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Mosh — Mobile Shell (Remote Terminal)

Properties2
descriptionRemote terminal application that allows roaming, supports intermittent connectivity, and provides intelligent local echo. SSH replacement by MIT. Available for Linux, macOS, BSD, Android, iOS.
tagsmosh, shell, ssh, terminal, remote-access, networking

2 min read

Mosh: the Mobile Shell

Website: mosh.org GitHub: keithw/mosh License: GPLv2+ Author: Keith Winstein (MIT)

Remote terminal application that allows roaming, supports intermittent connectivity, and provides intelligent local echo and line editing.

Mosh is a replacement for interactive SSH terminals. More robust and responsive, especially over Wi-Fi, cellular, and long-distance links.

Key Features

  • Change IP. Stay connected. — Mosh automatically roams as you move between Internet connections (Wi-Fi → Ethernet → LTE). Most network programs lose connections after roaming, including SSH. Mosh is different.
  • Makes for sweet dreams — Put your laptop to sleep and wake it up later with your connection intact. If connection drops, Mosh warns you but resumes when network service returns.
  • Get rid of network lag — SSH waits for server reply before showing your typing. Mosh gives instant response to typing, deleting, and line editing — adaptively, even in full-screen programs (emacs, vim). Outstanding predictions are underlined so you won’t be misled.
  • No privileged code. No daemon. — No root/superuser needed to install or run. Client and server are ordinary user executables that last only for the life of the connection.
  • Same login method — Mosh doesn’t listen on network ports or authenticate users. Client logs in via SSH with the same credentials (password, public key). Then Mosh runs mosh-server remotely and connects over UDP.
  • Runs inside your terminal — Works with xterm, gnome-terminal, urxvt, Terminal.app, iTerm, emacs, screen, tmux. Supports UTF-8, fixes Unicode bugs in other terminals and SSH.
  • Control-C works great — UDP-based protocol handles packet loss gracefully. Doesn’t fill network buffers, so Ctrl+C always works to halt a runaway process.

Available Platforms

  • GNU/Linux
  • BSD
  • macOS
  • Solaris
  • Android
  • Chrome
  • iOS

Getting It

# macOS
brew install mosh
 
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install mosh
 
# Fedora
sudo dnf install mosh
 
# Arch
sudo pacman -S mosh

Usage

# Connect to a server
mosh user@server.com
 
# With custom SSH port
mosh --ssh="ssh -p 2222" user@server.com

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