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Show HN: Blink Shell for iOS, an Open-Source, Mosh and SSH Terminal for Pros
- JoshTriplett 10y agoI'm extremely impressed by this. If you ever decide to build an Android version, sign me up.
- fredrikfornwall 10y agoNote that you can use mosh on Android using Termux (https://termux.com https://termux.com) - run 'apt update && apt install mosh' to install the mosh package.
- eridius 10y agoI thought GPL was incompatible with the App Store? Wasn't VLC famously pulled from the App Store over a complaint about this? I know VLC eventually got back on, but I'm having trouble finding any info about how they resolved the problem.
- carloscabanero 10y agoMosh and technologies involved actually have an iOS exception that makes it compatible as long as the resulting project is GPL'd too. In the case of VLC they had to relicense, so a process very similar to this one.
- eridius 10y agoDoes Mosh itself not depend on any other GPL'd code?
- carloscabanero 10y agoOther libraries are system libraries and BSD licensed like protobuf.
- goerz 10y agoSo that means Blink is actually dual-license? I was actually a little bit confused about how Blink makes the GPL App-store compatible. It would be interesting to see a blog post or some extended discussion on the website about the licensing issue, both to assure users that Blink is "safe" from being kicked out of the store, and to give some discussion on how GPL can actually make it into the App store. It would certainly be nice to have more iOS software follow Blink's example.
- maxgashkov 10y agoCould you consider adding config sync via iCloud/Dropbox? It's quite a pain to sync host lists across several iOS devices.
- carloscabanero 10y agoThis is coming :) https://github.com/blinksh/blink/issues/141 https://github.com/blinksh/blink/issues/141
- adolph 10y agoDoes Blink have high function key numbers like F-17? The lack in Prompt forces some ungraceful exits for Epic Cache admins. Also, does it have a method of emulating the non-numeric characters generated by the numeric keypad of a big old keyboard?
- carloscabanero 10y agoI can definitely increase the number of F keys either on the on-screen keyboard and the F keys mapping. Blink also supports Cursor keys and remap of those (by default Cmd + Arrow). My plan is to have some kind of "special keys maps", like iTerm does, to emulate any other key through defined combinations. That I guess should cover the rest of the special keys you might need.
- nfoz 10y agoI'm a bit annoyed by the name "Blink Shell" because I think this is a Terminal Emulator and not a shell? But maybe I'm wrong? But maybe I'm just being too restrictive in what I mean by the term "shell", which has multiple uses (e.g. "Desktop shell")..... so I guess the command-line shell is a program that one runs in a UI shell, the latter of which might be a terminal / terminal-emulator?
- shakna 10y agoIf you want to go down this track, it runs mosh, which is a shell, in the same way as Secure SHell.
- matt-attack 10y agoWould be great if it used the swipe up/down/left/right to do arrow keys. Super handy feature in a competing terminal/ash iOS client. Swipe up for quick access to history, and swipe left/right for quickly moving your cursor around.
- carloscabanero 10y agoThanks for the idea, I tried it out but always end up long passing what I'm looking for due to inertia. I would like something smarter like iTerm with the cursor though.
- matt-attack 10y agoServauditor's use of it is super usable. No interia at all. A swipe gives one click. It's so fast and pleasant to use. If only Serverauditor didn't fail at typing ctrl-j I'd be using it...
- carloscabanero 10y agoI couldn't really figure out how to scroll on SA. And that font...
- matt4077 10y agoUnlike other ssh terminals that mostly serve the amateur ssh market?
- rcarmo 10y agoBought it even though it apparently has no agent forwarding (also, see my other comment here about 1Password and mouse - yes, mouse! - support). Pretty good, refresh seems faster than Prompt, especially when using htop and tmux on the LAN (something that always bugged me about Prompt). Hope it gets Citrix X1 mouse support, and there's something else I'd love to see that doesn't require buying exotic hardware to test - external display support. Yes, you can render independent displays on an iOS device. Being able to have two terminals open or a terminal and a browser on independent displays would be (even more of) a killer app.
- carloscabanero 10y agoThanks for giving it a try and please check this out! https://mobile.twitter.com/dcab/status/789838892753117186 https://mobile.twitter.com/dcab/status/789838892753117186 It was done by one of our collaborators (advantages of open source), and it allows for multiple terminals just as you mention :) Having a browser within the app has also been suggested, yo transform it in a nice dev tool instead of a terminal. We are still thinking what this could really be in the future,so any feedback and forward thinking is really appreciated!
- rcarmo 10y agoGreat, hope that makes it to the next update :) As to the web browser, I was just thinking of reading docs, but having an inspector (a la Firebug Lite) might be useful.
- carloscabanero 10y agoAlso, Agent Forwarding and ProxyCommand are definitely in the roadmap. The former was only recently added to Mosh, so hopefully useful on both!
