color-ssh 0.6.5

A Rust-based SSH client with syntax highlighting.
Documentation

About

Color SSH (cossh) is a Rust-based wrapper for SSH that enhances your terminal experience with real-time syntax highlighting and session logging. Built for network engineers, system administrators, and anyone who works with devices that have basic shells.

cossh_example

Features

  • Session Manger TUI
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Session logging
  • Configuration hot reload
  • Mutliple Profile Support
  • Configurable rules using regex matching

Installation

Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

Download the latest release from GitHub Releases for your platform.

Cargo

cargo install color-ssh

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/karsyboy/color-ssh.git
cd color-ssh

# Build the release binary
cargo build --release

Shell Completion

Shell completeion scripts are included for fish and zsh. For instructions see the Shell Completion README.

Usage

Usage: cossh [OPTIONS] [ssh_args]...

Arguments:
  [ssh_args]...  SSH arguments to forward to the SSH command

Options:
  -d, --debug              Enable debug mode with detailed logging to ~/.color-ssh/logs/cossh.log
  -l, --log                Enable SSH session logging to ~/.color-ssh/logs/ssh_sessions/
  -P, --profile <profile>  Specify a configuration profile to use
  -t, --test               Ignore config logging settings; only use CLI -d/-l logging flags
  -h, --help               Print help
  -V, --version            Print version


cossh                                              # Launch interactive session manager
cossh -d                                           # Launch interactive session manager with debug enabled
cossh -d user@example.com                          # Debug mode enabled
cossh -l user@example.com                          # SSH logging enabled
cossh -l -P network user@firewall.example.com      # Use 'network' config profile
cossh -l user@host -p 2222                         # Both modes with SSH args
cossh -tld -P network localhost                    # Test mode: force logging from CLI flags only
cossh user@host -G                                 # Non-interactive command

Configuration

Rule Config

Configuration files are looked for in the following order:

  1. Current directory: ./[profile].cossh-config.yaml
  2. Home directory: ~/.color-ssh/[profile].cossh-config.yaml

If no configuration file is found the default configuration will be created at ~/.color-ssh/cossh-config.yaml.

Color-SSH TUI Metadata in ~/.ssh/config

The interactive session manger supports metadata comments inside the SSH config file.

Tag What it does
#_Desc <text> Adds description in the info view.
#_Profile <name> Opens that host using the matching cossh profile ([profile].cossh-config.yaml).
#_sshpass <true|yes|1> Connects with sshpass -e for that host.
#_hidden <true|yes|1> Hides the host from the interactive host list. 
Host switch01
    HostName switch01.example.com
    User admin
    #_Profile network
    #_Desc Example Switch
    #_sshpass true

For more info on the TUI go here TUI User Guide.

Uninstall

Cargo

cargo uninstall color-ssh

Homebrew

brew uninstall color-ssh

Linux/macOS (Manual)

# 1. Remove the main binary
rm ~/.cargo/bin/cossh

# 2. Remove the updater binary
rm -f ~/.cargo/bin/color-ssh-update

# 3. (Optional) Remove configuration and logs
rm -rf ~/.color-ssh/

# 4. Remove the installation receipt
rm -rf ~/.config/color-ssh/

Shell Completion Cleanup

For instructions see the Shell Completion README.

Support

If you need help, have an issue, or just want to make a sugestion / request a feature please open an issue.

Special Thanks

Thanks to the following projects for the inspiration behind Color SSH.

Also thank you to Alacritty for the terminal create that is being used to render the terminal in the TUI