termscp can be started in two different mode, if no extra arguments is provided, termscp will show the authentication form, where the user will be able to provide the parameters required to connect to the remote peer.
Alternatively, the user can provide an address as argument to skip the authentication form and starting directly the connection to the remote server.
If address argument is provided you can also provide the start working directory for local host
### Address argument 🌎
The address argument has the following syntax:
```txt
[protocol://][username@]<address>[:port][:wrkdir]
```
Let's see some example of this particular syntax, since it's very comfortable and you'll probably going to use this instead of the other one...
- Connect using default protocol (*defined in configuration*) to 192.168.1.31, port if not provided is default for the selected protocol (in this case depends on your configuration); username is current user's name
```sh
termscp 192.168.1.31
```
- Connect using default protocol (*defined in configuration*) to 192.168.1.31; username is `root`
```sh
termscp root@192.168.1.31
```
- Connect using scp to 192.168.1.31, port is 4022; username is `omar`
```sh
termscp scp://omar@192.168.1.31:4022
```
- Connect using scp to 192.168.1.31, port is 4022; username is `omar`. You will start in directory `/tmp`
Aws S3 has a different syntax for CLI address argument, for obvious reasons, but I managed to keep it the more similiar as possible to the generic address argument:
You have probably noticed, that, when providing the address as argument, there's no way to provide the password.
Password can be basically provided through 3 ways when address argument is provided:
-`-P, --password` option: just use this CLI option providing the password. I strongly unrecommend this method, since it's very unsecure (since you might keep the password in the shell history)
- Via `sshpass`: you can provide password via `sshpass`, e.g. `sshpass -f ~/.ssh/topsecret.key termscp cvisintin@192.168.1.31`
- You will be prompted for it: if you don't use any of the previous methods, you will be prompted for the password, as happens with the more classics tools such as `scp`, `ssh`, etc.
When we refer to file explorers in termscp, we refer to the panels you can see after establishing a connection with the remote.
These panels are basically 3 (yes, three actually):
- Local explorer panel: it is displayed on the left of your screen and shows the current directory entries for localhost
- Remote explorer panel: it is displayed on the right of your screen and shows the current directory entries for the remote host.
- Find results panel: depending on where you're searching for files (local/remote) it will replace the local or the explorer panel. This panel shows the entries matching the search query you performed.
In order to change panel you need to type `<LEFT>` to move the remote explorer panel and `<RIGHT>` to move back to the local explorer panel. Whenever you are in the find results panel, you need to press `<ESC>` to exit panel and go back to the previous panel.
You can opt to work on multiple files, selecting them pressing `<M>`, in order to select the current file, or pressing `<CTRL+A>`, which will select all the files in the working directory.
Once a file is marked for selection, it will be displayed with a `*` on the left.
When working on selection, only selected file will be processed for actions, while the current highlighted item will be ignored.
It is possible to work on multiple files also when in the find result panel.
All the actions are available when working with multiple files, but be aware that some actions work in a slightly different way. Let's dive in:
- *Copy*: whenever you copy a file, you'll be prompted to insert the destination name. When working with multiple file, this name refers to the destination directory where all these files will be copied.
- *Rename*: same as copy, but will move files there.
- *Save as*: same as copy, but will write them there.
### Synchronized browsing ⏲️
When enabled, synchronized browsing, will allow you to synchronize the navigation between the two panels.
This means that whenever you'll change the working directory on one panel, the same action will be reproduced on the other panel. If you want to enable synchronized browsing just press `<Y>`; press twice to disable. While enabled, the synchronized browising state will be reported on the status bar on `ON`.
Open and open with commands are powered by [open-rs](https://docs.rs/crate/open/1.7.0).
When opening files with View command (`<V>`), the system default application for the file type will be used. To do so, the default operting system service will be used, so be sure to have at least one of these installed on your system:
- **Windows** users: you don't have to worry about it, since the crate will use the `start` command.
- **MacOS** users: you don't have to worry either, since the crate will use `open`, which is already installed on your system.
