Re: X displays over ssh connections

[Steve Borho <steve borho myip org>]

On Tue, Aug 31, 1999 at 09:32:58AM -0400, Pieckiel, Kevin A wrote:
> We just recently added ssh to our network and disabled telnet access to
> our Linux computers.  Now we want to be able to flip X displays over a
> secure connection using ssh, but I don't have a clue how to go about it.
> I don't know much about how X works and know nothing about how it
> communicates over the network (I much prefer the text console), so any
> help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Here's how it normally works:  When you connect to another machine using
ssh, it sets the DISPLAY environment variable to point to a "virtual" X
server which the remote host's sshd sets up for you.  When you run X apps
on this remote host, they connect to this virtual server and run normally.
sshd takes all this X traffic and encrypts/compresses it then sends it to
your local machine and routes it to your local X server.  It all works
pretty transparently.  Here's a sample session:

ix% ssh sagan
steve sagan's password: 
Last login: Mon Aug 30 11:38:29 1999 from host.emergingtech.org
No mail.
sagan% echo $DISPLAY 
sagan.borho.net:11.0
sagan% xterm&          # This causes xterm to show up on local screen
sagan% 

-- 
Steve Borho