- goerz 10y agoWhile I'm personally fine with the $20 price tag, it does seem a bit steep for more casual users (ignoring the fact that they can also get it for free if they compile it for themselves). I wonder if this might hinder adoption. On the other hand, I think the value that Blink provides is potentially so large that it might make sense to get revenue also from donations (one-time or recurring). Blink's value derives not just from the excellent design of the app, with highly accurate and fast rendering, or it's features (mosh, most importantly). To me, the way in which Blink really blows the competition (e.g. Prompt) out of the water its open source development process. As a beta tester, I have found Carlos to be highly responsive to feature requests and bug reports on Github. This gives me the feeling that as a user, I actually have influence over the features of Blink, unlike other software, where maybe I can beg Panic Inc via a tweet to implement port forwarding. I would be happy to donate something like $5/month to the continued and highly responsive development of Blink. I think true open source on iOS is so rare that we should make a point of proving that it can be commercially viable.
- VertexRed 10y agoWouldn't that require a jailbreak?
- goerz 10y agoSelf-compiling, you mean? I don't think so... just a copy of Xcode
- VertexRed 10y agoBut how will you install it on the phone? They only allow installs through App Store.
- goerz 10y agoI haven't tried this myself, but my understanding is that Xcode can install compiled apps directly onto your iOS device, without a jailbreak: http://osxdaily.com/2016/01/12/howto-sideload-apps-iphone-ipad-xcode/ http://osxdaily.com/2016/01/12/howto-sideload-apps-iphone-ip...
- rhinoceraptor 10y agoHow does it compare to Panic's Prompt?
- mackmgg 10y agoThe biggest thing I can see is mosh support, which is a nice addition if using over cellular. Prompt is great, but unfortunately can never support mosh due to licensing issues.
- carloscabanero 10y agoThree things: - Mosh & SSH support: In Prompt and any other iOS ssh client, connections break every 3 minutes. With Mosh that isn't a problem. - Full external keyboard support: Alt as Esc, Caps as Ctrl, you can have your terminal as you do in your desktop/laptop. - Speed and rendering: Blink uses Google's HTerm, so it is faster and you can add your own themes and fonts.
- mark_l_watson 10y agoLooks like a nice app. One correction through: I use Prompt a lot and have been for a long time. I don't have connections break when I use it. You might provide a video clip of a demo to help make a purchase decision.
- evilduck 10y agoThey meant if you close it and, say, want to read or follow along with a book in iBooks and not use split view, you have to multitask back to Prompt every 3 minutes or iOS will suspend the app, killing your SSH connection in the process. Since Prompt is closed source and on the App Store, they can't use mosh which solves this problem.
- mark_l_watson 10y agoThanks for clarifying that. I use it for 5 or 10 minutes, finish whatever I am doing, then logout.
- sirn 10y agoDoes it support Ed25519 keys? This is one of the things that Panic's Prompt still lack support of, and I really miss it :(
- carloscabanero 10y agoNot yet, but we are working on it. We use libssh2 and I'm working on a patch for that.
- sirn 10y agoCool, thanks. :-) I just bought the app and play with it for few minutes, here's some quick feedback: 1. Love the fact the interface is just a CLI! 2. But would be nice if content of `help` was shown by default. `blink>` wasn't very helpful ;-) 3. Ability to bind Caps Lock to "ESC on tap, Ctrl on Hold" would be really cool. Otherwise I really like what I'm seeing so far. Finally Mosh client on my iPad Pro! Edit: and 4, ability to bind Alt/Option key as Meta (rather than iOS' default special character input, e.g. Alt-x should send M-x)
- nileshk 10y agoRegarding Bluetooth/external keyboards: The last time I tried an iOS terminal app, iOS had limitations on many key combinations, such that I couldn't effectively use Emacs with normal mappings (or Bash with default Emacs-style keyboard shortcuts). Has Apple changed this and if so, does Blink or any other app work properly in this regard? I'm not concerned with changing modifier keys, just want standard Ctrl and Option as Meta like I do in macOS.
- carloscabanero 10y agoYou can do that on Blink, and it was one of the reasons why I started the project. Option as Meta and Cmd as Ctrl :)
- carloscabanero 10y agoThanks a lot for the feedback!! You can actually do number 3. On Config > Keyboard select Caps as Ctrl at the modifier section, and also toggle the Caps as ESC. That will give you Ctrl on hold, and ESC on tap. :)
- ehPReth 10y agoDoes it allow you to verify fingerprints? [Hopefully with the new & improved case-sensitive SHA256 format as well? :)]
- carloscabanero 10y agoIf I remember, fingerprint was verified using libssh2, but I do not think they do SHA256 yet. Tried to look in their documentation but didn't find it. Would be a great addition too.
- zejay 10y agoRight now it seems to show an SHA1 hash encoded in hex, which is very inconvenient because ssh-keygen displays either MD5 in hex or SHA256 in base64. It should at least tell the user what hash algo was used, I found that out by trial and error.
- geofft 10y agoHeh, I have the opposite problem with Prompt - none of my OpenSSH packages are new enough to use the new format, so I can't cross-reference with a known-good SHA-1 fingerprint. Turns out you can run cut -d' ' -f2 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub | base64 -d | openssl sha256 -binary | base64 but this requires actually being on the host (and isn't useful for servers where you don't get a shell).