- **Linux** users: one of these should be installed
- *xdg-open*
- *gio*
- *gnome-open*
- *kde-open*
- **WSL** users: *wslview* is required, you must install [wslu](https://github.com/wslutilities/wslu).
> Q: Can I edit remote files using the view command?
> A: No, at least not directly from the "remote panel". You have to download it to a local directory first, that's due to the fact that when you open a remote file, the file is downloaded into a temporary directory, but there's no way to create a watcher for the file to check when the program you used to open it was closed, so termscp is not able to know when you're done editing the file.
This feature allows you to load all the parameters required to connect to a certain remote, simply selecting the bookmark in the tab under the authentication form.
Bookmarks will be saved, if possible at:
-`$HOME/.config/termscp/` on Linux/BSD
-`$HOME/Library/Application Support/termscp` on MacOs
-`FOLDERID_RoamingAppData\termscp\` on Windows
For bookmarks only (this won't apply to recent hosts) it is also possible to save the password used to authenticate. The password is not saved by default and must be specified through the prompt when saving a new Bookmark.
In order to create a new bookmark, just follow these steps:
1. Type in the authentication form the parameters to connect to your remote server
2. Press `<CTRL+S>`
3. Type in the name you want to give to the bookmark
4. Choose whether to remind the password or not
5. Press `<ENTER>` to submit
whenever you want to use the previously saved connection, just press `<TAB>` to navigate to the bookmarks list and load the bookmark parameters into the form pressing `<ENTER>`.
As said before, bookmarks are saved in your configuration directory along with passwords. Passwords are obviously not plain text, they are encrypted with **AES-128**. Does this make them safe? Absolutely! (except for BSD and WSL users 😢)
On **Windows**, **Linux** and **MacOS** the passwords are stored, if possible (but should be), respectively in the *Windows Vault*, in the *system keyring* and into the *Keychain*. This is actually super-safe and is directly managed by your operating system.
❗ Please, notice that if you're a Linux user, you'd better to read the [chapter below 👀](#linux-keyring), because the keyring might not be enabled or supported on your system!
On *BSD* and *WSL*, on the other hand, the key used to encrypt your passwords is stored on your drive (at $HOME/.config/termscp). It is then, still possible to retrieve the key to decrypt passwords. Luckily, the location of the key guarantees your key can't be read by users different from yours, but yeah, I still wouldn't save the password for a server exposed on the internet 😉.
#### Linux Keyring
We all love Linux thanks to the freedom it gives to the users. You can basically do anything you want as a Linux user, but this has also some cons, such as the fact that often there is no standard applications across different distributions. And this involves keyring too.
This means that on Linux there might be no keyring installed on your system. Unfortunately the library we use to work with the key storage requires a service which exposes `org.freedesktop.secrets` on D-BUS and the worst fact is that there only two services exposing it.
- ❗ If you use GNOME as desktop environment (e.g. ubuntu users), you should already be fine, since keyring is already provided by `gnome-keyring` and everything should already be working.
- ❗ For other desktop environment users there is a nice program you can use to get a keyring which is [KeepassXC](https://keepassxc.org/), which I use on my Manjaro installation (with KDE) and works fine. The only problem is that you have to setup it to be used along with termscp (but it's quite simple). To get started with KeepassXC read more [here](#keepassxc-setup-for-termscp).
- ❗ What about you don't want to install any of these services? Well, there's no problem! **termscp will keep working as usual**, but it will save the key in a file, as it usually does for BSD and WSL.
##### KeepassXC setup for termscp
Follow these steps in order to setup keepassXC for termscp:
1. Install KeepassXC
2. Go to "tools" > "settings" in toolbar
3. Select "Secret service integration" and toggle "Enable KeepassXC freedesktop.org secret service integration"
4. Create a database, if you don't have one yet: from toolbar "Database" > "New database"
5. From toolbar: "Database" > "Database settings"
6. Select "Secret service integration" and toggle "Expose entries under this group"
7. Select the group in the list where you want the termscp secret to be kept. Remember that this group might be used by any other application to store secrets via DBUS.
