opener
Open URL in your local web browser from the SSH-connected remote environment.
How does opener work?
opener is a daemon process that runs locally. When you send a URL to the process, it will execute a command tailored to your local environment (open on macOS, xdg-open on Linux) with the URL as an argument. As a result, the URL will be opened in your favorite web browser.
You remotely forward the socket file of the opener daemon, ~/.opener.sock, when you log in to the remote environment via SSH. In a remote environment, you use fake open command or xdg-open command to send the URL to ~/.opener.sock being forwarded from your local environment. The result is as if URL was sent to the local opener daemon, which opens the URL in your local web browser.
┌────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────┐
│ │ │ │
│ ┌────────────────┐ │ │ ┌────────────────┐ │
│ │ Web Browser │ │ │ │ open command │ │
│ └─▲──────────────┘ │ │ │ (fake) │ │
│ │ Open URL │ │ └─┬──────────────┘ │
│ ┌─┴──────────────┐ │ │ │ │
│ │ opener daemon │ │ │ │ Send URL │
│ └─┬──────────────┘ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ ┌─┴──────────────┐ │ SSH connection │ ┌─▼──────────────┐ │
│ │ ~/.opener.sock │ ├─────────────────► │ ~/.opener.sock │ │
│ └────────────────┘ │ Remote forward │ └────────────────┘ │
│ │ │ │
└────────────────────┘ └────────────────────┘
localhost remote server
Setup
Local environment
You can install opener with Homebrew. Since opener is a daemon, it is managed by Homebrew-services.
$ brew install superbrothers/opener
$ brew services start opener
Set ssh config to forward ~/.opener.sock to the remote environment.
Host host.example.org
RemoteForward /home/me/.opener.sock /Users/me/.opener.sock
Remote environment
Install a fake open or xdg-open command. Please choose your preference either way.
$ mkdir ~/bin
# open command
$ curl -L -o ~/bin/open https://raw.githubusercontent.com/superbrothers/opener/master/bin/open
$ chmod 755 ~/bin/open
# xdg-open command
$ curl -L -o ~/bin/xdg-open https://raw.githubusercontent.com/superbrothers/opener/master/bin/xdg-open
$ chmod 755 ~/bin/xdg-open
# Add ~/bin to $PATH and enable it
$ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >>~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
Fake commands use socat command, so install it.
# Ubuntu 20.04
$ sudo apt install socat
Add the following settings to sshd. This is an option to delete the socket file when you lose the connection to the remote environment.
# Add a configuration file
$ echo "StreamLocalBindUnlink yes" | sudo tee /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/opener.conf
# Restart ssh service
$ sudo systemctl restart ssh
How to use it
If set up correctly, the following command in a remote environment will send the URL through opener and open the URL in your local web browser.
$ open https://www.google.com/
License
MIT License
