SSH

An SSH tab is a terminal on a remote machine. The tab title shows the connection name, followed by the title the shell or program sets.

Connect to a server

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+T and choose SSH.
2. Type a target, for example pi@192.168.0.10. A port goes after a colon: pi@192.168.0.10:2222. You can also paste ssh://… or ssh user@host.
3. Click Connect directly: ….

The list also shows your saved SSH connections, the machines from Settings > Machines, and SSH tabs that are already open. Pick one of those instead of typing.

When you have proxies set up, Route at the bottom of the picker decides how a freshly typed target is reached. Saved connections keep their own route. See Routes.

Sign in

A typed target asks for the sign-in when it connects. The Sign in dialog shows User and Password:

• Save this connection with the sign-in stores the connection in the sidebar together with the password.
• On a saved connection the box reads Remember the sign-in.

Nothing is stored until the server has accepted the sign-in. If the server turns it down, the dialog comes back with the reason on top.

Use a key, the ssh-agent or a stored password

Keys and the agent are set on a saved connection. Right-click it in the sidebar and choose Edit…. Under Authentication, pick one of:

• Ask every time - the sign-in dialog on every connect.
• Password - stored with the connection.
• ssh-agent - the keys loaded into your running agent.
• Private key - click Choose a key file…. The key is stored with the connection. Enter Key passphrase (if there is one).

If the ssh-agent is not running, the tab says so and what to do. On Windows the agent service is disabled by default; start it as administrator, then load your key with ssh-add. On Linux and macOS, SSH_AUTH_SOCK must point to a running agent.

Route in the same dialog sets how this connection travels.

Confirm the server's key

The first time you reach a server, Vandle shows Unknown server with the key type and the Fingerprint. Check the fingerprint through a second channel, for example on the server itself with ssh-keygen -lf /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub. Then choose:

• Always trust - remember the key.
• Trust just this once - connect now, ask again next time.
• Cancel - do not connect.

If a known server shows a different key, the dialog reads Host key has changed and shows the old fingerprint as well. Cancel is the highlighted choice. Replace the old key only if you know why the key changed, for example after a reinstall.

Keys are remembered per route: the same host reached through a different proxy is confirmed separately.

Copy, paste and select

• Selecting text with the mouse copies it at once.
• A right click pastes.
• A middle click pastes too. On Linux it pastes the primary selection, as other X terminals do.
• Dropping files from your file manager onto the terminal types their paths, quoted.

The keys:

• Copy: Ctrl+Shift+C, Ctrl+C with a selection, or Ctrl+Insert
• Paste: Ctrl+Shift+V, Ctrl+V, or Shift+Insert
• Select all: Ctrl+Shift+A

Other Ctrl+letter keys go to the program in the terminal. Vandle's window-wide shortcuts use Ctrl+Shift.

Find in the output

Press Ctrl+Shift+F. A box opens at the top right and searches the screen and the scrollback while you type. It shows the match count.

• Enter - next match
• Shift+Enter - previous match
• Esc - close

Make the text larger or smaller

• Ctrl+Plus - larger
• Ctrl+Minus - smaller
• Ctrl+0 - back to the size from the settings

The zoom applies to this tab only.

Forward a port

Press Ctrl+Shift+P, or click the arrow button in the header while the tab is connected. The Port forwards dialog opens.

1. Pick a Direction:
   • Local - your computer listens and forwards through the server. 8080:internal.host:80 makes 127.0.0.1:8080 on your computer reach internal.host:80 as the server sees it.
   • Remote - the server listens and forwards back to your side (a remote forward). 8080:internal.host:80 makes port 8080 on the server reach internal.host:80 as your computer sees it.
   • SOCKS - a SOCKS proxy on your computer, for example 1080.
2. Type the forward. To listen on another address than 127.0.0.1, put it in front: 0.0.0.0:8080:internal.host:80.
3. Click Start or press Enter.

Each running forward is listed with the address it listens on. The close button next to it (Stop the forward) stops it. The header button shows how many forwards run.

Forwards run as long as the session does, and end with it.

Open the files on this host

Press Ctrl+Shift+E in a connected SSH tab. A new SFTP tab opens on the same host, with the same user, sign-in and route.

Reconnect

When the connection drops, the tab shows Connection failed and the reason, for example "The connection was interrupted." Click Connect, or press Ctrl+Shift+R. Vandle opens a fresh session in the same place, in the sidebar and in any layout.

Keep the shell running with tmux

In Edit… for a saved connection, tick Start in tmux, ready to hand over. The tab then attaches to a tmux session on the server and starts it if it is not running.

• Reconnecting attaches to the same tmux session, so programs that kept running on the server are still there.
• A colleague who gets the tab through a handover (Ctrl+Shift+H) attaches to the same shell.
• Duplicating the tab (Ctrl+Shift+D) gives the copy a tmux session of its own.

If tmux is not installed on the server, the tab says so and runs a plain shell.

Terminal settings

Open the settings with Ctrl+Shift+, and go to Defaults > Terminal:

• Font size - takes effect at once, even in running sessions.
• Scrollback - how many lines of scrollback are kept.

These apply to SSH tabs and local consoles alike.

All keys on this page are defaults. You can change them in Settings > Hotkeys; the copy and paste keys are fixed. See Keyboard.