Jump Between Servers using SSH and Shuttle

Jason Tucker shared this cool link over the weekend and I like it a lot and wanted to share.

It’s a tool that allows you to quickly access your various servers via SSH. If you authenticate using keys, then this is a serious win for you. It allows you to manage multiple SSH accounts via your MAC, but more importantly allows you to quickly log into them by opening your terminal and passing your syntax.

Why this is so convenient is because it helps you set your various ports, assuming they are all different, allows you to set any special options like binding to specific ports and / or defining specific keys that might not be your standard. Instead of trying to remember which one is which, you set it once and leave it alone.

For guys like me that are jumping between 5-10 personal servers each day it can become a real pain. Sometimes I get IPs wrong, the domain wrong, etc… fortunately I use keys on all the boxes, so finding a way to quickly configure is the bomb diggidty.

Shuttle is the name of the tool. Simple to use, even more simple to configure. Recommend you give it a try, once you install it, configure each location in the configuration file and you’ll be off the races.

One small note, if you use various machines don’t worry you can sync them all up using Dropbox. You’ll want to create a symbolic link to the location but that should be straightforward.

To create the symbolic link, open your terminal and follow this:
# cd ~
# mv .shuttle.json ~/Dropbox/[path you want]/
# ln -s ~/Dropbox/[path to folder/.shuttle.json

You should see this here ~:

# ls -la ~
.....
lrwxr-xr-x 1 user owner size [date]  [time].shuttle.json -> /Users/[path to Dropbox folder]/.shuttle.json
.....