for a useful image. Python helps.
        TEMP_IMAGE=`python - "${IMG_PATH}" "${1}" <<EOF
import sys
import urllib2, urllib
import simplejson
import tempfile

imgpath, hostname = sys.argv[1:]

hostname = hostname.replace('.', ' ')
url = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/images?v=1.0&'
url += urllib.urlencode({'q': hostname})

request = urllib2.Request(url, None, {})
response = urllib2.urlopen(request)

#Process the JSON string. If we get an image, save it to a temp file
#and print the temp file name.
results = simplejson.load(response)
results = results['responseData']['results']
if results:
    best = results[0]
    imgurl = best['url']
    data = urllib2.urlopen(urllib2.Request(imgurl, None, {}))
    outfile = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False)
    outfile.write(data.read())
    print outfile.name
EOF`

        if [[ -z "$TEMP_IMAGE" ]]; then
            # Didn't download anything, so just put the hostname in a png.
            convert -background black -fill white -font "$FONT" -size 400x200 \
              -rotate 20 "label:${TARGET_HOST}" "${IMG_PATH}"
        else
            # resize it, add a text label.
            convert ${TEMP_IMAGE} -resize 500x500 \
              -fill white -stroke black -strokewidth 0.2 -font "$FONT" \
              -draw "scale 8,8 gravity center rotate 18 text 0,0 ${TARGET_HOST}"  "${IMG_PATH}"
            #convert ${TEMP_IMAGE} -size 500x500 -sigmoidal-contrast 10x50 -modulate         50  -fill white -font "$FONT" -draw 'rotate -20 text 100,100 "${TARGET_HOST}"' "${IMG_PATH}"
            rm -f ${TEMP_IMAGE}
        fi
    }

    if [ "$ROXTERM_ID" != "" ]; then
        # Parse the hostname out of ssh args.
        # This would be horrible to do in bash. So, we go python for this bit.
        TARGET_HOST=`python - $@ <<EOF
import optparse
import re
opts, args = optparse.OptionParser().parse_args()

if args:
    hostname = args[0]
    if hostname.count('@'):
        username, hostname = hostname.split('@', 1)
    if hostname.count('.'):
        if re.match('\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}', hostname):
            # Looks like an IP address.
            pass
        else:
            parts = hostname.split('.')
            if parts[0] == 'www':
                parts = parts[1:]
            if len(parts[-1]) < 4 and len(parts) >= 2:
                # Drop trailing TLD.
                parts = parts[:-1]
            if parts:
                # Assume the first remaining part is the part we care about.
                # For example, with 'atat.openplans.org', we probably just want 'atat'.
                hostname = parts[0]
    print hostname
EOF`

        echo Target is "$TARGET_HOST"
        if [[ -n "${TARGET_HOST}" ]]; then
            echo -n Setting up roxterm for ${TARGET_HOST}...
            generate_image \"${TARGET_HOST}\"
            ROXDIR=$HOME/.config/roxterm.sourceforge.net/Profiles
            # Create a profile for this hostname.
            rm -f $ROXDIR/${TARGET_HOST}
            cp  $ROXDIR/$DEFAULT_PROFILE $ROXDIR/${TARGET_HOST}

            # Use the new profile, and tell it to use our image.
            ROXPATH=/net/sf/roxterm/Options
            ROXOPTS=net.sf.roxterm.Options
            dbus-send --session $ROXPATH $ROXOPTS.SetProfile string:${ROXTERM_ID} string:${TARGET_HOST}
            dbus-send --session $ROXPATH $ROXOPTS.StringOption string:Profiles/${TARGET_HOST} string:background_type 'string:1'
            dbus-send --session $ROXPATH $ROXOPTS.StringOption string:Profiles/${TARGET_HOST} string:background_img "string:${IMG_PATH}"
            # Adjust saturation to make it low-brightness.
            dbus-send --session $ROXPATH $ROXOPTS.StringOption "string:Profiles/${TARGET_HOST}" "string:saturation" "string:0.19"
            echo Done.
        fi
    fi

    ssh $@

    #Cleanup.
    if [ "${TARGET_HOST}" != "" ]; then
        dbus-send --session $ROXPATH $ROXOPTS.SetProfile "string:$ROXTERM_ID" string:${DEFAULT_PROFILE}
    fi
}