Mosh, which means Mobile shell is a command-line application used to connect to a server from a client computer over the Internet. It can be used SSH and includes more features than Protected shell.
It is a similar application to SSH, but with additional features. The application was originally written by Keith Winstein For a Unix-like operating system and released under the GNU GPL v3.
Mosh facilities and services
- It is a remote decision application that supports roaming.
- Available for all major UNIX-type operating systems, including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Android.
- Ad hoc connection supported.
- Provides smart local echo.
- Supported user keyboard line editing.
- Responsive design and sustainable nature via Wi-Fi, mobile and remote connections.
- Stay connected even if the IP changes. It uses UDP instead of TCP (used by SSH). TCP timeout when the connection is reset or a new IP is assigned, but UDP keeps the connection open.
- The connection remains intact when you resume the session after a long time.
- No network delay. Displays user-entered key and deletions immediately without network delay.
- Same old way to log in as in SSH.
- Mechanism for handling packet loss.
Installing Mosh Shell on Linux
On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint on similar systems, you can install Mosh package using the apt-get package manager, as shown.
# apt-get update # apt-get install mosh
On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora distribution, you must turn on the third-party archive named EPEL, so you can install this archive using the mosh-yum package manager as shown.
# yum update # yum install mosh
On Fedora 22+ version, you need to use the dnf package manager to install mosh as shown.
# dnf install mosh
It can be installed on other Linux distributions as shown.
# pacman -S mosh [On Arch/Manjaro Linux] $ sudo zypper in mosh [On OpenSuse] # emerge net-misc/mosh [On Gentoo]
How do I use Mosh Shell?
1. Trying to log in to a remote Linux server with a mosh shell.
$ mosh [email protected]
Entry: Did you see that I got an error connecting because the port was not open on the remote control CentOS 7 box. The quick but not recommended solution was:
# systemctl stop firewalld [on Remote Server]
The primary way is to open the port and update the firewall rules. And then connect to the mosh on a predefined port. For more information about the firewall, see this message.
- Configuring the firewall in CentOS, RHEL, and Fedora
2. Assume that the default SSH port 22 was changed to port 70, in this case you can specify a custom port ‘-p‘switch mosh.
$ mosh -p 70 [email protected]
3. Check the version of the installed Mosh version.
$ mosh --version
4. You can close the mosh session type ‘exit‘prompt.
$ exit
5. Mosh supports many options you may see:
$ mosh --help
Cons of Mosh Shell
- Mosh requires additional conditions, such as allowing a direct connection over UDP, which SSH did not require.
- Dynamic port allocation in the area 60000-61000. The first open fort is reserved. It requires one port per connection.
- Default port reservation is a serious concern, especially in production.
- IPv6 connections are supported, but roaming with IPv6 is not supported.
- Scrolling is not supported.
- X11 forwarding is not supported.
- No support for ssh agent forwarding.
Conclusion
Mosh is a nice little utility that can be downloaded from the archive of most Linux distributions. While it has a few inconsistencies, specifically related to security and additional requirements, its features include staying connected while roaming. I recommend that every Linux user working on SSH should try this application and keep it in mind, Mosh is worth a try.
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