App-BCVI This distribution provides the 'bcvi' utility which works with SSH to provide a 'back channel' from the SSH server back to your workstation. Messages sent over the back channel can initiate a number of tasks including invoking a GUI editor on your workstation and instructing it to open a file on the server. A number of back channel commands are available 'out of the box' and you can write plugins to add more. INSTALLATION The 'bcvi' program is a standalone script with no companion modules and no non-core dependencies. To install it, simply copy the bin/bcvi file from the distribution to a directory in your search PATH. Alternatively, you can use the standard CPAN installation procedure to install the script to /usr/local/bin: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install The backchannel protocol requires a client and a server - the 'bcvi' script performs both roles. The server runs on your workstation and is typically launched by adding this command to your X session startup: bcvi --listener When connecting to a server you will want to use this command to wrap the SSH command and add the required port forwarding options: bcvi --wrap-ssh -- hostname It is probably more convenient to set up an alias so that this happens on every SSH connection. Use this command to add the appropriate aliases to your bash startup scripts: bcvi --add-aliases Now that you have the server set up and ssh connection wrapping in place, you need to install 'bcvi' on the machine you will ssh to: bcvi --install HOSTNAME Now that the installation is complete, when you log in to the machine using SSH, a number of shell aliases will be available to you: vi Invokes gvim on your workstation, passing it an scp://... URL of the file(s) you wish to edit suvi Same as above, but uses sudoedit so system files (requiring root access) can be edited too bcp Copies the named file back to your workstation desktop SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION The 'bcvi' command has built-in documentation which you can read with: bcvi --help To find out more about writing and installing plugins, use perldoc: perldoc App::BCVI You can also look for information at: RT, CPAN's request tracker http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=App-BCVI AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation http://annocpan.org/dist/App-BCVI CPAN Ratings http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/App-BCVI Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-BCVI COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE Copyright (C) 2007-2010 Grant McLean This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.