TRAMP 2.6.3 User Manual

This file documents TRAMP 2.6.3, a remote file editing package for Emacs.

TRAMP stands for “Transparent Remote (file) Access, Multiple Protocol”. This package provides an easy, convenient, and consistent interface to editing remote files transparently, just as if they are local files. This extends to editing, version control, dired, and more.

You can find the latest version of this document on the web at https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/.

The latest release of TRAMP is available for download, or you may see Obtaining TRAMP for more details, including the Git server details.

TRAMP also has a Savannah Project Page.

There is a mailing list for TRAMP, available at tramp-devel@gnu.org, and archived at the TRAMP Mail Archive.

Copyright © 1999–2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual”, and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual.”

Table of Contents


1 An overview of TRAMP

TRAMP is for transparently accessing remote files from within Emacs. TRAMP enables an easy, convenient, and consistent interface to remote files as if they are local files. TRAMP’s transparency extends to editing, version control, and dired.

TRAMP can access remote hosts using any number of access methods, such as ssh, scp, telnet, and related programs. If these programs can successfully pass ASCII characters, TRAMP can use them. TRAMP does not require or mandate 8-bit clean connections.

TRAMP’s most common access method is through ssh, a more secure alternative to ftp and other older access methods.

TRAMP on MS Windows operating systems is integrated with the PuTTY package, and uses the plink program.

TRAMP mostly operates transparently in the background using the connection programs. As long as these programs enable remote login and can use the terminal, TRAMP can adapt them for seamless and transparent access.

TRAMP temporarily transfers a remote file’s contents to the local host editing and related operations. TRAMP can also transfer files between hosts using standard Emacs interfaces, a benefit of direct integration of TRAMP in Emacs.

TRAMP can transfer files using any number of available host programs for remote files, such as rcp, scp, rsync or (under MS Windows) pscp. TRAMP provides easy ways to specify these programs and customize them to specific files, hosts, or access methods.

For faster small-size file transfers, TRAMP supports encoded transfers directly through the shell using mimencode or uuencode provided such tools are available on the remote host.

TRAMP behind the scenes

Accessing a remote file through TRAMP entails a series of actions, many of which are transparent to the user. Yet some actions may require user response (such as entering passwords or completing file names). One typical scenario, opening a file on a remote host, is presented here to illustrate the steps involved:

C-x C-f to initiate find-file, enter part of the TRAMP file name, then hit TAB for completion. If this is the first time connecting to that host, here’s what happens:

I hope this has provided you with a basic overview of what happens behind the scenes when you open a file with TRAMP.

2 Obtaining TRAMP

TRAMP is included as part of Emacs.

TRAMP is also freely packaged for download on the Internet at https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tramp/. The version number of TRAMP can be obtained by the variable tramp-version. For released TRAMP versions, this is a three-number string like “2.4.5”.

A TRAMP release, which is packaged with Emacs, could differ slightly from the corresponding standalone release. This is because it isn’t always possible to synchronize release dates between Emacs and TRAMP. Such version numbers have the Emacs version number as suffix, like “2.4.5.27.2”. This means TRAMP 2.4.5 as integrated in Emacs 27.2. A complete list of TRAMP versions packaged with Emacs can be retrieved by

(assoc 'Tramp customize-package-emacs-version-alist)

TRAMP is also available as GNU ELPA package. Besides the standalone releases, further minor versions of TRAMP will appear on GNU ELPA, until the next TRAMP release appears. These minor versions have a four-number string, like “2.4.5.1”. The manual of the latest TRAMP ELPA package is located at https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/doc/tramp.html.

TRAMP development versions are available on Git servers. Development versions contain new and incomplete features. The development version of TRAMP is always the version number of the next release, plus the suffix “-pre”, like “2.4.4-pre”.

One way to obtain TRAMP from the Git server is to visit the Savannah project page at the following URL and then clicking on the Git link in the navigation bar at the top.

https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tramp/

Another way is to follow the terminal session below:

$ cd ~/emacs
$ git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/tramp.git

From behind a proxy:

$ git config --global http.proxy http://user:pwd@proxy.server.com:8080
$ git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/r/tramp.git

TRAMP developers:

$ git clone login@git.sv.gnu.org:/srv/git/tramp.git

After one of the above commands, ~/emacs/tramp will containing the latest version of TRAMP.

To fetch updates from the repository, use git pull:

$ cd ~/emacs/tramp
$ git pull

Run autoconf as follows to generate an up-to-date configure script:

$ cd ~/emacs/tramp
$ autoconf

See the file INSTALL in that directory for further information on how to install TRAMP.

3 Short introduction how to use TRAMP

TRAMP extends the Emacs file name syntax by adding a remote component. A remote file name always looks like /method:user@host:/path/to/file.

You can use remote files exactly like ordinary files, that means you can open a file or directory by C-x C-f /method:user@host:/path/to/file RET, edit the file, and save it. You can also mix local files and remote files in file operations with two arguments, like copy-file or rename-file. And finally, you can even run processes on a remote host, when the buffer you call the process from has a remote default-directory.

3.1 File name syntax

Remote file names have method, user and host parts prepended. All of them, and also the local file name part, are optional, in case of a missing part a default value is assumed. The default value for an empty local file name part is the remote user’s home directory. The shortest remote file name is thus /-::. The ‘-’ notation for the default method is used for syntactical reasons, Selecting a default method.

The method part describes the connection method used to reach the remote host, see below.

The user part is the user name for accessing the remote host. For the smb method, this could also require a domain name, in which case it is written as user%domain.

The host part must be a host name which can be resolved on your local host. It could be a short host name, a fully qualified domain name, an IPv4 or IPv6 address, TRAMP file name conventions. Some connection methods also support a notation for the port to be used, in which case it is written as host#port.

3.3 Using su, sudo, doas and sg

Sometimes, it is necessary to work on your local host under different permissions. For this, you can use the su or sudo connection method. On OpenBSD systems, the doas connection method offers the same functionality. These methods use ‘root’ as default user name and the return value of (system-name) as default host name. Therefore, it is convenient to open a file as /sudo::/path/to/file.

The method sg stands for “switch group”; here the user name is used as the group to change to. The default host name is the same.

3.5 Using sudoedit

The sudoedit method is similar to the sudo method. However, it is a different implementation: it does not keep an open session running in the background. This is for security reasons; on the backside this method has worse performance than the sudo method, it is restricted to ‘localhost’ only, and it does not support external processes.

3.6 Using smbclient

In order to access a remote MS Windows host or Samba server, the smbclient client is used. The remote file name syntax is /smb:user%domain@host:/path/to/file. The first part of the local file name is the share exported by the remote host, ‘path’ in this example.

3.7 Using GVFS-based methods

On systems which have GVFS (the GNOME Virtual File System) installed, its offered methods can be used by TRAMP. Examples are /sftp:user@host:/path/to/file, /afp:user@host:/path/to/file (accessing Apple’s AFP file system), /dav:user@host:/path/to/file, /davs:user@host:/path/to/file (for WebDAV shares) and /mtp:device:/path/to/file (for media devices).

3.8 Using GNOME Online Accounts based methods

GVFS-based methods also include GNOME Online Accounts, which support the Files service. These are the Google Drive file system, and the OwnCloud/NextCloud file system. The file name syntax here is always /gdrive:john.doe@gmail.com:/path/to/file (‘john.doe@gmail.com’ stands here for your Google Drive account), or /nextcloud:user@host#8081:/path/to/file (‘8081’ stands for the port number) for OwnCloud/NextCloud files.

3.9 Using FUSE-based methods

FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) allows users to mount a virtual file system. It is also used by GVFS internally, but here we discuss methods which do not use the GVFS API.

A convenient way to access system storages is the rclone program. If you have configured a storage in rclone under a name ‘storage’ (for example), you can access it via the remote file name syntax /rclone:storage:/path/to/file. User names are not needed.

On local hosts which have installed the sshfs client for mounting a file system based on sftp, this method can be used. All remote files are available via the local mount point. TRAMP aids in mounting the file system if it isn’t mounted yet, and it supports the access with the usual file name syntax /sshfs:user@host:/path/to/file.

3.10 Using Android

An Android device, which is connected via USB to your local host, can be accessed via the adb command. No user or host name is needed. The file name syntax is /adb::/path/to/file.

4 Configuring TRAMP

TRAMP is initially configured to use the scp program to connect to the remote host. Just type C-x C-f and then enter file name /scp:user@host:/path/to/file. For details, See Selecting a default method, See Selecting a default user, See Selecting a default host.

For problems related to the behavior of the remote shell, See Remote shell setup hints.

For changing the connection type and file access method from the defaults to one of several other options, See Types of connections to remote hosts.

Note that some user options described in these examples are not auto loaded by Emacs. All examples require TRAMP to be installed and loaded:

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-verbose 6 "Enable remote command traces")

For functions used to configure TRAMP, the following clause may be used in your init file:

(with-eval-after-load 'tramp (tramp-change-syntax 'simplified))

Changing other variables via directory-local variables on a remote directory must be enabled by setting enable-remote-dir-locals to non-nil, See (emacs)Directory Variables.

4.1 Types of connections to remote hosts

Inline method and external method are the two basic types of access methods. While they both use the same remote shell access programs, such as rsh, ssh, or telnet, they differ in the file access methods. Choosing the right method becomes important for editing files, transferring large files, or operating on a large number of files.

The performance of the external methods is generally better than that of the inline methods, at least for large files. This is caused by the need to encode and decode the data when transferring inline.

The one exception to this rule are the scp-based access methods. While these methods do see better performance when actually transferring files, the overhead of the cryptographic negotiation at startup may drown out the improvement in file transfer times.

External methods should be configured in such a way that they don’t require a password (with ssh-agent, or similar). Modern scp implementations offer options to reuse existing ssh connections, which TRAMP enables by default if available. If that is not possible, you should consider Reusing passwords for several connections, otherwise you will be prompted for a password for every copy action.

4.2 Inline methods

Inline methods use the same login connection to transfer file contents. Inline methods are quick and easy for small files. They depend on the availability of suitable encoding and decoding programs on the remote host. For local source and destination, TRAMP may use built-in equivalents of such programs in Emacs.

Inline methods can work in situations where an external transfer program is unavailable. Inline methods also work when transferring files between different user identities on the same host.

TRAMP checks the remote host for the availability and usability of one of the commands defined in tramp-remote-coding-commands. TRAMP uses the first reliable command it finds. TRAMP’s search path can be customized, see How TRAMP finds and uses programs on the remote host.

In case none of the commands are available, TRAMP first transfers a small Perl program to the remote host, and then tries to use that program for encoding and decoding.

To increase transfer speeds for large text files, TRAMP can use compression before encoding. The user option tramp-inline-compress-start-size specifies the file size above which to use this optimization. This feature depends on the availability and usability of one of the commands defined in tramp-inline-compress-commands.

rsh

rsh is an option for connecting to hosts within local networks since rsh is not as secure as other methods. There should be no reason to use it, as ssh is a both a complete replacement and ubiquitous.

ssh

ssh is a more secure option than others to connect to a remote host.

ssh can also take extra parameters as port numbers. For example, a host on port 42 is specified as host#42 (the real host name, a hash sign, then a port number). It is the same as passing ‘-p 42’ to the ssh command.

telnet

Connecting to a remote host with telnet is as insecure as the rsh method.

su

Instead of connecting to a remote host, su program allows editing as another user. The host can be either ‘localhost’ or the host returned by the function (system-name). See Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops for an exception to this behavior.

sudo

Similar to su method, sudo uses sudo. sudo must have sufficient rights to start a shell.

For security reasons, a sudo connection is disabled after a predefined timeout (5 minutes by default). This can be changed, see Setting own connection related information.

doas

This method is used on OpenBSD like the sudo command. Like the sudo method, a doas connection is disabled after a predefined timeout.

sg

The sg program allows editing as different group. The host can be either ‘localhost’ or the host returned by the function (system-name). The user name must be specified, but it denotes a group name. See Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops for an exception to this behavior.

sshx

Works like ssh but without the extra authentication prompts. sshx uses ‘ssh -t -t -l user -o RemoteCommand='/bin/sh -i' host’ to open a connection with a “standard” login shell. It supports changing the remote login shell /bin/sh.

