Pull gui emacs across an ssh connection

Pull gui emacs across an ssh connection

[Harry Putnam]

I know this subject has come up many times but I'm getting confused by
the google hits more than helped.

For yrs I've connected to remote machines and ran the on host emacs
via ssh connection.  Sometime connecting with with emacs to the remote
host with tramp.  But I've never really tried to make the remote emacs
run in gui form on the local display..  Just using emacs as -nw when
using ssh.

I'm running gentoo linux on a home lan with opensolaris and windows
hosts present.  What variables need to be in place to run the emacs
installed on the remote... and make it appear in gui format on my
local desktop. (I'm not taking about involving windows machines in
this) 

I know about permitting X in ssh_config and sshd_config  or even with
the ssh cmdline -X but as I recall other things need to be adjusted
too.

And too, is it even worthwhile doing, like is it annoyingly slow or
something?  I have gigabit lan in most cases and 10/100 is the slowed
that might come up.  And it is a very low usage lan.

Can someone walk me through that kind of connection?

Re: Pull gui emacs across an ssh connection

[Barry Margolin]

In article <mailman.5098.1239401875.31690.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
 Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:

> I know this subject has come up many times but I'm getting confused by
> the google hits more than helped.
> 
> For yrs I've connected to remote machines and ran the on host emacs
> via ssh connection.  Sometime connecting with with emacs to the remote
> host with tramp.  But I've never really tried to make the remote emacs
> run in gui form on the local display..  Just using emacs as -nw when
> using ssh.
> 
> I'm running gentoo linux on a home lan with opensolaris and windows
> hosts present.  What variables need to be in place to run the emacs
> installed on the remote... and make it appear in gui format on my
> local desktop. (I'm not taking about involving windows machines in
> this) 
> 
> I know about permitting X in ssh_config and sshd_config  or even with
> the ssh cmdline -X but as I recall other things need to be adjusted
> too.

As long as $DISPLAY is set in the window where you run ssh, you 
shouldn't need to do anything else.

> And too, is it even worthwhile doing, like is it annoyingly slow or
> something?  I have gigabit lan in most cases and 10/100 is the slowed
> that might come up.  And it is a very low usage lan.

I did it many years ago on 10 Mbps LANs.  It should be perfectly fine on 
modern 100 meg and gigabit LANs.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

Re: Pull gui emacs across an ssh connection

[Tim X]

Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> In article <mailman.5098.1239401875.31690.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
>  Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>
>> I know this subject has come up many times but I'm getting confused by
>> the google hits more than helped.
>> 
>> For yrs I've connected to remote machines and ran the on host emacs
>> via ssh connection.  Sometime connecting with with emacs to the remote
>> host with tramp.  But I've never really tried to make the remote emacs
>> run in gui form on the local display..  Just using emacs as -nw when
>> using ssh.
>> 
>> I'm running gentoo linux on a home lan with opensolaris and windows
>> hosts present.  What variables need to be in place to run the emacs
>> installed on the remote... and make it appear in gui format on my
>> local desktop. (I'm not taking about involving windows machines in
>> this) 
>> 
>> I know about permitting X in ssh_config and sshd_config  or even with
>> the ssh cmdline -X but as I recall other things need to be adjusted
>> too.
>
> As long as $DISPLAY is set in the window where you run ssh, you 
> shouldn't need to do anything else.
>
>> And too, is it even worthwhile doing, like is it annoyingly slow or
>> something?  I have gigabit lan in most cases and 10/100 is the slowed
>> that might come up.  And it is a very low usage lan.
>
> I did it many years ago on 10 Mbps LANs.  It should be perfectly fine on 
> modern 100 meg and gigabit LANs.

Just adding to what BM wrote. If your connecting to the remote machine
via ssh, you can ensure ssh is configured to allow X11 forwarding. This
will ensure that a correct X display variable is setup so that when you
run a remote X program, its display is sent (forwarded) back to your
local display. Check the ssh manual for more details. 

If your on  a local LAN, the speed should be fine. I use to do this over
a dial-up modem using an X protocol compression system (which use to
require a separate package, but I think X now comes with some support
for running a verson of the protocol that does differential
compression). However, you shouldn't require this on a local LAN as even
10Mbs should be quite sufficient and you more than likely have 100 or
better!

Tim





-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au