Remotely view the filesystem and edit files using a GUI

quakerdoomer

quakerdoomer

Of the many computers I run FreeBSD on, one of them is extremely underprivileged and no DE and WM, no matter how basic can run smoothly over it. It runs SSH. I was wondering if there is any network utility that let me view and edit files over ssh both using FreeBSD and MS-Windows. I know fish:// and sshfs are options, but will it let me edit files using MS Win? Or, are there any other solutions that come to your mind? I do not want the entire screen-X via ssh. Thanks.
 
quakerdoomer said:
Or, are there any other solutions that come to your mind?
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Learn to use vi(1) and/or ee(1) and edit those files on the command line? You won't need to install anything, those tools come with the OS. There are a number of other editors you could install and use too.
 
Hi those are known and being used as of now but, I am intending to edit and move in and out lots of source code files and as hoping for a remote GUI editing system on a faster system to be able to directly write on the slow system's disk.
 
One solution is to use WinSCP or Filezilla, Windows GUI sftp clients. In this case, when you edit a file, you get it on Windows and edit, then put it back to FreeBSD.
Another solution is to use TUI (Text User Interface) file managr on FreeBSD. There are many in ports&packages: misc/clex, misc/broot, misc/deco, misc/ytree, misc/lf, misc/clifm, misc/pfm, misc/vifm, misc/mc and misc/sfm. There may be more. In this case, you edit a file on FreeBSD with vi, vim, emacs, nano or other editors that support terminal mode.
 
quakerdoomer said:
I am intending to edit and move in and out lots of source code files
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Right, so you're only editing files in your user's home directory? No system files or anything that might require root access? Another solution is to use git, create a repository on your "big" system, edit to your heart's content, then commit and push. On the "small" system git pull the repository.
 
SirDice said:
Hiroo Ono said:
One solution is to use WinSCP or Filezilla, Windows GUI sftp clients. In this case, when you edit a file, you get it on Windows and edit, then put it back to FreeBSD.
Another solution is to use TUI (Text User Interface) file managr on FreeBSD. There are many in ports&packages: misc/clex, misc/broot, misc/deco, misc/ytree, misc/lf, misc/clifm, misc/pfm, misc/vifm, misc/mc and misc/sfm. There may be more. In this case, you edit a file on FreeBSD with vi, vim, emacs, nano or other editors that support terminal mode.
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SirDice said:
Right, so you're only editing files in your user's home directory? No system files or anything that might require root access? Another solution is to use git, create a repository on your "big" system, edit to your heart's content, then commit and push. On the "small" system git pull the repository.
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Thanks but using WinSCP + Sublime Text already, too tedious to back and forth :(

There will be other files besides source code files. Images, directories to be created, deleted, I was hoping for something like a bastard child of WinSCP and SublimeText. Installing a git server would be an overkill, but I might consider that idea as a last option - perhaps will use hg instead. Thanks.


I could also go for a smb server but that would expose the system more - I wish there was a windows software to use SSH and like sshfs. Might give filezilla a try once more.
 
quakerdoomer said:
Installing a git server would be an overkill
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Don't need to install a dedicated server, there's one builtin with git(1) itself. Dedicated server would add a lot of useful features though, but for a single user those probably aren't needed.

Git - Setting Up the Server

git-scm.com git-scm.com

quakerdoomer said:
I wish there was a windows software to use SSH and like sshfs.
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I'm personally happy with a PuTTY and WinSCP combination. But you could check out MobaXterm, which has everything you need builtin.
 
Update: The software sshwinfs-win should be burnt with fire. Impossible to connect, esp if you are using keys to connect to SSH. . made me waste a lot of time. I had tried and rejected MobaXterm years ago but will have to manage now with it. Only concern is, it copies files to windows temp and insecurely deletes it.

VladiBG Looking for options compatible with Windows OS as well, preferably a GUI. A complete SSH file manager to interact with file clipboard of Windows Explorer would be ideal.
 
quakerdoomer said:
I do not want the entire screen-X via ssh. Thanks.
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Just to make sure you understand that: ssh X11 forwarding is for a single application, not the entire screen like VNC would do.

It seems that a good GUI editor on FreeBSD x11 over ssh forwarded to windows would be a good solution for you.
 
Thanks, I forwarded dolphin and it lets me open kwrite. Although it is not ideal since the host system is slow and I want to stop running Xorg on it entirely and want to just jut be able to use the filesystem (RW) with all windows explorer features, still it a good alternative for the time being. Thanks.
 
Already mentioned above, tried and failed. SSH is running on a non-default port, which is fine but sshfs-win does not play well with key-based auth. Noticed a lot of people stating the same under the issues section.
 
Without having to install additional software on the FreeBSD and use only SSH to connect from Windows OS you can use Putty or native ssh in windows for command line interface and WinSCP on windows to have GUI for file transfer over sftp.
If you need to browse files hosted on FreeBSD under Windows's file explorer you will need to install samba on FreeBSD. If the FreeBSD samba server is on remote location and not in local network then you will also need a VPN something like OpenVPN to protect and isolate samba traffic over the internet.
 
VladiBG said:
Without having to install additional software on the FreeBSD and use only SSH to connect from Windows OS you can use Putty or native ssh in windows for command line interface and WinSCP on windows to have GUI for file transfer over sftp.
If you need to browse files hosted on FreeBSD under Windows's file explorer you will need to install samba on FreeBSD. If the FreeBSD samba server is on remote location and not in local network then you will also need a VPN something like OpenVPN to protect and isolate samba traffic over the internet.
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Please read the replies from everyone, all of this has been already discussed. Thank you for your response, appreciated.
 
quakerdoomer I am not proud of it, but I have used FileZilla to edit files "on" a remote system. What FileZilla does is download a copy of the file from the remote and load it in your local defined text editor. When you save the file in the text editor FileZilla detects it has changed and asks you if you want to update the remote version and gives you a checkbox to delete the local copy if you want that. I just fired up FileZilla on my Linux desktop, edited a file under my account on my FreeBSD box using this method and verified my memory is correct.

I exclusively use an ssh connection and vi or vim to edit remote Unix text files these days.
 
quakerdoomer said:
I forwarded dolphin [...] Although it is not ideal since the host system is slow
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Dolphin is a bad choice. Use something light like xfe.

quakerdoomer said:
open kwrite. Although it is not ideal since the host system is slow
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kwrite is a bad choice. Use something light like leafpad (or the editor built into xfe)

quakerdoomer said:
and I want to stop running Xorg on it entirely
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SSH/X11 forwarding means you aren't running Xorg on the server host so this problem should be solved.
 
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