Linux – Alternative to SSH command line from Ubuntu

linuxssh

We have a machine at work that's running CentOS. In order to get into it, I use ssh.

We're not allowed to install any window-management systems on it. Sometimes, I need to do a lot of work on it, such as editing configs, checking multiple logs, etc. All this becomes a bit tedious working on the command line (forgive me I'm not a command line ninja).

I've just been having multiple sessions going in order to have all the logs and files I need up but is there someway I could "see" the remote machine's file system on my local machine, so that I could open and edit the remote machines files on my local machine that has all my nice windows and text editors available on it?

Best Answer

Look into installing sshfs if you're on Linux. You can remotely connect to a machine over ssh, but it will show it as part of the file system on your local machine, so you can edit files in your local editor, and treat it as if it were a local file. You don't even have to install anything on the server side, it all just works off of ssh.

Similarly, there is win-sshfs for windows, which takes a similar approach to sshfs, but instead mounts the file system as a Windows network drive. Thanks for the recommendation Lexi R!

Another alternative would be using FTP to grab the files and put them onto your local machine, view and edit them as you'd like, then use FTP to put them back in place. You'd need a FTP server on the CentOS box, and you can use something like Filezilla to connect.

Related Question