HOSTMUX

hostmux is a small wrapper script for tmux to easily connect to a series of hosts via ssh and open a split pane for each of the hosts. Using the synchronize-pane feature of tmux, commands can be easily broadcasted/multiplexed. This is a light weight replacement for tools like csshX on OS X.

Demo

Usage

HOSTMUX(1)                  General Commands Manual                 HOSTMUX(1)



NAME
       hostmux - Connects to a list of hosts via ssh in separate tmux split
       panes

SYNOPSIS
       hostmux [-h] | [-s session-name] [-l tmux-layout] [-c ssh command]
               [-o ssh options] [-f host_file] [-x] [-p] [-P]
               [-a] host1 [host2 ...]

DESCRIPTION
       Call hostmux followed by a list of hosts you want to connect to via
       ssh.  The script will create a new tmux session with a split pane for
       each specified host and connect to it.

       You can then use the synchronize-panes feature of tmux to
       multiplex/broadcast commands to all split panes / servers (see -a).

       Its arguments are as follows:

       -s -session-name
               Specify a name for the tmux session. It defaults to 'hostmux'
               which means that you can have only one hostmux session at a
               time if you don't specify unique names for your sessions

       -l -tmux-layout
               Specify a valid tmux layout e.g. even-horizontal, tiled, etc.
               It defaults to

       -f hostfile
               Specify a file which contains a newline separated list of
               [user@]host names. The hosts from the file will be merged with
               the hosts provided as optional arguments

       -x      Close the pane and/or session automatically when the ssh
               session exits successfully

       -p      Identify panes by setting the pane title to the ssh hostname
               (tmux >= 2.3), may not work if the remote host does $PS1 magic
               like setting the terminal title, in that case use -P

       -P      Identify panes by setting the remote prompt $PS1 to
               "[<hostname>]$ " after login

       -a      Synchronize all panes, i.e. type commands simultaneously in all
               panes

       -c      Specify the ssh command. It allows to use a specific wrapper.
               It defaults to "ssh"

       -o      Specify ssh options to play at connection such as a user (-l)
               or a connexion port (-p), etc

       -h      Display usage information

       host    Specify a space separated list of one or more user@hostname ssh
               targets. This is what you would pass to the ssh command when
               you are connecting to a host. Currently there is no support for
               passing additional flags to ssh. If you do need them, add them
               to your ~/.ssh/config

SEE ALSO
       tmux(1)

       https://github.com/hukl/hostmux

EXIT STATUS
       The hostmux utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

AUTHORS
       hostmux was written by John-Paul Bader (hukl), contact@smyck.org.



sh                             February 6, 2017                     HOSTMUX(1)

TMUX Keybindings

The following key bindings can be added to your .tmux.conf for even more convenience.

# This toggles the synchronize-panes feature, or use hostmux -a.
bind-key a set-window-option synchronize-panes
# This allows killing the whole session, or use hostmux -x
bind-key X kill-session

Installing on OS X via Homebrew

brew install hukl/tap/hostmux

Installing the ZSH completion

This repo contains a zsh completion file which needs to be added to your other zsh completions.

Find or create an appropriate directory, copy the completion file and if the directory isn't already in your $fpath then add this to your .zshrc:

# Extend Autocomplete Search Path
fpath=(/path/to/your/completions/dir $fpath)

Building / Installing the manpage

Build man/hostmux.1 (roff format) with the Makefile from hostmux.mandoc (BSD default mandoc format) using mandoc (Debian: apt-get install mandoc). Copy it to your local man page folder e.g. /usr/local/share/man/man1/hostmux.1

Suggestions for Improvement?

Let me know!