In order to connect to an Aws S3 bucket you must obviously provide some credentials.
There are basically two ways to achieve this, and as you've probably already noticed you **can't** do that via the authentication form.
So these are the ways you can provide the credentials for s3:
1. Use your credentials file: just configure the AWS cli via `aws configure` and your credentials should already be located at `~/.aws/credentials`. In case you're using a profile different from `default`, just provide it in the profile field in the authentication form.
2.**Environment variables**: you can always provide your credentials as environment variables. Keep in mind that these credentials **will always override** the credentials located in the `credentials` file. See how to configure the environment below:
These should always be mandatory:
-`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`: aws access key ID (usually starts with `AKIA...`)
-`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`: the secret access key
In case you've configured a stronger security, you *may* require these too:
-`AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN`: security token
-`AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`: session token
⚠️ Your credentials are safe: termscp won't manipulate these values directly! Your credentials are directly consumed by the **s3** crate.
In case you've got some concern regarding security, please contact the library author on [Github](https://github.com/durch/rust-s3) ⚠️
Underhood termscp has a TOML file and some other directories where all the parameters will be saved, but don't worry, you won't touch any of these files manually, since I made possible to configure termscp from its user interface entirely.
termscp, like for bookmarks, just requires to have these paths accessible:
-`$HOME/.config/termscp/` on Linux/BSD
-`$HOME/Library/Application Support/termscp` on MacOs
-`FOLDERID_RoamingAppData\termscp\` on Windows
To access configuration, you just have to press `<CTRL+C>` from the home of termscp.
These parameters can be changed:
- **Text Editor**: the text editor to use. By default termscp will find the default editor for you; with this option you can force an editor to be used (e.g. `vim`). **Also GUI editors are supported**, unless they `nohup` from the parent process so if you ask: yes, you can use `notepad.exe`, and no: **Visual Studio Code doesn't work**.
- **Default Protocol**: the default protocol is the default value for the file transfer protocol to be used in termscp. This applies for the login page and for the address CLI argument.
- **Show Hidden Files**: select whether hidden files shall be displayed by default. You will be able to decide whether to show or not hidden files at runtime pressing `A` anyway.
- **Check for updates**: if set to `yes`, termscp will fetch the Github API to check if there is a new version of termscp available.
- **Group Dirs**: select whether directories should be groupped or not in file explorers. If `Display first` is selected, directories will be sorted using the configured method but displayed before files, viceversa if `Display last` is selected.
- **Remote File formatter syntax**: syntax to display file info for each file in the remote explorer. See [File explorer format](#file-explorer-format)
- **Local File formatter syntax**: syntax to display file info for each file in the local explorer. See [File explorer format](#file-explorer-format)
Along with configuration, termscp provides also an **essential** feature for **SFTP/SCP clients**: the SSH key storage.
You can access the SSH key storage, from configuration moving to the `SSH Keys` tab, once there you can:
- **Add a new key**: just press `<CTRL+N>` and you will be prompted to create a new key. Provide the hostname/ip address and the username associated to the key and finally a text editor will open up: paste the **PRIVATE** ssh key into the text editor, save and quit.
- **Remove an existing key**: just press `<DEL>` or `<CTRL+E>` on the key you want to remove, to delete persistently the key from termscp.
- **Edit an existing key**: just press `<ENTER>` on the key you want to edit, to change the private key.
> Q: Wait, my private key is protected with password, can I use it?
> A: Of course you can. The password provided for authentication in termscp, is valid both for username/password authentication and for RSA key authentication.
It is possible through configuration to define a custom format for the file explorer. This is possible both for local and remote host, so you can have two different syntax in use. These fields, with name `File formatter syntax (local)` and `File formatter syntax (remote)` will define how the file entries will be displayed in the file explorer.
Termscp provides you with an awesome feature: the possibility to set the colors for several components in the application.