Note that sshx does not bypass authentication questions. For example, if the host key of the remote host is not known, sshx will still ask “Are you sure you want to continue connecting?”. TRAMP cannot handle such questions. Connections will have to be setup where logins can proceed without such questions.

sshx is useful for MS Windows users when ssh triggers an error about allocating a pseudo tty. This happens due to missing shell prompts that confuses TRAMP.

sshx supports the ‘-p’ argument.

krlogin

This method is also similar to ssh. It uses the krlogin -x command only for remote host login.

ksu

This is another method from the Kerberos suite. It behaves like su.

plink method is for MS Windows users with the PuTTY implementation of SSH. It uses ‘plink -ssh’ to log in to the remote host. It supports changing the remote login shell /bin/sh.

Check the ‘Share SSH connections if possible’ control for that session.

plink method supports the ‘-P’ argument.

plinkx

Another method using PuTTY on MS Windows with session names instead of host names. plinkx calls ‘plink -load session -t’. User names and port numbers must be defined in the session. It supports changing the remote login shell /bin/sh.

Check the ‘Share SSH connections if possible’ control for that session.

docker

Integration for Docker containers. The host name may be either a running container’s name or ID, as returned by ‘docker ps’.

podman

Podman is an alternative to docker which may be run rootless, if desired.

kubernetes

Integration for containers in Kubernetes pods. The host name is a pod name returned by ‘kubectl get pods’. The first container in a pod is used.

This method does not support user names.

4.3 External methods

External methods operate over multiple channels, using the remote shell connection for some actions while delegating file transfers to an external transfer program.

External methods save on the overhead of encoding and decoding of inline methods.

Since external methods have the overhead of opening a new channel, files smaller than tramp-copy-size-limit still use inline methods.

rcp

This method uses the rsh and rcp commands to connect to the remote host and transfer files. This is the fastest access method available.

The alternative method remcp uses the remsh and rcp commands.

scp

Using a combination of ssh to connect and scp to transfer is the most secure. While the performance is good, it is slower than the inline methods for smaller files. Though there is no overhead of encoding and decoding of the inline methods, scp’s cryptographic handshake negates those speed gains.

ssh-based methods support ‘-p’ feature for specifying port numbers. For example, host#42 passes ‘-p 42’ in the argument list to ssh, and ‘-P 42’ in the argument list to scp.

rsync

ssh command to connect in combination with rsync command to transfer is similar to the scp method.

rsync performs much better than scp when transferring files that exist on both hosts. However, this advantage is lost if the file exists only on one side of the connection.

This method supports the ‘-p’ argument.

scpx

scpx is useful to avoid login shell questions. It is similar in performance to scp. scpx uses ‘ssh -t -t -l user -o RemoteCommand='/bin/sh -i' host’ to open a connection. It supports changing the remote login shell /bin/sh.

scpx is useful for MS Windows users when ssh triggers an error about allocating a pseudo tty. This happens due to missing shell prompts that confuses TRAMP.

This method supports the ‘-p’ argument.

pscp
psftp

These methods are similar to scp or sftp, but they use the plink command to connect to the remote host, and they use pscp or psftp for transferring the files. These programs are part of PuTTY, an SSH implementation for MS Windows.

They support changing the remote login shell /bin/sh.

Check the ‘Share SSH connections if possible’ control for that session.

These methods support the ‘-P’ argument.

fcp

This method is similar to scp, but uses fsh to connect and fcp to transfer files. fsh/fcp, a front-end for ssh, reuse ssh session by submitting several commands. This avoids the startup overhead due to scp’s secure connection. Inline methods have similar benefits.

The command used for this connection is: ‘fsh host -l user /bin/sh -i

fsh has no inline method since the multiplexing it offers is not useful for TRAMP. fsh connects to remote host and TRAMP keeps that one connection open.

nc

Using telnet to connect and nc to transfer files is sometimes the only combination suitable for accessing routers or NAS hosts. These dumb devices have severely restricted local shells, such as the busybox and do not host any other encode or decode programs.

sudoedit

The sudoedit method allows to edit a file as a different user on the local host. You could regard this as TRAMP’s implementation of the sudoedit. Contrary to the sudo method, all magic file name functions are implemented by single sudo … commands. The purpose is to make editing such a file as secure as possible; there must be no session running in the Emacs background which could be attacked from inside Emacs.

Consequently, external processes are not implemented.

The host name of such remote file names must represent the local host. Since the default value is already proper, it is recommended not to use any host name in the remote file name, like /sudoedit::/path/to/file or /sudoedit:user@:/path/to/file.

Like the sudo method, a sudoedit password expires after a predefined timeout.

ftp

When TRAMP uses ftp, it forwards requests to whatever ftp program is specified by Ange FTP. This external program must be capable of servicing requests from TRAMP.

smb

This non-native TRAMP method connects via the Server Message Block (SMB) networking protocol to hosts running file servers that are typically based on Samba or MS Windows.

Using smbclient requires a few tweaks when working with TRAMP:

The first directory in the localname must be a share name on the remote host.

Since some SMB share names end in the $ character, TRAMP must use $$ when specifying those shares to avoid environment variable substitutions.

When TRAMP is not specific about the share name or uses the generic remote directory /, smbclient returns all available shares.

Since SMB authentication is based on each SMB share, TRAMP prompts for a password even when accessing a different share on the same SMB host. This prompting can be suppressed by Reusing passwords for several connections.

To accommodate user name/domain name syntax required by MS Windows authorization, TRAMP provides for an extended syntax in user%domain format (where user is the user name, % is the percent symbol, and domain is the MS Windows domain name). An example:

/smb:daniel%BIZARRE@melancholia:/daniel$$/.emacs

where user daniel connects as a domain user to the SMB host melancholia in the MS Windows domain BIZARRE to edit .emacs located in the home directory (share daniel$).

Alternatively, for local WINS users (as opposed to domain users), substitute the domain name with the name of the local host in UPPERCASE as shown here:

/smb:daniel%MELANCHOLIA@melancholia:/daniel$$/.emacs

where user daniel connects as local user to the SMB host melancholia in the local domain MELANCHOLIA to edit .emacs located in the home directory (share daniel$).

The domain name and user name are optional for smbclient authentication. When user name is not specified, smbclient uses the anonymous user (without prompting for password). This behavior is unlike other TRAMP methods, where local user name is substituted.

The smb method is unavailable if Emacs is run under a local user authentication context in MS Windows. However such users can still access remote files using UNC file names instead of TRAMP:

//melancholia/daniel$$/.emacs

UNC file name specification does not allow the specification of a different user name for authentication like the smbclient can.

adb

This method uses Android Debug Bridge program for accessing Android devices. The Android Debug Bridge must be installed locally for TRAMP to work. Some GNU/Linux distributions provide Android Debug Bridge as an installation package. Alternatively, the program is installed as part of the Android SDK. TRAMP finds the adb program either via the PATH environment variable or the absolute path set in the user option tramp-adb-program.

TRAMP connects to Android devices with adb only when the user option tramp-adb-connect-if-not-connected is not nil. Otherwise, the connection must be established outside Emacs.

TRAMP does not require a host name part of the remote file name when a single Android device is connected to adb. TRAMP instead uses /adb:: as the default name. adb devices, run in a shell outside Emacs, shows available host names.

adb method normally does not need user name to authenticate on the Android device because it runs under the adbd process. But when a user name is specified, however, TRAMP applies an su in the syntax. When authentication does not succeed, especially on un-rooted Android devices, TRAMP displays login errors.

For Android devices connected through TCP/IP, a port number can be specified using device#42 host name syntax or TRAMP can use the default value as declared in adb command. Port numbers are not applicable to Android devices connected through USB.

4.4 GVFS-based external methods

GVFS is the virtual file system for the GNOME Desktop, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GVFS. Remote files on GVFS are mounted locally through FUSE and TRAMP uses this locally mounted directory internally.

Emacs uses the D-Bus mechanism to communicate with GVFS. Emacs must have the message bus system, D-Bus integration active, see (dbus)D-Bus.

afp

This method is for connecting to remote hosts with the Apple Filing Protocol for accessing files on macOS volumes. TRAMP access syntax requires a leading volume (share) name, for example: /afp:user@host:/volume.

dav
davs

dav method provides access to WebDAV files and directories based on standard protocols, such as HTTP. davs does the same but with SSL encryption. Both methods support the port numbers.

Paths being part of the WebDAV volume to be mounted by GVFS, as it is common for OwnCloud or NextCloud file names, are not supported by these methods. See method nextcloud for handling them.

gdrive

Via the gdrive method it is possible to access your Google Drive online storage. User and host name of the remote file name are your email address of the Google Drive credentials, like /gdrive:john.doe@gmail.com:/. These credentials must be populated in your Online Accounts application outside Emacs.

Since Google Drive uses cryptic blob file names internally, TRAMP works with the display-name of the files. This could produce unexpected behavior in case two files in the same directory have the same display-name, such a situation must be avoided.

mtp

Media devices, like cell phones, tablets, cameras, can be accessed via the mtp method. Just the device name is needed in order to specify the host in the file name. However, the device must already be connected via USB, before accessing it. Possible device names are visible via host name completion, File name completion.

Depending on the device type, the access could be read-only. Some devices are accessible under different names in parallel, offering different parts of their file system.

TRAMP does not require a host name as part of the remote file name when a single media device is connected. TRAMP instead uses /mtp:: as the default name.

nextcloud

As the name indicates, the method nextcloud allows you to access OwnCloud or NextCloud hosted files and directories. Like the gdrive method, your credentials must be populated in your Online Accounts application outside Emacs. The method supports port numbers.

sftp

This method uses sftp in order to securely access remote hosts. sftp is a more secure option for connecting to hosts that for security reasons refuse ssh connections.

When there is a respective entry in your ssh configuration, do not set the RemoteCommand option.

User Option: tramp-gvfs-methods

This user option is a list of external methods for GVFS. By default, this list includes afp, dav, davs, gdrive, mtp, nextcloud and sftp. Other methods to include are ftp, http, https and smb. These methods are not intended to be used directly as GVFS-based method. Instead, they are added here for the benefit of Archive file names.

If you want to use GVFS-based ftp or smb methods, you must add them to tramp-gvfs-methods, and you must disable the corresponding TRAMP package by setting tramp-ftp-method or tramp-smb-method to nil, respectively:

(add-to-list 'tramp-gvfs-methods "ftp")
(customize-set-variable 'tramp-ftp-method nil)

4.5 FUSE-based external methods

Besides GVFS, there are other virtual file systems using the FUSE interface. Remote files are mounted locally through FUSE and TRAMP uses this locally mounted directory internally. When possible, TRAMP maps the remote file names to their respective local file name, and applies the file name operation on them. For some of the file name operations this is not possible, TRAMP emulates those operations otherwise.

rclone

The program rclone allows to access different system storages in the cloud, see https://rclone.org/ for a list of supported systems. If the rclone program isn’t found in your PATH environment variable, you can tell TRAMP its absolute path via the user option tramp-rclone-program.

A system storage must be configured via the rclone config command, outside Emacs. If you have configured a storage in rclone under a name ‘storage’ (for example), you could access it via the remote file name

/rclone:storage:/path/to/file

User names are part of the rclone configuration, and not needed in the remote file name. If a user name is contained in the remote file name, it is ignored.

Internally, TRAMP mounts the remote system storage at location /tmp/tramp.rclone.storage, with storage being the name of the configured system storage.

The mount point and optional flags to the different rclone operations could be passed as connection properties, See Setup of rclone method.

Access via rclone is slow. If you have an alternative method for accessing the system storage, you should use it. GVFS-based external methods for example, methods gdrive and nextcloud.

sshfs

On local hosts which have installed the sshfs client for mounting a file system based on sftp, this method can be used, see https://github.com/libfuse/sshfs/blob/master/README.rst/. If the sshfs program isn’t found in your PATH environment variable, you can tell TRAMP its absolute path via the user option tramp-sshfs-program.

