What's the difference between host_sftp_host and bbedit_ssh_host?

[s22-tech]

Would you explain the settings in more detail, please? I can't get this to work.

1] What's the difference between host_sftp_host and bbedit_ssh_host? I'm assuming that host_sftp_host is my server, but I don't know what to put for bbedit_ssh_host. If I use an IP address for it, the script hangs. Any other input and it gets added to my server's known_hosts file.

2] What is local_ssh_copy_id_command? You have "ssh-copy-id" as the default, but I don't have that command on either my Mac or my server.

Hopefully I can get this to work. I'd really like to try it out since BBEdit is my favorite text editor.

Thanks! Marc

[cngarrison]

1] What's the difference between host_sftp_host and bbedit_ssh_host? I'm assuming that host_sftp_host is my server, but I don't know what to put for bbedit_ssh_host. If I use an IP address for it, the script hangs. Any other input and it gets added to my server's known_hosts file.

When using rbbedit, it first sends a command (via ssh) to your BBEdit workstation, which is defined by bbedit_ssh_host. That command calls rbbedit which (by default) opens the file from host_sftp_host. The script tries to set default values for each of those, but can get it wrong for many reasons, in which case you need to set them yourself.

• bbedit_ssh_host is the machine running BBEdit (your workstation) - it can be an IP address or hostname, and must be accessible from the host_sftp_host - a common value is the public IP address (or dyndns) of your home LAN.
• host_sftp_host is the machine that has the file you want to edit - it must be accessible from bbedit_ssh_host.

Since rbbedit is (by default) just using ssh/sftp, the easiest way to confirm the setup is to manually test ssh:

remote_host> ssh <bbedit_ssh_user>@<bbedit_ssh_host>

and:

workstation> sftp <host_sftp_user>@<host_sftp_host>:/path/to/file ./file

If those commands work, then rbbedit should work.

2] What is local_ssh_copy_id_command? You have "ssh-copy-id" as the default, but I don't have that command on either my Mac or my server.

I think that's a separate util, maybe available via brew. You don't really need it, unless you are setting up lots of remote hosts. For just one or two hosts, manually copy your public ssh key to .ssh/authorized_keys on remote host, and copy public key from remote host to .ssh/authorized_keys on your workstation.

Note, it's possible to use ssh "restricted command" if you don't want to create wide open bi-directional access.

Hopefully I can get this to work. I'd really like to try it out since BBEdit is my favorite text editor.

Underneath, rbbedit isn't doing anything special, it's just automating the ssh/sftp commands for you. So get ssh/sftp working, and then if you still have problems with rbbedit, send me more details.

If any of the above helps you understand how rbbedit works, and you think the docs could be improved, Please update the README and create a PR.