how to find out who I am

how to find out who I am

[Andy Spiegl]

My colleague and I frequently ssh into our servers as root.
I'd like to find a way to let zsh distinguish between us, but
the environment variable SSH_CLIENT doesn't help because both of us
log in from workstations with constantly changing IPs.

Is there any other way how I can let zsh know who I am?

Thanks guys,
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
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 We are Microsoft.  Unix is irrelevant.  Openness is futile.
 Prepare to be assimilated.

Re: how to find out who I am

[Andy Spiegl]

Jay Sachs wrote:

> What about
> 
>   ssh -t me@my.host.name sudo -s

Nice idea!  But it doesn't work, because we don't have user accounts on
these machines.

Thanks,
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
                              o      _     _         _
  ------- __o       __o      /\_   _ \\o  (_)\__/o  (_)          -o)
  ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
  ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Why use Windows, when you can leave through the door?

Re: how to find out who I am

[Fletch]

>>>>> "Andy" == Andy Spiegl <zsh.Andy@spiegl.de> writes:

    Andy> My colleague and I frequently ssh into our servers as root.
    Andy> I'd like to find a way to let zsh distinguish between us,
    Andy> but the environment variable SSH_CLIENT doesn't help because
    Andy> both of us log in from workstations with constantly changing
    Andy> IPs.

    Andy> Is there any other way how I can let zsh know who I am?

[...]


Perhaps . . .

ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh


-- 
Fletch                | "If you find my answers frightening,       __`'/|
fletch@phydeaux.org   |  Vincent, you should cease askin'          \ o.O'
770 294-0820 (m)      |  scary questions." -- Jules                =(___)=
                      |                                               U

Re: how to find out who I am

[Andy Spiegl]

Hi Fletch,

> ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh
Great.
Does that have any disadvantages (i.e. any differences) from
compared with the "normal" ssh root@somehost ???

Thanks,
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
                              o      _     _         _
  ------- __o       __o      /\_   _ \\o  (_)\__/o  (_)          -o)
  ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
  ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 cogito ergo sum, bibo ergo sum, cogito ergo bib, bibo ergo bib?

Re: how to find out who I am

[Fletch]

>>>>> "Andy" == Andy Spiegl <zsh.Andy@spiegl.de> writes:

    Andy> Hi Fletch,
    >> ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh
    Andy> Great.  Does that have any disadvantages (i.e. any
    Andy> differences) from compared with the "normal" ssh
    Andy> root@somehost ???

Shouldn't.  The -t makes ssh allocate a pty even though you've given
it a command to run so things that need one (like zsh or vi :) will
have one.  If you want it to be more like a normal login you could do
`exec su - root' instead.

-- 
Fletch                | "If you find my answers frightening,       __`'/|
fletch@phydeaux.org   |  Vincent, you should cease askin'          \ o.O'
770 294-0820 (m)      |  scary questions." -- Jules                =(___)=
                      |                                               U

Re: how to find out who I am

[Thomas Köhler]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1036 bytes --]

Fletch wrote [2003/08/05]:
> >>>>> "Andy" == Andy Spiegl <zsh.Andy@spiegl.de> writes:
> 
>     Andy> Hi Fletch,
>     >> ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^
>     Andy> Great.  Does that have any disadvantages (i.e. any
>     Andy> differences) from compared with the "normal" ssh
>     Andy> root@somehost ???
> 
> Shouldn't.  The -t makes ssh allocate a pty even though you've given
> it a command to run so things that need one (like zsh or vi :) will
> have one.  If you want it to be more like a normal login you could do
> `exec su - root' instead.
           ^
           wiping out the "REALME" variable? I don't think that's
           what is intended :)

Ciao,
Thomas

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Re: how to find out who I am

[Bart Schaefer]

On Aug 4,  9:43pm, Andy Spiegl wrote:
}
} I'd like to find a way to let zsh distinguish between us, but
} the environment variable SSH_CLIENT doesn't help because both of us
} log in from workstations with constantly changing IPs.

On Aug 5,  1:18am, Andy Spiegl wrote:
}
} > ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh
} Great.
} Does that have any disadvantages (i.e. any differences) from
} compared with the "normal" ssh root@somehost ???

You might prefer

	ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh -l

to run zsh as a login shell.

Another trick that I've used in the past is to modify the TERM variable,
which is automatically passed across rsh, rlogin and ssh connections,
and then set it back again in the shell startup files.  For example, on
the local machine

	alias ssh='TERM=$LOGNAME/$TERM ssh'

and in .zshrc (or even .zshenv) on the remote machine

	if [[ $TERM = */* ]]; then
	    RPS1=$TERM:h	# For example
	    TERM=$TERM:t
	fi

This has the advantage of being completely transparent to non-interactive
shells (which don't care about $TERM), and it is propagated automatically
in the event you need to do something like

	ssh -t user@firstremote ssh other@secondremote

(which I have sometimes had to do in order to ssh through firewalls).

Re: how to find out who I am

[Andy Spiegl]

Bart Schaefer wrote:

> You might prefer
> 	ssh root@somehost -t REALME=andy exec zsh -l
> to run zsh as a login shell.

That's what I did anyway. :-)
I'm really happy with that solution and so far I haven't noticed any
negative sideeffects.

> Another trick that I've used in the past is to modify the TERM variable,
> which is automatically passed across rsh, rlogin and ssh connections,
> and then set it back again in the shell startup files.
Great idea, too!
Just have to ignore the first line with the warning:
 zsh: can't find terminal definition for spiegl/xterm

> and it is propagated automatically
> in the event you need to do something like
> 
> 	ssh -t user@firstremote ssh other@secondremote
Very nice.  Thanks for the tipp!
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
                              o      _     _         _
  ------- __o       __o      /\_   _ \\o  (_)\__/o  (_)          -o)
  ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
  ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 cogito ergo sum, bibo ergo sum, cogito ergo bib, bibo ergo bib?