Remote Bash Shell (remote-bash)

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🚀 Make Your Remote Server Feel Local — Instantly

Tired of juggling rsync, scp, or NFS just to work with a remote server?
Need the power of a remote GPU server, but still want the comfort of editing locally?

remote-bash lets you mount your local directory directly into a remote server, run commands there, and clean up when you’re done — all with one command.

No messy setup, no permanent SSH key sharing, no manual reverse tunnels.

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✨ How It Works (Version 2.0.0)

When you run:

rbash myserver

Here’s what happens under the hood:

1. Validate Host – confirms that myserver exists in your ~/.ssh/config (but can proceed even if missing).
2. Prepare Remote Workspace – creates a unique workspace folder (e.g., /home/user/workspace12345678) on the remote machine.
3. Temporary SSH Key Exchange
   • Generates a remote-only keypair.
   • Adds the remote public key to your local authorized_keys (with a special tag for later removal).
4. Reverse SSH Tunnel – opens a reverse tunnel from the remote back to your local machine.
5. SSHFS Mount – mounts your local working directory into the remote workspace using the reverse tunnel.
6. Interactive Remote Bash – drops you into a bash shell on the remote with your local files mounted and ready.
7. Automatic Cleanup (on exit) – unmounts the workspace, deletes temporary keys (both sides), and removes the workspace folder.

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🔹 Why Use This Instead of NFS / Manual SSHFS?

• No permanent key sharing — security-friendly
• No root or NFS setup — works in user space
• Automatic reverse tunnel — works even if remote server can’t directly reach your machine
• One command — handles mount, shell, and cleanup for you
• Python-powered — portable and easily installed via pip

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📦 Installation

pip install remote-bash

Requires:

• Python 3.8+
• ssh client installed locally
• sshfs installed locally and remotely
• FUSE enabled on both machines

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🔹 Example Usage

List available hosts from your SSH config:

rbash

Connect to a host:

rbash myserver

Mount a specific local path:

rbash myserver --path ~/projects/myapp

Change the base reverse tunnel port:

rbash myserver --port 2225

Strict host key checking (disable host-key suppression):

rbash myserver --strict

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🛠 Requirements

Local

• Python 3.8+
• ssh
• sshfs

Remote

• ssh
• sshfs
• FUSE enabled

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⚙ SSH Configuration Example

~/.ssh/config:

Host myserver
    HostName 192.168.1.100
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

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🔍 Security

• All SSH keys used are temporary and automatically removed.
• Your authorized_keys entry is tagged, so it’s deleted after the session.
• No changes are made to system-level SSH configuration.
• Reverse tunnel exists only for the duration of your session.

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🧼 Cleanup Behavior

When you exit the remote bash session:

• Workspace is unmounted
• Temporary SSH keys are deleted
• Reverse tunnel is closed
• Authorized key entry is removed

If you pass --no-clean, keys and mounts remain for debugging.

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🐛 Troubleshooting

Permission Denied
Ensure your SSH connection to the host works manually:

ssh myserver

sshfs not found
Install on both local and remote:

sudo apt install sshfs  # Ubuntu/Debian
brew install sshfs      # macOS

remote port forwarding failed
The requested port is in use on remote; rbash will automatically select an available one starting from --port.

fuse: unknown option(s): -o nonempty
Remove -o nonempty. Newer FUSE versions don’t support it. remote-bash doesn’t use it.

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📄 License

MIT License — see LICENSE.

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📜 Changelog

[2.0.0] - 2025-08-10

Changed

• Completely rewrote core logic in Python (remote.py class + cli.py entrypoint) replacing older shell script.
• Manages session lifecycle programmatically (prepare, run, clean).
• Temporary SSH key injection/removal to local authorized_keys.
• Local port availability check before starting reverse tunnel.
• Clear subprocess logging and error handling.

[1.2.0] - 2025-08-01

Fixed

• Remote system check for sshfs and FUSE before attempting mount.

[1.1.0] - 2025-07-31

Fixed

• Corrected path resolution for bash.sh.

[1.0.1] - 2025-07-31

Added

• README updated with pip install remote-bash.

[1.0.0] - 2025-07-31

Added

• Initial release of remote_bash.
• CLI commands: rbash and remote_bash.
• Reverse SSHFS mounting with local → remote path mapping.
• Remote temporary SSH key exchange.
• Automatic cleanup of keys, mounts, and workspace.
• Host listing from ~/.ssh/config in table format.