ControlMaster is not supported on Windows - find a workaround or document it

[roblourens]

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/troubleshooting#_enabling-alternate-ssh-authentication-methods

This feature is not supported on Windows. I don't think there's really a way around it, so we should indicate this in the docs.

[lars18th]

Hi,

And any other option for sharing SSH connections?

[roblourens]

Not that I'm aware of.

[davidwin]

While I think that ssh for Windows should be able to support ControlMaster with UNIX domain sockets being available for Windows 10 and all, it would be great if the extension could "trampoline" through ssh for WSL (which does support connection sharing). I do that a lot for e.g. Tasks and launching gdb. It could be as simple as a setting that allowed you to customize the ssh command, so one could specify wsl.exe ssh instead.

I suppose I could add a ssh.cmd script in the path that just calls the WSL version as well.

[lars18th]

Hi @davidwin ,

I don't like to idea of leave the support of ControlMaster in WSL because:

• This is restricted to last versions of Windows 10.
• This doesn't work if you don't have WSL installed.

Please don't get me wrong. I love WSL, but I use other Windows versions without WSL.

[davidwin]

Well, it's a workaround. I think the possibility of specifying the ssh path (including any extra arguments) is generally useful though, whether it's used to get ControlMaster support before anyone implements it natively for all Windows versions or not.

[lars18th]

Well, it's a workaround.

I agree, yes it is! 😉

[oxo42]

How can I tell vscode to use my ssh.cmd file that actually calls WSL in the background?

My organisation uses 2fac for SSH login so I can't use this extension on my Windows laptop

[roblourens]

My organisation uses 2fac for SSH login so I can't use this extension on my Windows laptop

It should work with 2fa as long as you set remote.SSH.showLoginTerminal

[mwt]

Is there any other way to solve the issue of connecting to systems that dynamically assign machines per connection? I cannot use ControlMaster as suggested because of this issue. The help file at that link seems to imply that there are other solutions to the problem.

I'm connecting to a compute cluster which dynamically assigns logins to different nodes.

[roblourens]

You can hardcode an IP address of a specific machine that you want, that's the only other workaround I can think of unfortunately.

[joshgraymd]

Was remoting into a high-performance research cluster experiencing the same problem as @MattWThomas. Hardcoding one of the login node IPs worked for me!

[AceFire2014]

OK, thanks a lot! Sincerely, Andy

…

On Thu, 4 Jul 2019 at 03:26, Josh Gray ***@***.***> wrote: Was remoting into a high-performance research cluster experiencing the same problem as @MattWThomas <https://github.com/MattWThomas>. Hardcoding one of the login node IPs worked for me! — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#96?email_source=notifications&email_token=ACKD4BVQTGKTRR2LFO5BUA3P5T4MXA5CNFSM4HKXBJP2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGODZFOOWI#issuecomment-508225369>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACKD4BR5KVJMLBZMIWYWN3DP5T4MXANCNFSM4HKXBJPQ> .

[roblourens]

Investigated this during July. We could run a server on the client to manage a connection to the host which will be shared by all windows. That way, opening a new window on the same host will not require any password entry.

[wmertens]

the limitation is purely software, right? How about using the ssh2 npm package as a secondary connection option? I know you switched to the real client because of some missing authentication features, but apparently the missing features go both ways…

[roblourens]

ssh2 doesn't solve this problem, we would still require a password entry per window. Reopening this because I'm still actively working on it, and it's on the iteration plan.

[roblourens]

I am calling this "experimental" but now you can try it by setting "remote.SSH.useLocalServer": true.