If you want to customize termscp there are two available ways to do so:
- From the **configuration menu**
- Importing a **theme file**
In order to create your own customization from termscp, all you have to do so is to enter the configuration from the auth activity, pressing `<CTRL+C>` and then `<TAB>` twice. You should have now moved to the `themes` panel.
Here you can move with `<UP>` and `<DOWN>` to change the style you want to change, as shown in the gif below:
![Themes](../assets/images/themes.gif)
termscp supports both the traditional explicit hex (`#rrggbb`) and rgb `rgb(r, g, b)` syntax to provide colors, but also **[css colors](https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_colors.asp)** (such as `crimson`) are accepted 😉. There is also a special keywork which is `Default`. Default means that the color used will be the default foreground or background color based on the situation (foreground for texts and lines, background for well, guess what).
As said before, you can also import theme files. You can take inspiration from or directly use one of the themes provided along with termscp, located in the `themes/` directory of this repository and import them running termscp as `termscp -t <theme_file>`. If everything was fine, it should tell you the theme has successfully been imported.
This is probably due to a recent update which has broken the theme. Whenever I add a new key to themes, the saved theme won't load. To fix this issues there are two really quick-fix solutions:
1. Reload theme: whenever I release an update I will also patch the "official" themes, so you just have to download it from the repository again and re-import the theme via `-t` option
```sh
termscp -t <theme.toml>
```
2. Fix your theme: If you're using a custom theme, then you can edit via `vim` and add the missing key. The theme is located at `$CONFIG_DIR/termscp/theme.toml` where `$CONFIG_DIR` is:
- FreeBSD/GNU-Linux: `$HOME/.config/`
- MacOs: `$HOME/Library/Application Support`
- Windows: `%appdata%`
❗ Missing keys are reported in the CHANGELOG under `BREAKING CHANGES` for the version you've just installed.
termscp has, as you might have noticed, many features, one of these is the possibility to view and edit text file. It doesn't matter if the file is located on the local host or on the remote host, termscp provides the possibility to open a file in your favourite text editor.
In case the file is located on remote host, the file will be first downloaded into your temporary file directory and then, **only** if changes were made to the file, re-uploaded to the remote host. termscp checks if you made changes to the file verifying the last modification time of the file.
Just a reminder: **you can edit only textual file**; binary files are not supported.
### How do I configure the text editor 🦥
Text editor is automatically found using this [awesome crate](https://github.com/milkey-mouse/edit), if you want to change the text editor to use, change it in termscp configuration. [Read more](#configuration-️)
termscp writes a log file for each session, which is written at
-`$HOME/.config/termscp/termscp.log` on Linux/BSD
-`$HOME/Library/Application Support/termscp/termscp.log` on MacOs
-`FOLDERID_RoamingAppData\termscp\termscp.log` on Windows
the log won't be rotated, but will just be truncated after each launch of termscp, so if you want to report an issue and you want to attach your log file, keep in mind to save the log file in a safe place before using termscp again.
The log file always reports in *trace* level, so it is kinda verbose.
I know you might have some questions regarding log files, so I made a kind of a Q/A:
> Is it possible to reduce verbosity?
No. The reason is quite simple: when an issue happens, you must be able to know what's causing it and the only way to do that, is to have the log file with the maximum verbosity level set.
> If trace level is set for logging, is the file going to reach a huge size?
Probably not, unless you never quit termscp, but I think that's unlikely to happen. A long session may produce up to 10MB of log files (I said a long session), but I think a normal session won't exceed 2MB.
Yes, you can. Just start termscp with `-q or --quiet` option. You can alias termscp to make it persistent. Remember that logging is used to diagnose issues, so since behind every open source project, there should always be this kind of mutual help, keeping log files might be your way to support the project 😉. I don't want you to feel guilty, but just to say.
> Is logging safe?
If you're concerned about security, the log file doesn't contain any plain password, so don't worry and exposes the same information the sibling file `bookmarks` reports.