autossh

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AutoSSH is a command that detects when SSH connections drop and automatically reconnects them.

Installation

Emerge

root #emerge --ask net-misc/autossh

Configuration

Important tips

The "-M" option is required, even if you don't want to use the monitoring option (in which case, use "-M 0").

When using "-M"...

• Connections are tunnelled. No firewall changes needed for autossh's monitoring feature.
• Ports need to be above 1024 if you are not logging in as root.
• If you use a password prompt, then autossh will wait for your password when it reconnects, and it won't be fully connected until you give that password. So, it is helpful to use a key (instead of password) and ssh-agent.

Examples

1) Simple login example

user $autossh -M 0 username@myserver

2) More Complex Example

SSH on port 222. Setup a SOCKS proxy on port 9999. Using "ServerAliveInterval" and "ServerAliveCountMax" as recommended in the autossh README file.

user $autossh -M 0 -p 222 -N -D 9999 -o "ServerAliveInterval 45" -o "ServerAliveCountMax 2" username@myserver

3) Use autossh with sshfs

user $sshfs -o reconnect,compression=yes,transform_symlinks,ServerAliveInterval=45,ServerAliveCountMax=2,ssh_command='autossh -M 0' username@server:/ /mnt/remote"

Removal

Unmerge

root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose net-misc/autossh

See also

• SCP — an interactive file transfer program, similar to the copy command, that copies files over an encrypted SSH transport.
• SFTP — an interactive file transfer program, similar to FTP, which performs all operations over an encrypted SSH transport.
• SSH — the ubiquitous tool for logging into and working on remote machines securely.
• SSHFS — a secure shell client used to mount remote filesystems to local machines.

External resources

• https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/autossh - OpenWRT's wiki page on autossh.
• https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/autossh-all-your-connection-lost - A short autossh article written by Linux Journal.