autossh

autossh - Automatically restart SSH sessions and tunnels

Update: version 1.4b fixes a bug in polling, adds a max lifetime option and a compile-time option to touch the pid file on each connection test.

Previous update: version 1.4a fixed a some Makefile bugs and an bug when creating a pid file.

Previous update: version 1.4 fixed a few bugs, added options to have autossh create a pid file and send a small custom message to the remote echo service, and gave autossh basic autoconf support.

FEATURES

• autossh is a program to start a copy of ssh and monitor it, restarting it as necessary should it die or stop passing traffic. The idea is from rstunnel (Reliable SSH Tunnel), but implemented in C.
• The author's view is that it is not as fiddly as rstunnel to get to work.
• Connection monitoring using a loop of port forwardings or a remote echo service.
• Backs off on rate of connection attempts when experiencing rapid failures such as connection refused.
• Compiled and tested on OpenBSD, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Cygwin, and AIX; should work on other BSDs.
• Freeware.

FUN

• Use with "screen" for perpetual session (see included script "rscreen").

DEFICIENCIES

• Bugs still not found.

BUILD

If you use OpenBSD or FreeBSD, autossh is available in the ports tree, and as a package that can be FTP'd down. Cygwin and some Linux distros also have it available as a package.

To build from source:

• download autossh-1.4b.tgz (md5/sha1/rmd160)
• gunzip -c autossh-1.4b.tgz | tar xvf -
• cd autossh-1.4b
• ./configure
• make
• copy binary to where you wish it, or "make install" will install it under /usr/local by default.
• examine autossh.host for example wrapper script and options

USE

• Read README for documentation.
• Or once installed, read the man page.

Go there...
http://www.harding.motd.ca/autossh/

Don