All remote files are available via the local mount point. TRAMP aids in mounting the file system if it isn’t mounted yet. The remote file name syntax is

/sshfs:user@host#port:/path/to/file

User name and port number are optional. This method does not support password handling, the file system must either be mounted already, or the connection must be established passwordless via ssh keys.

The mount point and mount arguments could be passed as connection properties, See Setup of sshfs method.

4.6 Selecting a default method

In a remote file name, the use of a default method is indicated by the pseudo method -, TRAMP file name conventions.

User Option: tramp-default-method

Default method is for transferring files. The user option tramp-default-method sets it. TRAMP uses this user option to determine the default method for remote file names that do not have one specified.

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-default-method "ssh")
User Option: tramp-default-method-alist

Default methods for transferring files can be customized for specific user and host combinations through the user option tramp-default-method-alist.

For example, the following two lines specify to use the ssh method for all user names matching ‘john’ and the rsync method for all host names matching ‘lily’. The third line specifies to use the su method for the user ‘root’ on the host ‘localhost’.

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-method-alist '("" "john" "ssh"))
(add-to-list 'tramp-default-method-alist '("lily" "" "rsync"))
(add-to-list 'tramp-default-method-alist
             '("\\`localhost\\'" "\\`root\\'" "su"))

External methods performance faster for large files. see Inline methods. see External methods.

Choosing the access method also depends on the security environment. For example, rsh and telnet methods that use clear text password transfers are inappropriate for over the Internet connections. Secure remote connections should use ssh that provide encryption.

4.6.1 Which method to use?

TRAMP provides maximum number of choices for maximum flexibility. Choosing which method depends on the hosts, clients, network speeds, and the security context.

Start by using an inline method.

External methods might be more efficient for large files, but most TRAMP users edit small files more often than large files.

Enable compression, tramp-inline-compress-start-size, for a performance boost for large files with inline methods.

Since ssh has become the most common method of remote host access and it has the most reasonable security protocols, use ssh method. Typical ssh usage to edit the /etc/motd file on the otherhost:

C-x C-f /ssh:root@otherhost:/etc/motd RET

If ssh is unavailable for whatever reason, look for other obvious options. For MS Windows, try the plink method1. For Kerberos, try krlogin.

For editing local files as su or sudo methods, try the shortened syntax of ‘root’:

C-x C-f /su::/etc/motd RET

For editing large files, scp is faster than ssh. pscp is faster than plink. But this speed improvement is not always true.

When copying large files between two different remote hosts via scp, set tramp-use-scp-direct-remote-copying to non-nil.

4.7 Selecting a default user

User Option: tramp-default-user

A TRAMP file name can omit the user name part since TRAMP substitutes the currently logged-in user name. However this substitution can be overridden with tramp-default-user. For example:

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-default-user "root")
User Option: tramp-default-user-alist

Instead of a single default user, tramp-default-user-alist allows multiple default user values based on access method or host name combinations. The alist can hold multiple values. For example, to use the ‘john’ as the default user for the domain ‘somewhere.else’ only:

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-user-alist
             '("ssh" ".*\\.somewhere\\.else\\'" "john"))

A Caution: TRAMP will override any default user specified in the configuration files outside Emacs, such as ~/.ssh/config. To stop TRAMP from applying the default value, set the corresponding alist entry to nil:

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-user-alist
             '("ssh" "\\`here\\.somewhere\\.else\\'" nil))

The last entry in tramp-default-user-alist should be reserved for catch-all or most often used login.

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-user-alist
             '(nil nil "jonas") t)

4.8 Selecting a default host

User Option: tramp-default-host

When host name is omitted, TRAMP substitutes the value from the tramp-default-host user option. It is initially populated with the local host name where Emacs is running. The default method, default user and default host can be overridden as follows:

(custom-set-variables
 '(tramp-default-method "ssh")
 '(tramp-default-user "john")
 '(tramp-default-host "target"))

With all defaults set, ‘/-::’ will connect TRAMP to John’s home directory on target via ssh.

User Option: tramp-default-host-alist

Instead of a single default host, tramp-default-host-alist allows multiple default host values based on access method or user name combinations. The alist can hold multiple values. While tramp-default-host is sufficient in most cases, some methods, like adb, require defaults overwritten.

4.9 Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops

Multi-hops are methods to reach hosts behind firewalls or to reach the outside world from inside a bastion host. With multi-hops, TRAMP can negotiate these hops with the appropriate user/host authentication at each hop. All methods until now have been the single hop kind, where the start and end points of the connection did not have intermediate check points.

User Option: tramp-default-proxies-alist

tramp-default-proxies-alist specifies proxy hosts to pass through. This user option is list of triples consisting of (host user proxy).

The first match is the proxy host through which passes the file name and the target host matching user@host. host and user are regular expressions or nil, interpreted as a regular expression which always matches.

proxy is a literal TRAMP file name whose local name part is ignored, and the method and user name parts are optional.

The method must be an inline method (see Inline methods). If proxy is nil, no additional hop is required reaching user@host.

For example, to pass through the host ‘bastion.your.domain’ as user ‘bird’ to reach remote hosts outside the local domain:

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-proxies-alist
             '("\\." nil "/ssh:bird@bastion.your.domain:"))
(add-to-list 'tramp-default-proxies-alist
             '("\\.your\\.domain\\'" nil nil))

Note: add-to-list adds elements at the beginning of a list. Therefore, most relevant rules must come last in the list.

Proxy hosts can be cascaded in the alist. If there is another host called ‘jump.your.domain’, which is the only host allowed to connect to ‘bastion.your.domain’, then:

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-proxies-alist
             '("\\`bastion\\.your\\.domain\\'"
               "\\`bird\\'"
               "/ssh:jump.your.domain:"))

proxy can take patterns %h or %u for host or user respectively. Ports or domains, if they are part of a hop file name, are not expanded by those patterns.

To login as ‘root’ on remote hosts in the domain ‘your.domain’, but login as ‘root’ is disabled for non-local access, then use this alist entry:

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-proxies-alist
             '("\\.your\\.domain\\'" "\\`root\\'" "/ssh:%h:"))

Opening /sudo:randomhost.your.domain: first connects to ‘randomhost.your.domain’ via ssh under your account name, and then performs sudo -u root on that host.

It is key for the sudo method in the above example to be applied on the host after reaching it and not on the local host. TRAMP checks therefore, that the host name for such hops matches the host name of the previous hop.

host, user and proxy can also take Lisp forms. These forms when evaluated must return either a string or nil.

To generalize (from the previous example): For all hosts, except my local one, first connect via ssh, and then apply sudo -u root:

(add-to-list 'tramp-default-proxies-alist
             '(nil "\\`root\\'" "/ssh:%h:"))
(add-to-list 'tramp-default-proxies-alist
             `(,(regexp-quote (system-name)) nil nil))

Passing through hops involves dealing with restricted shells, such as rbash. If TRAMP is made aware, then it would use them for proxies only.

User Option: tramp-restricted-shell-hosts-alist

An alist of regular expressions of hosts running restricted shells, such as rbash. TRAMP will then use them only as proxies.

To specify the bastion host from the example above as running a restricted shell:

(add-to-list 'tramp-restricted-shell-hosts-alist
             "\\`bastion\\.your\\.domain\\'")

4.10 Passing firewalls

Sometimes, it is not possible to reach a remote host directly. A firewall might be in the way, which could be passed via a proxy server.

Both OpenSSH and PuTTY support such proxy settings, using an HTTP tunnel via the CONNECT command (conforming to RFC 2616, 2817 specifications). Proxy servers using HTTP 1.1 or later protocol support this command.

4.10.1 Tunneling with ssh

With ssh, you could use the ProxyCommand entry in ~/.ssh/config:

Host host.other.domain
     ProxyCommand nc -X connect -x proxy.your.domain:3128 %h %p

nc is BSD’s netcat program, which establishes HTTP tunnels. Any other program with such a feature could be used as well.

In the example, opening /ssh:host.your.domain: passes the HTTP proxy server ‘proxy.your.domain’ on port 3128.

4.10.2 Tunneling with PuTTY

PuTTY does not need an external program, HTTP tunnel support is built-in. In the PuTTY config program, create a session for ‘host.your.domain’. In the Connection/Data entry, select the HTTP option, and add ‘proxy.your.domain’ as Proxy hostname, and 3128 as Port.

Opening /plinkx:host.your.domain: passes the HTTP proxy server ‘proxy.your.domain’ on port 3128.

4.11 Using Non-Standard Methods

The tramp-methods variable currently has an exhaustive list of predefined methods. Any part of this list can be modified with more suitable settings. Refer to the Lisp documentation of that variable, accessible with C-h v tramp-methods RET.

In the ELPA archives, there are several examples of such extensions. They can be installed with Emacs’s Package Manager. This includes

lxc-tramp

Integration for LXC containers. A container is accessed via /lxc:container:/path/to/file, ‘container’ has the same meaning as with the docker method. A ‘user’ specification is ignored.

lxd-tramp

Integration for LXD containers. A container is accessed via /lxd:user@container:/path/to/file, ‘user’ and ‘container’ have the same meaning as with the docker method.

magit-tramp

Browsing Git repositories with magit. A versioned file is accessed via /git:rev@root-dir:/path/to/file. ‘rev’ is a Git revision, and ‘root-dir’ is a virtual host name for the root directory, specified in magit-tramp-hosts-alist.

tramp-hdfs

Access of a hadoop/hdfs file system. A file is accessed via /hdfs:user@node:/path/to/file, where ‘user’ is the user that you want to use, and ‘node’ is the name of the hadoop server.

tramp-nspawn

Access to environments provided by systemd-nspawn. A file is accessed via /nspawn:user@container:/path/to/file, where ‘user’ is the (optional) user that you want to use, and ‘container’ is the container to connect to. systemd-nspawn and its container utilities often require super user access to run, use multi-hop file names with doas or sudo to raise your privileges.

vagrant-tramp

Convenience method to access vagrant boxes. It is often used in multi-hop file names like /vagrant:box|sudo:box:/path/to/file, where ‘box’ is the name of the vagrant box.

4.12 Selecting config files for user/host name completion

tramp-completion-function-alist uses predefined files for user and host name completion (see File name completion). For each method, it keeps a set of configuration files and a function that can parse that file. Each entry in tramp-completion-function-alist is of the form (method pair1 pair2 …).

Each pair is composed of (function file). function is responsible for extracting user names and host names from file for completion. There are two functions which access this variable:

Function: tramp-get-completion-function method

This function returns the list of completion functions for method.

Example:

(tramp-get-completion-function "rsh")

     ⇒ ((tramp-parse-rhosts "/etc/hosts.equiv")
         (tramp-parse-rhosts "~/.rhosts"))
Function: tramp-set-completion-function method function-list

This function sets function-list as list of completion functions for method.

Example:

(tramp-set-completion-function "ssh"
 '((tramp-parse-sconfig "/etc/ssh_config")
   (tramp-parse-sconfig "~/.ssh/config")))

     ⇒ ((tramp-parse-sconfig "/etc/ssh_config")
         (tramp-parse-sconfig "~/.ssh/config"))

The following predefined functions parsing configuration files exist:

tramp-parse-rhosts

This function parses files which are syntactical equivalent to ~/.rhosts. It returns both host names and user names, if specified.

tramp-parse-shosts

This function parses files which are syntactical equivalent to ~/.ssh/known_hosts. Since there are no user names specified in such files, it can return host names only.

tramp-parse-sconfig

This function returns the host nicknames defined by Host entries in ~/.ssh/config style files.

tramp-parse-shostkeys

SSH2 parsing of directories /etc/ssh2/hostkeys/* and ~/ssh2/hostkeys/*. Hosts are coded in file names hostkey_portnumber_host-name.pub. User names are always nil.

tramp-parse-sknownhosts

Another SSH2 style parsing of directories like /etc/ssh2/knownhosts/* and ~/ssh2/knownhosts/*. This case, hosts names are coded in file names host-name.algorithm.pub. User names are always nil.

tramp-parse-hosts

A function dedicated to /etc/hosts for host names.

tramp-parse-passwd

A function which parses /etc/passwd for user names.

tramp-parse-etc-group

A function which parses /etc/group for group names.

tramp-parse-netrc

A function which parses ~/.netrc and ~/.authinfo-style files.

