Use GraphTerm as a remote terminal (like screen or tmux)
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Introduction
======================================================================

GraphTerm provides the basic capabilities of *detached terminal* programs like
``screen`` and ``tmux``. The GraphTerm terminal window is just a web page,
served by ``gtermserver``. Therefore, it can be accessed from any computer
with access to the server, either locally or remotely. All you need to do
is to load the URL for the terminal session on a new computer, and you can
continue working from the point where you stopped previously.

A typical use of GraphTerm would be to run
``gtermserver`` on your work computer, and access it locally at work
and remotely from home. For security, it would be best to run the server
as ``localhost`` on the work computer, and use SSH port forwarding to
connect to it from other computers.

Another use of GraphTerm would be to run the server on managing host of a computer
cluster, or a group of cloud instances. Other hosts can connect to the managing
host using the ``gtermhost`` command. *In this case, the hosts should
connect via a private network, not the the public internet.* The state of the terminal is
stored on the host machine, not on ``gtermserver``. You can restart ``gtermserver``
and the hosts will automatically reconnect.

See the `README <http://code.mindmeldr.com/graphterm/README.html>`_
file for basic instructions on installing and starting up GraphTerm.

Accessing GraphTerm features across SSH logins
======================================================================================

If you login to a remote computer using SSH, you can use the
*terminal/export environment*  menu option to set the Bash shell
environment variables on the remote computer. This will allow
some, but not all, of GraphTerm's features to work on the remote
session. If you wish to use more features, set the ``PATH`` environment
variable on the remote machine to allow access to ``gls`` and other
commands, and also use reverse port forwarding to forward your
local port(s) to the remote computer. For example, if you wish
to connect remote hosts to the GraphTerm server, use::

   ssh -R 8899:localhost:8899 user@remote-computer


Accessing GraphTerm server from a remote computer using SSH 
======================================================================================

Assume that you will be running ``gtermserver`` on your ``work-computer`` as
``localhost`` listening on the default port 8900 using the command::

    gtermserver --terminal

At work, you will use the URL ``http://localhost:8900/local/tty1`` to access
your terminal session ``tty1``. Now disable the *terminal/private* menu
option, to allow others to share your terminal. 
You can then access your work terminal from home, by connecting to your work computer using SSH::

    ssh -L 8901:localhost:8900 user@work-computer

The above command maps your work computer port 8900 to your home computer port 8901.
(There is also a ``-R`` option that provides a reverse port mapping, which can be useful if
you can log into your desktop from your laptop, and wish to access
your laptop files using the desktop browser, by mapping laptop port 8900 to
desktop port 8901.)

After establishing the SSH connection, you can access your work terminal session from
home using the URL::

    http://localhost:8901/local/tty1

You will need to enter the authentication code from the file
``~/.graphterm/graphterm_auth` on your work computer.
(If you forgot to detach your work terminal before leaving, use the
*steal* menu button to steal control of the session.)

If you have multiple terminals open, use the URL ``http://localhost:8901/local`` to
see a list of all the available terminal sessions.



Connecting multiple hosts to gtermserver
======================================================================================


The ``gtermhost`` command can be used to connect from any computer to
``gtermserver`` running on a management cmputer as follows::

     gtermhost --server_addr=<serveraddr> <hostname>

where ``serveraddr`` is the address or name of the computer where
``gtermserver`` is running (which defaults to localhost).
By default, the server listens for host
connections on port 8899. You can use SSH tunneling to
access ``gtermserver`` on the management computer, and thus access the
hosts, which should be on a secure private network.

NOTE: Unlike the ``sshd`` server, the ``gtermhost`` command is designed to
be run by a normal user, not a privileged user. So different users can
connect to ``gtermserver`` pretending to be different "hosts"
on the same computer. 

Wildcard sessions
======================================================================================

A session path is of the form ``session_host/session_name``. You can
use the shell wildcard patterns ``*, ?, []`` in the session path. For
example, you can open a wildcard session for multiple hosts using the URL::

      http://localhost:8900/*/tty1

For normal shell terminals, a wildcard session will open a "blank" window,
but any input you type in it will be broadcast to all sessions
matching the pattern. To receive visual feedback,
you will need to view one or more of the matching sessions at the
same time. You can use the ``gframe`` command to open up a group of
terminals simultaneously, e.g.::

    gframe --height 300 --lheight 50 -c 4 -b -t -p /local/tty a b c d '[abcd]'


For ``otrace`` debugging sessions of the form ``*/osh``, GraphTerm
will multiplex the input and output in wildcard terminals. Your input
will be echoed and broadcast, and output from each of the matching
sessions will be displayed, preceded by an identifying header
(with the special string ``ditto`` used to indicate repeated output).
See the *otrace* integration section in the
`README <http://code.mindmeldr.com/graphterm/README.html>`_
file for more information.

NOTE: Multiplexed input/output display cannot be easily implemented for
regular shell terminals.
