Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

Bring your dotfiles to a remote machine via SSH without mess. Required dependencies: POSIX shell , ssh , tar , base64 , mktemp curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FOBshippingpoint/shittp/refs/heads/main/install.sh --output install.sh chmod +x install.sh ./install.sh Edit your dotfiles in ~/.config/shittp cd ~/.config/shittp echo 'aloha() { echo hello; }' >> .profile $EDITOR .vimrc $EDITOR .tmux.conf Login to remote host with SSH: shittp john@other.machine john$ aloha # output: hello john$ vim # alias equal to "vim -u $SHITTP_HOME/.vimrc" john$ tmux # alias equal to "tmux -L shittp -f $SHITTP_HOME/.tmux.conf" Or Docker container: docker run -it alpine /bin/sh -c "$(shittp print)" $ aloha # output: hello Pack: create a tarball of your dotfiles and pipes to base64 string. Transport: passing the base64 string and setup script as a SSH remote command. Unpack: on the remote, decodes base64 string and extracts to temp directory. Init: sources setup script and start an interactive shell. Cleanup: remove temp directory once disconnect. The original idea comes from kyrat , which uses gzip / gunzip and bash . shittp uses tar and POSIX shell. shittp [options]... [command] [ssh_options]... destination [-- ssh_command] Option Description Default -h , --help Show help message. --config-dir DIR Specify config directory. ~/.config/shittp --client CLIENT Specify SSH client command (e.g., dbclient ). ssh -v , --version Print shittp version. Command Description where Show the default config directory path. print Output the command string instead of running SSH. Useful for loading dotfiles in environments like Docker. Basic SSH Login shittp john@example.com Pass SSH options as is shittp -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no john@example.com Execute Remote Function shittp john@example.com -- foo bar shittp -oRemoteCommand='foo bar' john@example.com Docker Integration docker run -it alpine /bin/sh -c "$(shittp print)" Dropbear Client shittp --client dbclient john@example.com Variable Scope Description Default SHITTP_CONFIG_DIR Local Directory where your dotfiles live. ~/.config/shittp SHITTP_SSH_CLIENT Local SSH client path (overridden by --client ). ssh SHITTP_SHELL Local/Remote Shell path to use on the remote. Remote login shell SHITTP_HOME Local/Remote Directory to extract dotfiles tarball into. Created temp directory SHITTP Remote Path to shittp_init.sh . Source this if [shittp] Inited does not appear. SHITTP_INITED Remote Set to 1 if shittp initialized successfully. Large cofig may fail to load due to the OS maximum argument length constraint ( ARG_MAX ). It is known that 100K file will trigger the error on Alpine Linux. Command like tar czf - | ssh host tar xzf - should work, however this requires 2-stage SSH connection which means user need to type passphrase twice. Required dependencies: shellcheck, shellspec, docker Specify a command. The choices are: help Show this help lint Run shellcheck unit Run unit test with shellspec integration Run integration test script webdev Start web server for home page build Run all check (lint, unit, integration) and build tarball clean Remove shittp tarball from the build step

Preview: ~457 words