csshW

Cluster SSH tool for Windows inspired by csshX

¹²³

Pre-requisite

• Any SSH client (Windows 10 and Windows 11 already include a built-in SSH server and client - docs)

Overview

csshW will launch 1 daemon and N client windows (with N being the number of hosts to SSH onto).
Key-strokes performed while having the daemon console focussed will be sent to all clients simoultaneously and be replayed by them.
Focussing a client will cause any key-strokes to be sent to this client only.

Download/Installation

csshW is a portable application and is not installed.
To download the csshW application refer to the Releases 📦 page.

Usage

csshw.exe --help
Cluster SSH tool for Windows inspired by csshX

Usage: csshw.exe [OPTIONS] [HOSTS]... [COMMAND]

Commands:
  client  Subcommand that will launch a single client window
  daemon  Subcommand that will launch the daemon window
  help    Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Arguments:
  [HOSTS]...
          Hosts and/or cluster tag(s) to connect to

          Hosts or cluster tags might use brace expansion, but need to be properly quoted.

          E.g.: `csshw.exe "host{1..3}" hostA`

          Hosts can include a username which will take precedence over the username given via the `-u` option and over any ssh config value.

          E.g.: `csshw.exe -u user3 user1@host1 userA@hostA host3`

          Hosts can include a port number which will take precedence over the port given via the `-p` option.

          E.g.: `csshw.exe -p 33 host1:11 host2:22 host3`

          If no hosts are provided and the application is launched in a new console window (e.g. by double clicking the executable in the File Explorer), it will launch in interactive mode.

Options:
  -u, --username <USERNAME>
          Optional username used to connect to the hosts

  -p, --port <PORT>
          Optional port used for all SSH connections

  -d, --debug
          Enable extensive logging

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

  -V, --version
          Print version

Example: csshw.exe -u root hosta.dev hostb.dev hostc.dev

We recommend using the ssh_config for any configurations like default username etc.

Configuration

csshw-config.toml contains all relevant configurations and is located in the same directory as the executable. It is automatically created with default values if not present.

clusters

An array of clusters that can be used to alias a set of host names to a specific tag:

clusters = [
    { name = "dev", hosts = ["hosta.dev", "[email protected]", "hostc.dev"] }
]

Clusters may be nested, but be aware of recursive clusters which are not checked for.

client

A collection containing client relevant configuration

[client]
ssh_config_path = 'C:\Users\demo_user\.ssh\config'
program = 'ssh'
arguments = [
    '-XY',
    '{{USERNAME_AT_HOST}}',
]
username_host_placeholder = '{{USERNAME_AT_HOST}}'

ssh_config_path

The full qualified path where your ssh configuration can be found.

program

Which executable will be used to establish ssh connections.

arguments

Additional arguments specified to the chosen program.

username_host_placeholder

Placeholder string that indicates where the username@host string should be inserted in the program arguments.

daemon

A collection containing daemon relevant configuration

[daemon]
height = 200
aspect_ratio_adjustement = -1.0
console_color = 207

height

The height of the daemon console.

aspect_ratio_adjustment

Configures whether the available screen space should rather be used horizontally or vertically.

• > 0.0 - Aims for vertical rectangle shape. The larger the value, the more exaggerated the "verticality". Eventually the windows will all be columns.
• = 0.0 - Aims for square shape.
• < 0.0 - Aims for horizontal rectangle shape. The smaller the value, the more exaggerated the "horizontality". Eventually the windows will all be rows. -1.0 is the sweetspot for mostly preserving a 16:9 ratio.

console_color

Configures background and foreground colors used by the daemon console. Available are all standard windows color combinations (windows docs):

FOREGROUND_BLUE:        1
FOREGROUND_GREEN:       2
FOREGROUND_RED:         4
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY:   8
BACKGROUND_BLUE:        16
BACKGROUND_GREEN:       32
BACKGROUND_RED:         64
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY:   128

e.g. white font on red background: 8+4+2+1+64+128 = 207

Contributing

csshW uses pre-commit githooks to enforce good code style.
Install them via git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks/.

Releases

Step by step guide to create a new release:

• cargo make prepare-release and follow the instructions
• Create a pull request from the new maintenance branch to main OR cherry-pick the new Version change from the existing maintenance branch to main
• cargo make release and follow the instructions
• Revise the automatically created Release Draft and publish it

Footnotes

1. The searchbar used to launch csshw in the demo clip is keypirinha. ↩

2. The tool to show key presses in the demo clip is carnac the magnificent. ↩

3. The tool used to record the screen as GIF is ScreenToGif. ↩