To keep a custom file with custom data in a custom structure, a custom function has to be provided. This function must meet the following conventions:

Function: my-tramp-parse file

file must be either a file on the host, or nil. The function must return a list of (user host), which are taken as candidates for completion for user and host names.

Example:

(my-tramp-parse "~/.my-tramp-hosts")

     ⇒ ((nil "toto") ("daniel" "melancholia"))

4.13 Reusing passwords for several connections

To avoid repeated prompts for passwords, consider native caching mechanisms, such as ssh-agent for ssh-like methods, or pageant for plink-like methods.

TRAMP offers alternatives when native solutions cannot meet the need.

4.13.1 Using an authentication file

The package auth-source.el, originally developed for No Gnus, reads passwords from different sources, See (auth)auth-source. The default authentication file is ~/.authinfo.gpg, but this can be changed via the user option auth-sources.

A typical entry in the authentication file:

machine melancholia port scp login daniel password geheim

The port can take any TRAMP method (see Inline methods, see External methods). Omitting port values matches all TRAMP methods. Domain and ports, as used in TRAMP file name syntax, must be appended to the machine and login items:

machine melancholia#4711 port davs login daniel%BIZARRE password geheim

For the methods doas, sudo and sudoedit the password of the user requesting the connection is needed, and not the password of the target user. If these connections happen on the local host, an entry with the local user and local host is used:

machine host port sudo login user password secret

user and host are the strings returned by (user-login-name) and (system-name). If one of these methods is connected via a multi hop (see Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops), the credentials of the previous hop are used.

If no proper entry exists, the password is read interactively. After successful login (verification of the password), Emacs offers to save a corresponding entry for further use by auth-source backends which support this. This can be changed by setting the user option auth-source-save-behavior to nil.

Set auth-source-debug to t to debug messages.

Note that auth-source.el is not used for ftp connections, because TRAMP passes the work to Ange FTP. If you want, for example, use your ~/.authinfo.gpg authentication file, you must customize ange-ftp-netrc-filename:

(customize-set-variable 'ange-ftp-netrc-filename "~/.authinfo.gpg")

In case you do not want to use an authentication file for TRAMP passwords, use connection-local variables like this:

(connection-local-set-profile-variables
 'remote-without-auth-sources '((auth-sources . nil)))

(connection-local-set-profiles
 '(:application tramp) 'remote-without-auth-sources)

4.13.2 Caching passwords

TRAMP can cache passwords as entered and reuse when needed for the same user or host name independent of the access method.

password-cache-expiry sets the duration (in seconds) the passwords are remembered. Passwords are never saved permanently nor can they extend beyond the lifetime of the current Emacs session. Set password-cache-expiry to nil to disable expiration.

Set password-cache to nil to disable password caching.

4.14 Reusing connection related information

For faster initial connection times, TRAMP stores previous connection properties in a file specified by the user option tramp-persistency-file-name.

The default file name for tramp-persistency-file-name is ~/.emacs.d/tramp.

TRAMP reads this file during Emacs startup, and writes to it when exiting Emacs. Delete this file for TRAMP to recreate a new one on next Emacs startup.

Set tramp-persistency-file-name to nil to disable storing connections persistently.

When TRAMP detects a change in the operating system version in a remote host (via the command uname -sr), it flushes all connection related information for that host and creates a new entry.

4.15 Setting own connection related information

For more precise customization, parameters specified by tramp-methods can be overwritten manually.

Set tramp-connection-properties to manually override tramp-methods. Properties in this list are in the form (regexp property value). regexp matches remote file names. Use nil to match all. property is the property’s name, and value is the property’s value.

property is any method specific parameter contained in tramp-methods. The parameter key in tramp-methods is a symbol name tramp-<foo>. To overwrite that property, use the string "<foo>" for property. For example, this changes the remote shell:

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             (list (regexp-quote "/ssh:user@randomhost.your.domain:")
                   "remote-shell" "/bin/ksh"))

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             (list (regexp-quote "/ssh:user@randomhost.your.domain:")
                   "remote-shell-login" '("-")))

The parameters tramp-remote-shell and tramp-remote-shell-login in tramp-methods now have new values for the remote host.

property could also be any property found in tramp-persistency-file-name.

4.15.1 Relevant connection properties to override

Not all connection properties need to be changed. The most relevant properties are listed here:

  • "login-program"

    The property "login-program" stores the program to be used to connect to the remote host. Sometimes, the program might have another name on your host, or it might be located in another path. In this case, you can overwrite the default value, which is special for every connection method. It is used in all connection methods of tramp-sh.el.

  • "login-args"

    "login-args" specifies a list of lists of arguments to pass to "login-program". Read the docstring of tramp-methods how to construct these lists.

  • "remote-shell"

    This property tells TRAMP which remote shell to apply on the remote host. It is used in all connection methods of tramp-sh.el. The default value is "/bin/sh".

  • "remote-shell-login"

    A property to be used in conjunction with "remote-shell". It specifies, which shell argument triggers a login shell. Its default value is "-l", but some shells, like ksh, prefer "-".

  • "session-timeout"

    All tramp-sh.el based methods accept the property "session-timeout". This is the time (in seconds) after a connection is disabled for security reasons, and must be reestablished. A value of nil disables this feature. Most of the methods do not set this property except the sudo and doas methods, which use predefined values.

  • "~"
    "~user"

    This is the home directory on the remote host. Setting this connection property helps especially for methods which cannot expand to a remote home directory, like adb, rclone and sshfs. Expanding ~ to home directory for an example.

  • "tmpdir"

    The temporary directory on the remote host. If not specified, the default value is "/data/local/tmp" for the adb method, "/C$/Temp" for the smb method, and "/tmp" otherwise.

  • "direct-async-process"

    When this property is non-nil, an alternative, more performant implementation of make-process and start-file-process is applied. The connection method must also be marked with a non-nil tramp-direct-async parameter in tramp-methods. Improving performance of asynchronous remote processes for a discussion of constraints.

  • "posix"

    Connections using the smb method check, whether the remote host supports posix commands. If the remote host runs Samba, it confirms this capability. However, some very old Samba versions have errors in their implementation. In order to suppress the posix commands for those hosts, the property "posix" should be set to nil.

    The default value of this property is t (not specified in tramp-methods). If the remote host runs native MS Windows, this property has no effect.

  • "mount-point"

    The directory file name an FUSE-based file system is mounted on. The default value of this property is "/tmp/tramp.method.user@host#port" (not specified in tramp-methods).

  • "mount-args"
    "copyto-args"
    "moveto-args"
    "about-args"

    These properties keep optional flags to the different rclone operations. See their default values in tramp-methods if you want to change their values.

4.16 How TRAMP finds and uses programs on the remote host

TRAMP requires access to and rights to several commands on remote hosts: ls, test, find and cat.

Besides there are other required programs for Inline methods and External methods of connection.

To improve performance and accuracy of remote file access, TRAMP uses perl (or perl5) and grep when available.

User Option: tramp-remote-path

tramp-remote-path specifies which remote directory paths TRAMP can search for How TRAMP finds and uses programs on the remote host.

TRAMP uses standard defaults, such as /bin and /usr/bin, which are reasonable for most hosts. To accommodate differences in hosts and paths, for example, /bin:/usr/bin on Debian GNU/Linux or /usr/xpg4/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/bin:/opt/developerstudio12.6/bin on Solaris, TRAMP queries the remote host with getconf PATH and updates the symbol tramp-default-remote-path.

For instances where hosts keep obscure locations for paths for security reasons, manually add such paths to local .emacs as shown below for TRAMP to use when connecting.

(add-to-list 'tramp-remote-path "/usr/local/perl/bin")

Another way to find the remote path is to use the path assigned to the remote user by the remote host. TRAMP does not normally retain this remote path after login. However, tramp-own-remote-path preserves the path value, which can be used to update tramp-remote-path.

(add-to-list 'tramp-remote-path 'tramp-own-remote-path)

Note that this works only if your remote /bin/sh shell supports the login argument ‘-l’.

tramp-remote-path can also be set per host via connection-local variables. You could define your own search directories like this:

(connection-local-set-profile-variables 'remote-path-with-bin
   '((tramp-remote-path . ("~/bin" tramp-default-remote-path))))

(connection-local-set-profile-variables 'remote-path-with-apply-pub-bin
   '((tramp-remote-path . ("/appli/pub/bin" tramp-default-remote-path))))

(connection-local-set-profiles
   '(:application tramp :machine "randomhost") 'remote-path-with-bin)

(connection-local-set-profiles
   '(:application tramp :user "anotheruser" :machine "anotherhost")
     'remote-path-with-apply-pub-bin)

When remote search paths are changed, local TRAMP caches must be recomputed. To force TRAMP to recompute afresh, call M-x tramp-cleanup-this-connection RET or friends (see Cleanup remote connections).

4.17 Remote shell setup hints

4.17.1 Changing the default remote or local shell

By default, TRAMP uses the command /bin/sh for starting a shell on the remote host. This can be changed by setting the connection property "remote-shell"; see Setting own connection related information. If you want, for example, use /usr/bin/zsh on a remote host, you might apply

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             (list (regexp-quote "/sshx:user@host:")
                   "remote-shell" "/usr/bin/zsh"))

This works only for connection methods which allow to override the remote login shell, like sshx or plink. See Inline methods and External methods for connection methods which support this.

This approach has also the advantage, that settings in tramp-sh-extra-args will be applied. For zsh, the trouble with the shell prompt due to set zle options will be avoided. For bash, loading ~/.editrc or ~/.inputrc is suppressed.

Similar problems can happen with the local shell TRAMP uses to create a process. By default, it uses the command /bin/sh for this, which could also be a link to another shell. In order to overwrite this, you might apply

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-encoding-shell "/usr/bin/zsh")

This uses also the settings in tramp-sh-extra-args.

Note: If you use an ssh-based method for connection, do not set the RemoteCommand option in your ssh configuration to something like screen. If used, RemoteCommand must open an interactive shell on the remote host. On the other hand, some ssh-based methods, like sshx or scpx, silently overwrite a RemoteCommand option of the configuration file.

4.17.2 Other remote shell setup hints

TRAMP checks for the availability of standard programs in the usual locations. Common tactics include successively trying test -e, /usr/bin/test -e, and /bin/test -e. ls -d is another approach. But these approaches do not help with these new login patterns.

When TRAMP encounters two-factor logins or additional challenge questions, such as entering birth date or security code or passphrase, TRAMP needs a few more configuration steps to accommodate them.

The difference between a password prompt and a passphrase prompt is that the password for completing the login while the passphrase is for authorizing access to local authentication information, such as the ssh key.

There is no one configuration to accommodate all the variations in login security, especially not the exotic ones. However, TRAMP provides a few tweaks to address the most common ones.

tramp-shell-prompt-pattern

tramp-shell-prompt-pattern is for remote login shell prompt, which may not be the same as the local login shell prompt, shell-prompt-pattern. Since most hosts use identical prompts, TRAMP sets a similar default value for both prompts.

tramp-password-prompt-regexp
tramp-otp-password-prompt-regexp
tramp-wrong-passwd-regexp

TRAMP uses tramp-password-prompt-regexp to distinguish between prompts for passwords and prompts for passphrases. By default, tramp-password-prompt-regexp handles the detection in English language environments. See a localization example below:

(customize-set-variable
 'tramp-password-prompt-regexp
  (concat
   "^.*"
   (regexp-opt
    '("passphrase" "Passphrase"
      ;; English
      "password" "Password"
      ;; Deutsch
      "passwort" "Passwort"
      ;; Français
      "mot de passe" "Mot de passe")
    t)
   ".*:\0? *"))

This user option is, by default, initialized from password-word-equivalents when TRAMP is loaded, and it is usually more convenient to add new passphrases to that user option instead of altering this user option.

The user option tramp-otp-password-prompt-regexp has a similar purpose, but for one-time passwords. Those passwords are not cached by TRAMP for reuse.

Similar localization may be necessary for handling wrong password prompts, for which TRAMP uses tramp-wrong-passwd-regexp.

tramp-terminal-type

TRAMP uses the user option tramp-terminal-type to set the remote environment variable TERM for the shells it runs. By default, it is "dumb", but this could be changed. A dumb terminal is best suited to run the background sessions of TRAMP. However, running interactive remote shells might require a different setting. This could be achieved by tweaking the TERM environment variable in process-environment.

(let ((process-environment
       (cons "TERM=xterm-256color" process-environment)))
  (shell))
Determining a TRAMP session

Sometimes, it is needed to identify whether a shell runs under TRAMP control. The setting of environment variable TERM will help:

if test "$TERM" = "dumb"; then
   ...
fi

Another possibility is to check the environment variable INSIDE_EMACS. Like for all subprocesses of Emacs, this is set to the version of the parent Emacs process. TRAMP adds its own package version to this string, which could be used for further tests in an inferior shell. The string of that environment variable looks always like

echo $INSIDE_EMACS
⇒ 27.2,tramp:2.4.5
tset and other questions

To suppress inappropriate prompts for terminal type, TRAMP sets the TERM environment variable before the remote login process begins via the user option tramp-terminal-type (see above). This will silence common tset related prompts.

TRAMP’s strategy for handling such prompts (commonly triggered from login scripts on remote hosts) is to set the environment variables so that no prompts interrupt the shell initialization process.

An alternative approach is to configure TRAMP with strings that can identify such questions using tramp-actions-before-shell. Example:

(defconst my-tramp-prompt-regexp
  "Enter the birth date of your mother:\\s-*"
  "Regular expression matching my login prompt question.")

(defun my-tramp-action (proc vec)
  "Enter \"19000101\" in order to give a correct answer."
  (save-window-excursion
    (with-current-buffer (tramp-get-connection-buffer vec)
      (tramp-message vec 6 "\n%s" (buffer-string))
      (tramp-send-string vec "19000101"))))

(add-to-list 'tramp-actions-before-shell
             '(my-tramp-prompt-regexp my-tramp-action))

The regular expressions used in tramp-actions-before-shell must match the end of the connection buffer. Due to performance reasons, this search starts at the end of the buffer, and it is limited to 256 characters backwards.

Conflicting names for users and variables in .profile

When a user name is the same as a variable name in a local file, such as .profile, then TRAMP may send incorrect values for environment variables. To avoid incorrect values, change the local variable name to something different from the user name. For example, if the user name is FRUMPLE, then change the variable name to FRUMPLE_DIR.

Non-Bourne commands in .profile

When the remote host’s .profile is also used for shells other than Bourne shell, then some incompatible syntaxes for commands in .profile may trigger errors in Bourne shell on the host and may not complete client’s TRAMP connections.

One example of a Bourne shell incompatible syntax in .profile: using export FOO=bar instead of FOO=bar; export FOO. After remote login, TRAMP will trigger an error during its execution of /bin/sh on the remote host because Bourne shell does not recognize the export command as entered in .profile.

Likewise, (~) character in paths will cause errors because Bourne shell does not do (~) character expansions.

One approach to avoiding these incompatibilities is to make all commands in ~/.shrc and ~/.profile Bourne shell compatible so TRAMP can complete connections to that remote. To accommodate using non-Bourne shells on that remote, use other shell-specific config files. For example, bash can use ~/.bash_profile and ignore .profile.

Interactive shell prompt

TRAMP redefines the remote shell prompt internally for robust parsing. This redefinition affects the looks of a prompt in an interactive remote shell through commands, such as M-x shell RET. Such prompts, however, can be reset to something more readable and recognizable using these environment variables.

TRAMP sets the INSIDE_EMACS environment variable in the startup script file ~/.emacs_SHELLNAME.

SHELLNAME is bash or equivalent shell names. Change it by setting the environment variable ESHELL in the .emacs as follows:

(setenv "ESHELL" "bash")

Then re-set the prompt string in ~/.emacs_SHELLNAME as follows:

# Reset the prompt for remote TRAMP shells.
if [ "${INSIDE_EMACS/*tramp*/tramp}" == "tramp" ] ; then
   PS1="[\u@\h \w]$ "
fi
busybox / nc

TRAMP’s nc method uses the nc command to install and execute a listener as follows (see tramp-methods):

$ nc -l -p 42

The above command-line syntax has changed with busybox versions. If nc refuses the ‘-p’ parameter, then overwrite as follows:

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             `(,(regexp-quote "192.168.0.1")
               "remote-copy-args" (("-l") ("%r"))))

where ‘192.168.0.1’ is the remote host IP address (see Setting own connection related information).

4.18 Ssh setup hints

The most common TRAMP connection family is based on either ssh or scp of OpenSSH, or plink or pscp of PuTTY on MS Windows. In the following, some configuration recommendations are given.

4.18.1 Using ssh config include for host name completion

OpenSSH configuration files can use an Include option for further configuration files. Default TRAMP host name completion ignores this option. However, you can configure this yourself.

Given, your ~/.ssh/config file contains the following option:

Include ~/.ssh/conf.d/*

The following code snippet in your .emacs uses all files in that directory for host name completion:

(tramp-set-completion-function
 "ssh" (append (tramp-get-completion-function "ssh")
               (mapcar (lambda (file) `(tramp-parse-sconfig ,file))
                       (directory-files
                        "~/.ssh/conf.d/"
                        'full directory-files-no-dot-files-regexp))))

This code snippet does it for the ssh method. If you replace "ssh" by "scp", it does it also for that method (or any other method you like).

4.18.2 Detection of session hangouts

ssh sessions on the local host hang when the network is down. TRAMP cannot safely detect such hangs. OpenSSH can be configured to kill such hangs with the following settings in ~/.ssh/config:

Host *
     ServerAliveInterval 5
     ServerAliveCountMax 2

The corresponding PuTTY configuration is in the Connection entry, Seconds between keepalives option. Set this to 5. There is no counter which could be set.

4.18.3 Using ssh connection sharing

TRAMP uses the ControlMaster=auto OpenSSH option by default, if possible. However, it overwrites ControlPath settings when initiating ssh sessions. TRAMP does this to fend off a stall if a master session opened outside the Emacs session is no longer open. That is why TRAMP prompts for the password again even if there is an ssh already open.

Some OpenSSH versions support a ControlPersist option, which allows you to set the ControlPath provided the variable tramp-ssh-controlmaster-options is customized as follows:

(customize-set-variable
 'tramp-ssh-controlmaster-options
 (concat
   "-o ControlPath=/tmp/ssh-ControlPath-%%r@%%h:%%p "
   "-o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=yes"))

Note how ‘%r’, ‘%h’ and ‘%p’ must be encoded as ‘%%r’, ‘%%h’ and ‘%%p’.

Using a predefined string in tramp-ssh-controlmaster-options, or puzzling an own string, happens only when user option tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options is set to t. If the ~/.ssh/config file is configured appropriately for the above behavior, then any changes to ssh can be suppressed with this nil setting:

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options nil)

Sometimes, it is not possible to use OpenSSH’s ControlMaster option for remote processes. This could result in concurrent access to the OpenSSH socket when reading data by different processes, which could block Emacs. In this case, setting tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options to suppress disables shared access. It is not needed to set this user option permanently to suppress, binding the user option prior calling make-process is sufficient. TRAMP does this for esxample for compilation processes on its own.

tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options should also be set to nil or suppress if you use the ProxyCommand or ProxyJump options in your ssh configuration.

In order to use the ControlMaster option, TRAMP must check whether the ssh client supports this option. This is only possible on the local host, for the first hop. TRAMP does not use this option on proxy hosts, therefore.

If you want to use this option also for the other hops, you must configure ~/.ssh/config on the proxy host:

Host *
     ControlMaster      auto
     ControlPath        tramp.%C
     ControlPersist     no

Check the ‘ssh_config(5)’ man page whether these options are supported on your proxy host.

On MS Windows, tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options is set to nil by default, because the MS Windows and MSYS2 implementations of OpenSSH do not support this option properly.

In PuTTY, you can achieve connection sharing in the Connection/SSH entry, enabling the Share SSH connections if possible option.

4.18.4 Configure direct copying between two remote servers

TRAMP uses a temporary local copy when copying two files between different remote hosts via external methods. This behavior is due to authentication problems TRAMP cannot handle sufficiently. However, for scp connections this can be changed. When a file shall be copied between two different remote hosts ‘source’ and ‘target’, and

  • - Variable tramp-use-scp-direct-remote-copying is non-nil,
  • - Remote host ‘source’ doesn’t use the RemoteCommand option in ~/.ssh/config,
  • - Remote host ‘target’ shows the same host key when seen from the local host and from host ‘source’, and
  • - scp running on host ‘source’ can authenticate to host ‘target’ without requiring a password,

TRAMP applies direct remote copying between hosts ‘source’ and ‘target’ like

scp -p -T -R -q -r source:/path/to/file target:/path/to/another/file

This protects also your local temporary directory from overrun when copying large files.

If these conditions do not apply, and tramp-use-scp-direct-remote-copying is non-nil, the option ‘-3’ is used instead of ‘-R’.

When TRAMP uses direct remote copying, password caches are not consulted.

4.18.5 Issues with Cygwin and MS Windows ssh

This section is incomplete. Please share your solutions.

MS Windows’ ssh does not open a remote TTY. Use the method sshx or scpx instead. Furthermore, it cannot read a passphrase for ssh private keys. Use the MS ssh-agent.

Cygwin’s ssh works only with a Cygwin version of Emacs. To check for compatibility: type M-x eshell RET, and start ssh test.host RET. Incompatibilities trigger this message:

Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a terminal.

Some older versions of Cygwin’s ssh work with the sshx access method. Consult Cygwin’s FAQ at https://cygwin.com/faq/ for details.

On the Emacs Wiki it is explained how to use the helper program fakecygpty to fix this problem.

When using the scpx access method, Emacs may call scp with MS Windows file naming, such as c:/foo. But the version of scp that is installed with Cygwin does not know about MS Windows file naming, which causes it to incorrectly look for a host named ‘c’.

A workaround: write a wrapper script for scp to convert Windows file names to Cygwin file names.

When using the cygwin ssh-agent on MS Windows for password-less interaction, ssh methods depend on the environment variable SSH_AUTH_SOCK. But this variable is not set when Emacs is started from a Desktop shortcut and authentication fails.

One workaround is to use an MS Windows based SSH Agent, such as the native MS ssh-agent or Pageant. The latter is part of the PuTTY Suite of tools.

The fallback is to start Emacs from a shell.

4.19 FUSE setup hints

The FUSE file systems are mounted by default at /tmp/tramp.method.user@host#port. The user name and port number are optional. If the file system is already mounted, it will be used as it is. If the mount point does not exist yet, TRAMP creates this directory.

The mount point can be overwritten by the connection property "mount-point", Setting own connection related information. Example:

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             `(,(regexp-quote "/sshfs:user@host:")
               "mount-point"
               ,(expand-file-name "sshfs.user@host" user-emacs-directory)))

The user option tramp-fuse-unmount-on-cleanup, when set to non-nil, controls, whether a mount point is unmounted on connection cleanup or on Emacs exiting.

4.19.1 rclone setup

The default arguments of the rclone operations mount, copyto, moveto and about are declared in the variable tramp-methods as method specific parameters. Usually, they don’t need to be overwritten.

If needed, these parameters can be overwritten as connection properties "mount-args", "copyto-args", "moveto-args" and "about-args", See Setting own connection related information. All of them are list of strings.

Be careful changing "--dir-cache-time", this could delay visibility of files.

4.19.2 sshfs setup

The method sshfs declares the mount arguments in the variable tramp-methods, passed to the sshfs command. This is a list of list of strings, and can be overwritten by the connection property "mount-args", See Setting own connection related information.

Additionally, it declares also the arguments for running remote processes, using the ssh command. These don’t need to be changed.

4.20 Android shell setup hints

TRAMP uses the adb method to access Android devices. Android devices provide a restricted shell access through an USB connection. The local host must have the adb program installed. Usually, it is sufficient to open the file /adb::/. Then you can navigate in the file system via dired.

Alternatively, applications such as Termux or SSHDroid that run sshd process on the Android device can accept any ssh-based methods provided these settings are adjusted:

  • sh must be specified for remote shell since Android devices do not provide /bin/sh. sh will then invoke whatever shell is installed on the device with this setting:
    (add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
                 (list (regexp-quote "192.168.0.26") "remote-shell" "sh"))
    

    where ‘192.168.0.26’ is the Android device’s IP address. (see Setting own connection related information).

  • On the Android device the directory names are prefixed with an application specific prefix, which is /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin instead of /usr/bin in the Termux case. You must adapt the file names in tramp-remote-path, for example via connection-local settings:
    (connection-local-set-profile-variables
     'tramp-connection-local-termux-profile
     `((tramp-remote-path
        . ,(mapcar
    	(lambda (x)
    	  (if (stringp x) (concat "/data/data/com.termux/files" x) x))
    	(copy-tree tramp-remote-path)))))
    
    (connection-local-set-profiles
     '(:application tramp :machine "192.168.0.26")
     'tramp-connection-local-termux-profile)
    
  • When the Android device is not ‘rooted’, specify a writable directory for temporary files:
    (add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
                 (list (regexp-quote "192.168.0.26")
    		   "tmpdir" "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/tmp"))
    
  • Open a remote connection with the command C-x C-f /ssh:192.168.0.26#2222: RET, where sshd is listening on port ‘2222’.

    To add a corresponding entry to the ~/.ssh/config file (recommended), use this:

    Host android
         HostName 192.168.0.26
         User root
         Port 2222
    

    To use the host name ‘android’ instead of the IP address shown in the previous example, fix the connection properties as follows:

    (add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
                 (list (regexp-quote "android") "remote-shell" "sh"))
    (add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
                 (list (regexp-quote "android")
    		   "tmpdir" "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/tmp"))
    (connection-local-set-profiles
     '(:application tramp :machine "android")
     'tramp-connection-local-termux-profile)
    

    Open a remote connection with the more concise command C-x C-f /ssh:android: RET.

4.21 Auto-save, File Lock and Backup configuration

To avoid TRAMP from saving backup files owned by ‘root’ to locations accessible to others, default backup settings in backup-directory-alist have to be altered.

Here’s a scenario where files could be inadvertently exposed. Emacs by default writes backup files to the same directory as the original files unless changed to another location, such as ~/.emacs.d/backups/. Such a directory will also be used by default by TRAMP when using, say, a restricted file /su:root@localhost:/etc/secretfile. The backup file of the secretfile is now owned by the user logged in from TRAMP and not ‘root’.

When backup-directory-alist is nil (the default), such problems do not occur.

To “turn off” the backup feature for remote files and stop TRAMP from saving to the backup directory, use this:

(add-to-list 'backup-directory-alist
             (cons tramp-file-name-regexp nil))

Disabling backups can be targeted to just the su and sudo methods:

(setq backup-enable-predicate
      (lambda (name)
        (and (normal-backup-enable-predicate name)
             (not
              (let ((method (file-remote-p name 'method)))
                (when (stringp method)
                  (member method '("su" "sudo"))))))))

Another option is to create better backup file naming with user and host names prefixed to the file name. For example, transforming /etc/secretfile to ~/.emacs.d/backups/!su:root@localhost:!etc!secretfile, set the TRAMP user option tramp-backup-directory-alist from the existing user option backup-directory-alist.

Then TRAMP backs up to a file name that is transformed with a prefix consisting of the DIRECTORY name. This file name prefixing happens only when the DIRECTORY is an absolute local file name.

Example:

(add-to-list 'backup-directory-alist
             (cons "." "~/.emacs.d/backups/"))
(customize-set-variable
 'tramp-backup-directory-alist backup-directory-alist)

The backup file name of /su:root@localhost:/etc/secretfile would be /su:root@localhost:~/.emacs.d/backups/!su:root@localhost:!etc!secretfile~.

Just as for backup files, similar issues of file naming affect auto-saving remote files. Auto-saved files are saved in the directory specified by the user option auto-save-file-name-transforms. By default this is set to the local temporary directory. But in some versions of Debian GNU/Linux, this points to the source directory where the Emacs was compiled. Reset such values to a valid directory.

Set auto-save-file-name-transforms to nil to save auto-saved files to the same directory as the original file.

Alternatively, set the user option tramp-auto-save-directory to direct all auto saves to that location.

An alternative to auto-save-mode is auto-save-visited-mode. In this mode, auto-saving is identical to explicit saving. If you want to disable this behavior for remote files, set user option remote-file-name-inhibit-auto-save-visited to non-nil.

And still more issues to handle. Since Emacs 28, file locks use a similar user option as auto-save files, called lock-file-name-transforms. By default this user option is nil, meaning to keep file locks in the same directory as the original file.

If you change lock-file-name-transforms in order to keep file locks for remote files somewhere else, you will lose Emacs’s feature to warn you, if a file is changed in parallel from different Emacs sessions, or via different remote connections. Be careful with such settings.

Setting remote-file-name-inhibit-locks to non-nil prevents the creation of remote lock files at all.

Per default, TRAMP asks for confirmation if a ‘root’-owned remote backup, auto-save or lock file has to be written to your local temporary directory. If you want to suppress this confirmation question, set user option tramp-allow-unsafe-temporary-files to t.

4.22 Protect remote files by encryption

Note: File encryption in TRAMP is experimental, don’t use it in production systems!

Sometimes, it is desirable to protect files located on remote directories, like cloud storages. In order to do this, you might instruct TRAMP to encrypt all files copied to a given remote directory, and to decrypt such files when accessing. This includes both file contents and file names.

TRAMP does this transparently. Although both files and file names are encrypted on the remote side, they are accessible inside Emacs as they wouldn’t be transformed as such.

Internally, TRAMP uses the encfs package. Therefore, this feature is available only if this package is installed on the local host. TRAMP does not keep and ‘encfs mountpoint’ permanently. Instead, it encrypts / decrypts files and file names on the fly, using encfsctl.

Command: tramp-crypt-add-directory name

This command marks the existing remote directory name for encryption. Files in that directory and all subdirectories will be encrypted before copying to, and decrypted after copying from that directory. File and directory names will be also encrypted.

User Option: tramp-crypt-encfs-option

If a remote directory is marked for encryption, it is initialized via encfs the very first time a file in this directory is accessed. This user option controls, which default encfs configuration option will be selected, it can be "--standard" or "--paranoia". See the ‘encfs(1)’ man page for details.

However, TRAMP must adapt these configuration sets. The chainedNameIV configuration option must be disabled; otherwise TRAMP couldn’t handle file name encryption transparently.

A password protected encfs configuration file is created the very first time you access an encrypted remote directory. It is kept in your user-emacs-directory with the url-encoded directory name as part of the basename, and encfs6.xml as suffix. If you, for example, mark the remote directory /nextcloud:user@host:/path/to/dir for encryption, the configuration file is saved as tramp-%2Fnextcloud%3Auser%40host%3A%2Fpath%2Fto%2Fdir%2F.encfs6.xml in user-emacs-directory. Do not lose this file and the corresponding password; otherwise there is no way to decrypt your encrypted files.

User Option: tramp-crypt-save-encfs-config-remote

If this user option is non-nil (the default), the encfs configuration file .encfs6.xml is also kept in the encrypted remote directory. It depends on you, whether you regard the password protection of this file as sufficient. The advantage would be, that such a remote directory could be accessed by different Emacs sessions, different users, without presharing the configuration file between the users.

The command encfsctl, the workhorse for encryption / decryption, needs the configuration file password every call. Therefore, it is recommend to cache this password in Emacs. This can be done using auth-sources, Using an authentication file. An entry needs the url-encoded directory name as machine, your local user name as user, and the password. The port is optional, if given it must be the string "crypt". The example above would require the following entry in the authentication file ("yourname" is the result of (user-login-name)):

machine %2Fnextcloud%3Auser%40host%3A%2Fpath%2Fto%2Fdir%2F \
        login yourname port crypt password geheim

If you use a remote file name with a quoted localname part, this localname and the corresponding file will not be encrypted / decrypted. If you have an encrypted remote directory /nextcloud:user@host:/path/to/dir, the command

C-x d /nextcloud:user@host:/path/to/dir

will show the directory listing with the plain file names, and the command

C-x d /nextcloud:user@host:/:/path/to/dir

will show the directory listing with the encrypted file names, and visiting a file will show its encrypted contents. However, it is highly discouraged to mix encrypted and not encrypted files in the same directory.

Command: tramp-crypt-remove-directory name

This command should be used to indicate that files in name should no longer be encrypted. Existing encrypted files and subdirectories will remain encrypted.

5 Using TRAMP

TRAMP operates transparently, accessing remote files as if they are local. However, TRAMP employs a formalized remote file naming syntax to perform its functions transparently. This syntax consists of many parts specifying access methods, authentication, host names, and file names. Ange FTP uses a similar syntax.

Unlike opening local files in Emacs, which are instantaneous, opening remote files in TRAMP is slower at first. Sometimes there is a noticeable delay before the prompts for passwords or authentication appear in the minibuffer. Hitting RET or other keys during this gap will be processed by Emacs. This type-ahead facility is a feature of Emacs that may cause missed prompts when using TRAMP.

5.1 TRAMP file name conventions

/method:host:/path/to/file opens file /path/to/file on the remote host host, using the method method.

/ssh:melancholia:.emacs

For the file .emacs located in the home directory, on the host melancholia, using method ssh.

/ssh:melancholia.danann.net:.emacs

For the file .emacs specified using the fully qualified domain name of the host.

/ssh:melancholia:~/.emacs

For the file .emacs specified using the ~, which is expanded.

/ssh:melancholia:~daniel/.emacs

For the file .emacs located in daniel’s home directory on the host, melancholia. The ~<user> construct is expanded to the home directory of that user on the remote host.

/ssh:melancholia:/etc/squid.conf

For the file /etc/squid.conf on the host melancholia.

host can take IPv4 or IPv6 address, as in /ssh:127.0.0.1:.emacs or /ssh:[::1]:.emacs. For syntactical reasons, IPv6 addresses must be embedded in square brackets [ and ].

By default, TRAMP will use the current local user name as the remote user name for log in to the remote host. Specifying a different name using the proper syntax will override this default behavior: /method:user@host:path/to/file.

/ssh:daniel@melancholia:.emacs is for file .emacs in daniel’s home directory on the host, melancholia, accessing via method ssh.

For specifying port numbers, affix #<port> to the host name. For example: /ssh:daniel@melancholia#42:.emacs.

All method, user name, host name, port number and local name parts are optional, See Selecting a default method, See Selecting a default user, See Selecting a default host. For syntactical reasons, the default method must be indicated by the pseudo method -.

5.2 Alternative file name syntax

The syntax described in TRAMP file name conventions is the default syntax, which is active after Emacs startup. However, this can be changed.

Command: tramp-change-syntax syntax

This command changes the syntax TRAMP uses for remote file names. Beside the default value, syntax can be

  • simplified

    This remote file name syntax is similar to the syntax used by Ange FTP. A remote file name has the form /user@host:path/to/file. The user@ part is optional, and the method is determined by Selecting a default method.

  • separate

    This remote file name syntax originated in the XEmacs text editor. A remote file name has the form /[method/user@host]path/to/file. The method and user@ parts are optional.

Variable: tramp-file-name-regexp

This variable keeps a regexp which matches the selected remote file name syntax. Its value changes after every call of tramp-change-syntax. However, it is not recommended to use this variable in external packages, a call of file-remote-p is much more appropriate.

5.3 File name completion

TRAMP can complete the following TRAMP file name components: method names, user names, host names, and file names located on remote hosts.

For example, type C-x C-f / s TAB, TRAMP completion choices show up as

sbin/
scp:
scpx:
sftp:
sg:
smb:
srv/
ssh:
sshx:
su:
sudo:
sys/

ssh:’ is a possible completion for the respective method, and ‘sbin/’ stands for the directory /sbin on your local host.

Type s h : for the minibuffer completion to ‘/ssh:’. Typing TAB shows host names TRAMP extracts from ~/.ssh/config file, for example:

ssh:127.0.0.1:
ssh:192.168.0.1:
ssh:[::1]:
ssh:localhost:
ssh:melancholia.danann.net:
ssh:melancholia:

Choose a host from the above list and then continue to complete file names on that host.

When the configuration (see Selecting config files for user/host name completion) includes user names, then the completion lists will account for the user names as well.

Results from auth-sources search (see Using an authentication file) are added to the completion candidates. This search could be annoying, for example due to a passphrase request of the ~/.authinfo.gpg authentication file. The user option tramp-completion-use-auth-sources controls, whether such a search is performed during completion.

Remote hosts previously visited or hosts whose connections are kept persistently (see Reusing connection related information) will be included in the completion lists. If you want to suppress this completion because there are invalid entries in the persistency file, for example if the host configuration changes often, or if you plug your laptop to different networks frequently, you can set the user option tramp-completion-use-cache to nil.

After remote host name completion comes completion of file names on the remote host. It works the same as with local host file completion except that killing with double-slash // kills only the file name part of the TRAMP file name syntax. A triple-slash stands for the default behavior.

Example:

C-x C-f /ssh:melancholia:/usr/local/bin//etc TAB
     -| /ssh:melancholia:/etc

C-x C-f /ssh:melancholia://etc TAB
     -| /ssh:melancholia:/etc

C-x C-f /ssh:melancholia:/usr/local/bin///etc TAB
     -| /etc

5.4 Declaring multiple hops in the file name

TRAMP file name syntax can accommodate ad-hoc specification of multiple proxies without using tramp-default-proxies-alist configuration setup (see Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops).

Each proxy is specified using the same syntax as the remote host specification minus the file name part. Each hop is separated by a ‘|’. Chain the proxies from the starting host to the destination remote host name and file name. For example, hopping over a single proxy ‘bird@bastion’ to a remote file on ‘you@remotehost’:

C-x C-f /ssh:bird@bastion|ssh:you@remotehost:/path RET

Each involved method must be an inline method (see Inline methods).

TRAMP adds the ad-hoc definitions on the fly to tramp-default-proxies-alist and is available for reuse during that Emacs session. Subsequent TRAMP connections to the same remote host can then use the shortcut form: ‘/ssh:you@remotehost:/path’.

User Option: tramp-show-ad-hoc-proxies

If this user option is non-nil, ad-hoc definitions are kept in remote file names instead of showing the shortcuts.

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-show-ad-hoc-proxies t)

Ad-hoc definitions are removed from tramp-default-proxies-alist via the command M-x tramp-cleanup-all-connections RET (see Cleanup remote connections).

User Option: tramp-save-ad-hoc-proxies

For ad-hoc definitions to be saved automatically in tramp-default-proxies-alist for future Emacs sessions, set tramp-save-ad-hoc-proxies to non-nil.

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-save-ad-hoc-proxies t)

Ad-hoc proxies can take patterns %h or %u like in tramp-default-proxies-alist. The following file name expands to user ‘root’ on host ‘remotehost’, starting with an ssh session on host ‘remotehost’: ‘/ssh:%h|su:remotehost:’.

On the other hand, if a trailing hop does not specify a host name, the host name of the previous hop is reused. Therefore, the following file name is equivalent to the previous example: ‘/ssh:remotehost|su::’.

5.5 Expanding ~ to home directory

Home directories on remote hosts can be typed as tilde ~. If possible, they are expanded to the remote user’s home directory on the remote host. Example:

/ssh:user@host:~
⇒ /ssh:user@host:/home/user

This works in general for ssh-like methods, and for sudoedit. These methods allow also the home directory expansion for another user, like

/sudoedit::~otheruser
⇒ /sudoedit:root@localhost:/home/otheruser

For other methods, a home directory can be expanded only if supported. This happens for example for the sftp method. Methods, which require a share directory in the remote file name (afp, smb), use the value of this share directory as home directory:

/smb:user@host:~
⇒ /smb:user@host:/share

Since TRAMP cannot know in advance which share directory is intended to use, this expansion can be applied only when a share directory has been used already.

The methods adb, rclone and sshfs do not support home directory expansion at all. However, TRAMP keeps the home directory in the cache. Therefore, those methods could be configured to expand a home directory via a connection property, See Setting own connection related information. Example:

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             (list (regexp-quote "/sshfs:user@randomhost.your.domain:")
                   "~user" "/home/user"))

When your remote file name does not contain a ‘user’ part, the connection property "~" must be used instead.

5.6 Integration with other Emacs packages

TRAMP supports starting new running processes on the remote host for discovering remote file names. Emacs packages on the remote host need no specific modifications for TRAMP’s use.

This type of integration does not work with the ftp method, and does not support the pty association as specified in start-file-process.

process-file and start-file-process work on the remote host when the variable default-directory is remote:

(let ((default-directory "/ssh:remote.host:"))
  (start-file-process "grep" (get-buffer-create "*grep*")
                      "/bin/sh" "-c" "grep -e tramp *"))

For a local process, process-file returns either the exit code of the process, or a string describing a signal, when the process has been interrupted. Since it cannot be determined reliably whether a remote process has been interrupted, process-file will always returns the exit code for it. When the user option process-file-return-signal-string is non-nil, process-file treats all exit codes greater than 128 as an indication that the process has been interrupted, and returns a corresponding string.

This remote process handling does not apply to GVFS (see GVFS-based external methods) because the remote file system is mounted on the local host and TRAMP accesses it by changing the default-directory.

TRAMP starts a remote process when a command is executed in a remote file or directory buffer. As of now, these packages have been integrated to work with TRAMP: shell.el, eshell.el, compile.el (commands like compile and grep) and gud.el (gdb or perldb).

TRAMP always modifies the INSIDE_EMACS environment variable for remote processes. By default, this environment variable shows the Emacs version. TRAMP adds its own version string, so it looks like ‘27.2,tramp:2.4.5.1’. However, other packages might also add their name to this environment variable, like ‘27.2,comint,tramp:2.4.5.1’.

For TRAMP to find the command on the remote, it must be accessible through the default search path as setup by TRAMP upon first connection. Alternatively, use an absolute path or extend tramp-remote-path (see How TRAMP finds and uses programs on the remote host):

(add-to-list 'tramp-remote-path "~/bin")
(add-to-list 'tramp-remote-path "/appli/pub/bin")

Customize user option tramp-remote-process-environment to suit the remote program’s environment for the remote host. tramp-remote-process-environment is a list of strings structured similar to process-environment, where each element is a string of the form ‘ENVVARNAME=VALUE’.

To avoid any conflicts with local host environment variables set through local configuration files, such as ~/.profile, use ‘ENVVARNAME=’ to unset them for the remote environment.

Use add-to-list to add entries:

(add-to-list 'tramp-remote-process-environment "JAVA_HOME=/opt/java")

Modifying or deleting already existing values in the tramp-remote-process-environment list may not be feasible on restricted remote hosts. For example, some system administrators disallow changing HISTORY environment variable. To accommodate such restrictions when using TRAMP, fix the tramp-remote-process-environment by the following code in the local .emacs file:

(let ((process-environment tramp-remote-process-environment))
  (setenv "HISTORY" nil)
  (setq tramp-remote-process-environment process-environment))

Setting the ENV environment variable instructs some shells to read an initialization file. By default, TRAMP disables this. You can override this behavior by evaluating

(let ((process-environment tramp-remote-process-environment))
  (setenv "ENV" "$HOME/.profile")
  (setq tramp-remote-process-environment process-environment))

In addition to tramp-remote-process-environment, you can set environment variables for individual remote process calls by let-binding process-environment. TRAMP applies any entries not present in the global default value of process-environment (overriding tramp-remote-process-environment settings, if they conflict). For example:

(let ((process-environment (cons "HGPLAIN=1" process-environment)))
  (process-file …))

Let-binding in this way works regardless of whether the process to be called is local or remote, since TRAMP would add just the HGPLAIN setting and local processes would take whole value of process-environment along with the new value of HGPLAIN.

For integrating other Emacs packages so TRAMP can execute remotely, please file a bug report. See Reporting Bugs and Problems.

5.6.1 Running remote programs that create local X11 windows

To allow a remote program to create an X11 window on the local host, set the DISPLAY environment variable for the remote host as follows in the local .emacs file:

(add-to-list 'tramp-remote-process-environment
             (format "DISPLAY=%s" (getenv "DISPLAY")))

(getenv "DISPLAY") should return a recognizable name for the local host that the remote host can redirect X11 window interactions. If querying for a recognizable name is not possible for whatever reason, then replace (getenv "DISPLAY") with a hard-coded, fixed name. Note that using :0 for X11 display name here will not work as expected.

An alternate approach is specify ForwardX11 yes or ForwardX11Trusted yes in ~/.ssh/config on the local host.

5.6.2 Running shell on a remote host

Set explicit-shell-file-name to the appropriate shell name when using TRAMP between two hosts with different operating systems, such as ‘windows-nt’ and ‘gnu/linux’. This option ensures the correct name of the remote shell program.

When explicit-shell-file-name is equal to nil, calling shell interactively will prompt for a shell name.

You could use connection-local variables for setting different values of explicit-shell-file-name for different remote hosts.

(connection-local-set-profile-variables
  'remote-bash
  '((explicit-shell-file-name . "/bin/bash")
    (explicit-bash-args . ("-i"))))

(connection-local-set-profile-variables
  'remote-ksh
  '((explicit-shell-file-name . "/bin/ksh")
    (explicit-ksh-args . ("-i"))))

(connection-local-set-profiles
  '(:application tramp :protocol "ssh" :machine "localhost")
  'remote-bash)

(connection-local-set-profiles
  `(:application tramp :protocol "sudo"
    :user "root" :machine ,(system-name))
  'remote-ksh)

5.6.3 Running shell-command on a remote host

shell-command executes commands synchronously or asynchronously on remote hosts and displays output in buffers on the local host. Example:

C-x C-f /sudo:: RET
M-& tail -f /var/log/syslog.log RET

tail command outputs continuously to the local buffer whose name is the value of the variable shell-command-buffer-name-async.

M-x auto-revert-tail-mode RET runs similarly showing continuous output.

shell-command uses the user option shell-file-name and the variable shell-command-switch in order to determine which shell to run. For remote hosts, their default values are /bin/sh and -c, respectively (except for the adb method, which uses /system/bin/sh). Like the variables in the previous section, these variables can be changed via connection-local variables.

If Emacs supports the user option async-shell-command-width (since Emacs 27), TRAMP cares about its value for asynchronous shell commands. It specifies the number of display columns for command output. For synchronous shell commands, a similar effect can be achieved by adding the environment variable COLUMNS to tramp-remote-process-environment.

5.6.4 Running eshell on a remote host

TRAMP is integrated into eshell.el, which enables interactive eshell sessions on remote hosts at the command prompt. You must add the module eshell-tramp to eshell-modules-list. Here’s a sample interaction after opening M-x eshell RET on a remote host:

~ $ cd /sudo::/etc RET
/sudo:root@host:/etc $ hostname RET
host
/sudo:root@host:/etc $ id RET
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
/sudo:root@host:/etc $ find-file shadow RET
#<buffer shadow>
/sudo:root@host:/etc $

eshell added custom su and sudo commands that set the default directory correctly for the *eshell* buffer. TRAMP silently updates tramp-default-proxies-alist with an entry for this directory (see Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops):

~ $ cd /ssh:user@remotehost:/etc RET
/ssh:user@remotehost:/etc $ find-file shadow RET
File is not readable: /ssh:user@remotehost:/etc/shadow
/ssh:user@remotehost:/etc $ sudo find-file shadow RET
#<buffer shadow>

/ssh:user@remotehost:/etc $ su - RET
/su:root@remotehost:/root $ id RET
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
/su:root@remotehost:/root $

5.6.5 Running a debugger on a remote host

gud.el provides a unified interface to symbolic debuggers. TRAMP can run debug on remote hosts by calling gdb with a remote file name:

M-x gdb RET
Run gdb (like this): gdb -i=mi /ssh:host:~/myprog RET

Since the remote gdb and gdb-inferior processes do not belong to the same process group on the remote host, there will be a warning, which can be ignored:

&"warning: GDB: Failed to set controlling terminal: Operation not permitted\n"

As consequence, there will be restrictions in I/O of the process to be debugged.