- vesak 10y agoMarvellous! I tried an iPad Pro about half a year ago, but the lack of a good ssh/mosh client made me return it. Perhaps I'll need to check it out again -- especially the smaller Pro seems like it could be a fine choice now for a portable terminal. (I did try Panic back then -- I thought it was quite awkward)
- hellofunk 10y agoHeck an iPad Air 2 is fast and cheap, if you just need a terminal, or anything else. Pro is good if you use stylus or need ridiculous power.
- matt_wulfeck 10y agoDoes anyone know if I have the option to import and SSH private key and whether or not that data is stored in the secure enclave? If so this would be very valuable for working on the go, but I'm very weary of the security if it will be used for work. I'd love to see some documentation regarding he security, and some proof that keys are not exportable.
- carloscabanero 10y agoIt allows to import an SSH key. When doing that, the public key is stored in disc, and the private key is sent to Keychain (since iOS 7 or 8 encrypted with the Secure Enclave), and only a reference is stored. In this way keys are not exportable or sent to the backup. We use UICKeyChainStore for that, and can check the code yourself too :)
- matt_wulfeck 10y agoSlick!
- isomorphic 10y agoThe US$19.99 price is a bit steep to buy sight-unseen. That's more of an App Store problem than Blink's fault. Obviously the price is fine if it works better than Prompt.
- rahoulb 10y agoPersonally I love it and feel it's absolutely worth the price
- seanp2k2 10y agoI used to like and recommend Prompt until I found out that they came out with a new version and offered no upgrade path -- it was a separate app on the store. They never bothered to update the old version with post-iPhone-4S graphics, so all the buttons are huge and it's low-res. I didn't buy the new version.
- rahoulb 10y agoThey can't really offer an upgrade path though; as I understand it the closest they can do is switch to subscription pricing.
- OJFord 10y agoIn-app purchase?
- rahoulb 10y agoI'm not an iOS developer myself but I don't think you can switch on screen-size support and high-red graphics as an in-app purchase (unless you have every screen defined twice)
- OJFord 10y agoI meant in-app purchase of an 'unlock token', download free new version, verify & obtain new auth token, remove old version. Convoluted, but better than nothing I'd have thought.
- jansenv 10y agoThis is an excellent website design. I'll definitely be checking this software out
- carloscabanero 10y agoI know, Jamie Zawinski will be proud :D
- eddiecalzone 10y agoLooks amazing - can't wait to try it! FWIW, noticed a minor typo in www.blink.sh: "Blink can and should be >you< all-day-long tool."
- carloscabanero 10y agoFixed! Thanks :)
- mrmondo 10y ago$31?!
- crazysim 10y agoYou can build it yourself and load it onto your iOS device should you wish.
- mrmondo 10y agoOh! thanks for the tip! :)
- zymhan 10y agoWell, $20 USD. Not sure what $ you mean. If you aren't SSHing to boxes from a mobile device often enough that $20 doesn't seem worth it, then this likely isn't for you. I for one would pay that at the drop of a hat if I only had a cell phone and my servers were down. It's certainly not much for an everyday productivity tool.
- jlgaddis 10y agoI'm not "knocking" this app by any means. Just from the comments here, it's obviously a great tool for a lot of people. > ... if I only had a cell phone and my servers were down. I just use my cellphone as a hotspot, my MBP connects to it, and I'm online. Several of my co-workers do the same thing. Is that uncommon? I kinda just assumed that's what most people do (assuming they have a laptop with them, of course).
- snowwrestler 10y agoWell yeah but there are a lot of times folks don't have their laptops with them.
- stormbeta 10y agoDitto. The idea of doing any kind of professional work in a shell via an iOS device doesn't make sense to me at all, and making the shell fancier wouldn't help.
- tammer 10y agocan I map ⌘ to meta?
- carloscabanero 10y agoYou can map ⌘ to Ctrl or ESC, very useful for Emacs :)
- tammer 10y agoI think you've got an excellent product here that stands as a hallmark of what the future of work on iOS looks like
- carloscabanero 10y agoThanks!! I might actually use that for our webpage :)
- ianai 10y agoI bought it after the discussion here. I'm super impressed.
- carloscabanero 10y agoThanks! Any feedback will be greatly appreciated too, we want to make Blink the best terminal for iOS. :)
- rcarmo 10y agoTwo things I'd like to see: 1) Support for 1Password import of private keys 2) Support for the Citrix X1 Mouse: http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/11/06/1930 http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/11/06/1930 (Yes, terminals are more useful with mice too :))
- tdfx 10y agoAlso: agent forwarding.
- rcarmo 10y agoYou mean it doesn't do that? Hmmm. Sad trombone.
- carloscabanero 10y agoThanks for the suggestions! I will definitely consider 1Password in the future, although not a fan of reusing private keys everywhere :)
- RBerenguel 10y agoBeen using it (beta testing on iPhone and paid version on iPad so I can compare) for a while. Improving steadily, solid connectivity. So far happy with it, even if the price felt somewhat high.