sshx11-forwarding
Using ssh -X user@host I can start programs on the host and X11 forwarding allows me to see their windows on the remote machine. However, I'd like to be able to forward/redirect existing windows.
How would I do that (if it's possible at all)?
Note, VNC is not an option (no server installed on the host and my user has limited permissions).
In case we connect to a remote X-Server via VNC we have the advantage that the graphical application will stay running even when the SSH connection to the remote is down. We can then reconnect to resume the graphical application. See also:
To speed up reconnection we may combine the connection to the remote with an SSH session by using vncviewer from tightvncviewer with the option
-via. By this we can run on the remote server:
vncserver:0 ## or any other display number e.g. :1
to establish a connection on the viewer via an SSH tunnel:
vncviewer -via user@remote localhost:0
Doing so will need considerably more bandwith because the whole desktop will have to be transmitted from the VNC server. Therefore it may not really be a good idea for low bandwith connections but it may give you a somewhat better experience on high bandwith but unstable connections as compared with X-forwarding.
Consider using a ForceCommand directive in sshd_config. For example, I use these to force groups of users to a set of servers:
Match Group group1
ForceCommand ssh -t group1.fqdn
Match Group="*,!local,!group2,!root"
ForceCommand ssh -t group3.fqdn
You could use:
Match User foo
ForceCommand ssh -t target-host
Best Answer
It looks like
xprais an active successor to xmove, and does exactly what you want. The devs bill it as "screen for X clients". While it needs to run on your remote server, it runs just fine out of a home folder. Besides python,xvfbis a runtime dependency.Once you get it installed on the remote server, it's pretty easy to use.
On your local machine, run: