rex

Rex is a tool for Linux machines to remotely execute processes in a virtual environment using your local machine's file system.

Installation

$ npm install -g rex

Usage

$ rex --remote_host=user@hostname:port [--tunnel_port=7265] "--command=ls -l /"

Setup

Rex uses SSH for it's communication between machines; each machine must be able to access eachother via public/private keys in order to function.

Remote config

The remote machine will need to have an account you can authorize as, and it will also need to be able to authorize back to your account/machine in order to perform file i/o.

If an account already exists on the remote machine that you'd like to use, please skip ahead. However, if you don't, then you'll need to create one:

$ useradd remote_rex_user

Next, switch to the new user and generate a pair of keys for authentication like so:

$ sudo -u remote_rex_user -s
$ ssh-keygen

Now, copy the new public key back to your original machine so that rex can connect back without a password:

$ ssh-copy-id youraccount@yourmachine

Finally, since rex needs to run with elevated privileges in order to setup the virtual environment, you'll need to add this new user to your sudoers list:

$ echo remote_rex_user ALL=PASSWD: ALL, NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/rex >> /etc/sudoers

Local config

To configure your account on your local machine, you'll need to also generate a pair of keys:

$ ssh-keygen

And then, you need to copy your public key to the remote user you created on the remote machine so rex can connect without a password:

$ ssh-copy-id remote_rex_user@remotemachine