Hi guys. I have tried Putty SSH client, and found that editing files over SSH with NVDA was a miserable experience. Is there a better way to do this?
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The Best Means of Editing Config Files via SSH on Windows?
AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → The Best Means of Editing Config Files via SSH on Windows?
Posts: 17
#2 2014-10-01 18:09:48 (edited by camlorn 2014-10-01 18:10:15)
yes. Use an sftp client. I personally like WinSCP.
You can log on as root via it if you really want. While I don't recommend this from a security perspective, I must admit that I do it; logging on as root lets you edit everything. It takes a bit of configuration to use your favorite editor, and it doesn't understand file types (maybe others do), but it is accessible enough.
Doing text editing via command line is always painful. There might be a line editor for Linux, but I'm not aware of it. In truth, line editors would be pretty hard anyway.
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#3 2014-10-01 23:21:02
Hi,
I personally recommend FileZilla. It can login to FTP and SFTP servers, and can login using public/private key auathentication using pageant (PuTTY agent).
I use the Windows port of OpenSSH to edit config files as well, using a line editor simply called "ed".
#4 2014-10-02 04:33:54
Hi,
I personally recommend..guess it..nano. It basically works like your standard notepad-if you're using puTTY that is-and it's accessible enough. Edit it, then press ctrl x, y, enter to save. Easier to log on as root to edit a file (which is risky anyhow), and you can't use sudo in ftp.
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#5 2014-10-02 16:20:20
yeah, but Nano and all the other text editors do not play nice via SSH and screen readers. At all. Are you on windows? If so, I'm assuming you're using Jaws, which possibly plays a bit nicer. But not nicely, just nicer.
As for ed, yes. Ed exists. But when you need to change just one small bit of a line, no. Since this is what you're doing a lot of times with config files, it's not worth it. Just use the SFPT client of your choice and use your favorite windows editor with it. That rumbling? Don't mind it, just the learning cliff collapsing.
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#6 2014-10-02 16:49:02
camlorn is right.
Remember though, that you need to watch out for formatting when editting with wordpad or notepad. I personally use EditPad light 7, to easily save with unix format.
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#7 2014-10-02 20:58:20
I really don't mind using Ed. Maybe if I have to make a lot of changes, or if I'm feeling lazy, I'll use FileZilla and Ted Notepad/Notepad++ to make changes, but usually I use Ed. I'm using NVDA, by the way.
#8 2014-10-02 23:58:02
Ed doesn't have the problems because it's a line-based editor. But almost no one knows ed anymore. Fine if you already know it, maybe.
Also, I believe that at least some SFTP clients can automatically convert newlines for you. I'm aware of the issue, but this isn't something Ive ever had to fix. If you do, there are command-line programs that can fix a windows-formatted file.
By the time I had gotten to the Linux server, I had already realized that half the open-source software in the world is in the Unix line format, and adjusted accordingly.
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#9 2014-10-03 04:04:23 (edited by stewie 2014-10-03 04:04:51)
If you need to edit a file quickly, the nano editor does work with NVDA. This can be a somewhat painful process, but any quick editing should be relatively simple. The left and right arrows move letter by letter, the up and down arrows move line by line as expected. You can not jump to words however.
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#10 2014-10-03 14:57:18 (edited by Victorious 2014-10-03 14:57:48)
I was struggling with this problem for a long time, as I had to programme with vim over SSH for school. The best solution that I found was using Jaws, Secure CRT and the Secure CRT scripts for jaws at http://chrisnestrud.com/projects/jfw/scrt
It works remarkably well, and I'm able to use it to work fairly productively.
#11 2014-10-03 21:46:31
I always have had problems to edit files over SSH, even in nano, the simplest text editor you can find. With any SSH client, any screen reader, it's always the same problem and I never found a solution: the cursor doesn't follow correctly as you are moving and it becomes quickly a pain to navigate in the file and make the changes you want.
For me too, at the moment, the simplest I have found is by using an SFTP client. I can recommand WinSCP. It has a very useful feature: you can press enter on a file in the list, it opens in notepad or any other editor you might configure, and changes are automatically uploaded again when you save.
The only problem of this solution is that there is no sudo in SFTP. It means that wheither you always login as root and it's bad from a security point of view, or you don't login at root but have to copy back and forth temporary files in your home folder using a second SSH connection.
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#12 2014-10-03 23:04:47
Just a thought, but have you considered simply running a Linux VM on Windows? I know, overkill just for the text editor, but it does solve your problems. Linux already uses correct formats, it's easier to test your changes, and you can have the best speech and/or braille support there is for console access.
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#13 2014-10-04 04:00:42
Best speech is debatable, given just how poor the Linux speech situation is. I love Espeak and I think it's horrid.
Also, this is a solveable problem, but trades for another. It's possible that the Linux speech rates are too low to show it or maybe someone implemented predictive algorithms on Linux or I don't know. You can make the screen reader do it "right". But you have to make the screen reader very, very sensitive to network lag. For those of us who use high speech rates, such solutions will still fail.
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#14 2014-10-04 05:59:13
@Aminiel: network lag is an issue. The scripts along with secure crt does enable the cursor to track properly.
#15 2014-10-04 18:51:18
@camlorn, I'm talking about the screen reader, rather than the synth, just in case there was any misunderstanding about that. Orca, speakup, YASR, BRLTTY all provide very acceptable speech output, for my uses anyway. Not brill, but better than Windows+OpenSSH in the console nless you're using JFW or Supernova.
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#16 2014-10-05 00:06:18
And it cuts my speech rate by more than half. Someone did a patch, but I don't have a link nor have I tried to set it up. And there's the wonderful, wonderful world of VM audio and linux web browsing and the fact that suddenly I'm entering/leaving a VM all the time. Not to mention that some things that should work don't always: file sharing comes to mind, and I'm not sure I even dare try the clipboard after my adventures with file sharing.
Or, I just log in as root. This is not the best thing ever in terms of security. When it becomes a truly bad idea, I'll copy files to not-root locations with scripts or something and then move them back. I don't consider the learning curves worth it, especially since literally the only reason I can come up with to learn Linux AT is editing stuff that's not on my local box.
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#17 2014-10-06 16:39:57
Fair enough, if it works for you. Personally I can't imagine console support without BRLTTY; that has the bestest most kick-arse braille support there is. But each to his own.
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