Relative file names are based on the remote default directory. When myprog.pl exists in /ssh:host:/home/user, valid calls include:

M-x perldb RET
Run perldb (like this): perl -d myprog.pl RET

Just the local part of a remote file name, such as perl -d /home/user/myprog.pl, is not possible.

Arguments of the program to be debugged must be literal, can take relative or absolute paths, but not remote paths.

5.6.6 Running remote processes on MS Windows hosts

winexe runs processes on a remote MS Windows host, and TRAMP can use it for process-file and start-file-process.

tramp-smb-winexe-program specifies the local winexe command. Powershell V2.0 on the remote host is required to run processes triggered from TRAMP.

explicit-shell-file-name and explicit-*-args have to be set properly so M-x shell RET can open a proper remote shell on a MS Windows host. To open cmd, set it as follows:

(setq explicit-shell-file-name "cmd"
      explicit-cmd-args '("/q"))

To open powershell as a remote shell, use this:

(setq explicit-shell-file-name "powershell"
      explicit-powershell-args '("-file" "-"))

5.6.7 Remote process connection type

Asynchronous processes behave differently based on whether they use a pseudo tty or not. This is controlled by the variable process-connection-type, which can be t or pty (use a pseudo tty), or nil or pipe (don’t use one). TRAMP is based on running shells on the remote host, which requires a pseudo tty. Therefore, it declares the variable tramp-process-connection-type, which carries this information for remote processes. Its default value is t, and there is no need to change it. The name of the remote pseudo tty is returned by the function process-tty-name.

If a remote process, started by start-file-process, should not use a pseudo tty, this can be requested by setting process-connection-type to nil or pipe. There is still a pseudo tty for the started process, but some terminal properties are changed, like suppressing translation of carriage return characters into newline.

The function make-process allows controlling this explicitly by using the :connection-type keyword. If this keyword is not used, the value of process-connection-type is applied instead.

5.6.8 Process properties of asynchronous remote processes

When available, TRAMP adds process properties to process objects of asynchronous properties. However, it is not guaranteed that all these properties are set.

  • remote-tty

    This is the name of the terminal a process uses on the remote host, i.e., it reads and writes on.

  • remote-pid

    The process id of the command executed on the remote host. This is used when sending signals remotely.

  • remote-command

    The remote command which has been invoked via make-process or start-file-process, a list of strings (program and its arguments). This does not show the additional shell sugar TRAMP makes around the commands, in order to see this you must inspect TRAMP traces.

The functions list-system-processes and process-attributes return information about system processes on the respective remote host. In order to retrieve this information, they use the command ps, driven by the following constants:

Constant: tramp-process-attributes-ps-args

This is a list of arguments (strings) ps is called with. The default value is appropriate for GNU/Linux remote hosts.

Constant: tramp-process-attributes-ps-format

This is a list of cons cells (key . type) for interpretation of the ps output. key is a key used in the process-attributes output plus the key pid, and type is the respective value returned by ps. It can be

numberp— a number
stringp— a string without spaces
number— a string of number width, could contain spaces
nil— a string until end of line

The default value is appropriate for GNU/Linux remote hosts.

If, for example, tramp-process-attributes-ps-args is declared as ("-eww" "-o" "pid,euid,euser,egid,egroup,comm:40,state"), the output of the respective ps command would look like

    PID  EUID EUSER     EGID EGROUP   COMMAND                                  S
      1     0 root         0 root     systemd                                  S
   1610     0 root         0 root     NFSv4 callback                           S
   …

The corresponding tramp-process-attributes-ps-format has the value

((pid . numberp) (euid . numberp) (user . stringp)
 (egid . numberp) (group . stringp) (comm . 40) (state . stringp))

The default values for tramp-process-attributes-ps-args and tramp-process-attributes-ps-format can be overwritten by connection-local variables. This is already done by TRAMP for the adb method, see tramp-adb-connection-local-default-ps-profile and tramp-adb-connection-local-default-ps-variables.

There are three further predefined sets of connection-local variables for remote BSD systems, for remote macOS systems, and for a remote ps command implemented with busybox. These are called tramp-connection-local-*-ps-profile and tramp-connection-local-*-ps-variables. Use them like

(connection-local-set-profiles
 '(:application tramp :machine "mybsdhost")
 'tramp-connection-local-bsd-ps-profile)

If you want to see a listing of remote system processes when calling proced, set user option proced-show-remote-processes to non-nil, or invoke that command with a negative argument like C-u - M-x proced RET when your buffer has a remote default-directory.

5.6.9 Improving performance of asynchronous remote processes

TRAMP’s implementation of make-process and start-file-process requires a serious overhead for initialization, every process invocation. This is needed for handling interactive dialogs when connecting the remote host (like providing a password), and initial environment setup.

Sometimes, this is not needed. Instead of starting a remote shell and running the command afterwards, it is sufficient to run the command directly. TRAMP supports this by an alternative implementation of make-process and start-file-process. This is triggered by the connection property "direct-async-process", See Setting own connection related information, which must be set to a non-nil value. Example:

(add-to-list 'tramp-connection-properties
             (list (regexp-quote "/ssh:user@host:")
                   "direct-async-process" t))

Using direct asynchronous processes in TRAMP is not possible, if the remote host is connected via multiple hops (see Connecting to a remote host using multiple hops). In this case, TRAMP falls back to its classical implementation.

Furthermore, this approach has the following limitations:

  • It works only for some connection methods defined in tramp-adb.el, tramp-container.el, tramp-sh.el and tramp-sshfs.el.
  • It does not support interactive user authentication. With ssh-based methods, this can be avoided by using a password agent like ssh-agent, using public key authentication, or using ControlMaster options.
  • It cannot be applied for ssh-based methods, which use the RemoteCommand option.
  • It cannot be killed via interrupt-process.
  • It does not report the remote terminal name via process-tty-name.
  • It does not set process property remote-pid.
  • It does not use tramp-remote-path.

In order to gain even more performance, it is recommended to bind tramp-verbose to 0 when running make-process or start-file-process. Furthermore, you might set tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options to nil in order to bypass TRAMP’s handling of the ControlMaster options, and use your own settings in ~/.ssh/config, Using ssh connection sharing.

5.7 Cleanup remote connections

TRAMP provides several ways to flush remote connections.

Command: tramp-cleanup-connection vec &optional keep-debug keep-password

This command flushes all connection related objects. vec is the internal representation of a remote connection. When called interactively, this command lists active remote connections in the minibuffer. Each connection is of the format /method:user@host:.

Flushing remote connections also cleans the password cache (see Reusing passwords for several connections), file cache, connection cache (see Reusing connection related information), and recentf cache. It also deletes session timers (see Setting own connection related information) and connection buffers.

If keep-debug is non-nil, the debug buffer is kept. A non-nil keep-password preserves the password cache.

Command: tramp-cleanup-this-connection

Flushes the current buffer’s remote connection objects, the same as in tramp-cleanup-connection.

Command: tramp-cleanup-all-connections

Flushes all active remote connection objects, the same as in tramp-cleanup-connection. This command removes also ad-hoc proxy definitions (see Declaring multiple hops in the file name).

Command: tramp-cleanup-all-buffers

Just as for tramp-cleanup-all-connections, all remote connections and ad-hoc proxy definition are cleaned up in addition to killing all buffers related to remote connections.

5.8 Renaming remote files

Sometimes, it is desirable to safe file contents of buffers visiting a given remote host. This could happen for example, if the local host changes its network integration, and the remote host is not reachable anymore.

Command: tramp-rename-files source target

Replace in all buffers the visiting file name from source to target. source is a remote directory name, which could contain also a localname part. target is the directory name source is replaced with. Often, target is a remote directory name on another host, but it can also be a local directory name. If target has no local part, the local part from source is used.

If target is nil, it is selected according to the first match in tramp-default-rename-alist. If called interactively, this match is offered as initial value for selection.

On all buffers, which have a buffer-file-name matching source, this name is modified by replacing source with target. This is applied by calling set-visited-file-name. The new buffer-file-name is prompted for modification in the minibuffer. The buffers are marked modified, and must be saved explicitly.

If user option tramp-confirm-rename-file-names is nil, changing the file name happens without confirmation. This requires a matching entry in tramp-default-rename-alist.

Remote buffers related to the remote connection identified by source, which are not visiting files, or which are visiting files not matching source, are not modified.

Interactively, target is selected from tramp-default-rename-alist without confirmation if the prefix argument is non-nil.

The remote connection identified by source is flushed by tramp-cleanup-connection.

Command: tramp-rename-these-files target

Replace visiting file names to target. The current buffer must be related to a remote connection. In all buffers, which are visiting a file with the same directory name, the buffer file name is changed.

Interactively, target is selected from tramp-default-rename-alist without confirmation if the prefix argument is non-nil.

User Option: tramp-default-rename-alist

The default target for renaming remote buffer file names. This is an alist of cons cells (source . target). The first matching item specifies the target to be applied for renaming buffer file names from source via tramp-rename-files. source is a regular expressions, which matches a remote file name. target must be a directory name, which could be remote (including remote directories TRAMP infers by default, such as ‘/method:user@host:’).

target can contain the patterns %m, %u or %h, which are replaced by the method name, user name or host name of source when calling tramp-rename-files.

source could also be a Lisp form, which will be evaluated. The result must be a string or nil, which is interpreted as a regular expression which always matches.

Example entries:

("/ssh:badhost:/path/to/dir/"
 . "/ssh:goodhost:/path/to/another/dir/")

would trigger renaming of buffer file names on ‘badhost’ to ‘goodhost’, including changing the directory name.

("/ssh:.+\\.company\\.org:" . "/ssh:multi.hop|ssh:%h:")

routes all connections to a host in ‘company.org’ via ‘/ssh:multi.hop:’, which might be useful when using Emacs outside the company network.

(nil . "~/saved-files/%m:%u@%h/")

saves all remote files locally, with a directory name including method name, user name and host name of the remote connection.

User Option: tramp-confirm-rename-file-names

Whether renaming a buffer file name by tramp-rename-files or tramp-rename-these-files must be confirmed.

5.9 Archive file names

TRAMP offers also transparent access to files inside file archives. This is possible only on hosts which have installed GVFS (the GNOME Virtual File System), GVFS-based external methods. Internally, file archives are mounted via the GVFS archive method.

A file archive is a regular file of kind /path/to/dir/file.EXT. The extension ‘.EXT’ identifies the type of the file archive. To examine the contents of an archive with Dired, open file name as if it were a directory (i.e., open /path/to/dir/file.EXT/). A file inside a file archive, called archive file name, has the name /path/to/dir/file.EXT/dir/file.

Most of the (elisp)magic file name operations, are implemented for archive file names, exceptions are all operations which write into a file archive, and process related operations. Therefore, functions like

(copy-file "/path/to/dir/file.tar/dir/file" "/somewhere/else")

work out of the box. This is also true for file name completion, and for libraries like dired or ediff, which accept archive file names as well.

File archives are identified by the file name extension ‘.EXT’. Since GVFS uses internally the library libarchive(3), all suffixes, which are accepted by this library, work also for archive file names. Accepted suffixes are listed in the constant tramp-archive-suffixes. They are

  • .7z’ — 7-Zip archives
  • .apk’ — Android package kits
  • .ar’ — UNIX archiver formats
  • .cab’, ‘.CAB’ — Microsoft Windows cabinets
  • .cpio’ — CPIO archives
  • .crate’ — Cargo (Rust) packages
  • .deb’ — Debian packages
  • .depot’ — HP-UX SD depots
  • .epub’ — Electronic publications
  • .exe’ — Self extracting Microsoft Windows EXE files
  • .iso’ — ISO 9660 images
  • .jar’ — Java archives
  • .lzh’, ‘.LZH’ — Microsoft Windows compressed LHA archives
  • .msu’, ‘.MSU’ — Microsoft Windows Update packages
  • .mtree’ — BSD mtree format
  • .odb’, ‘.odf’, ‘.odg’, ‘.odp’, ‘.ods’, ‘.odt’ — OpenDocument formats
  • .pax’ — Posix archives
  • .rar’ — RAR archives
  • .rpm’ — Red Hat packages
  • .shar’ — Shell archives
  • .tar’, ‘.tbz’, ‘.tgz’, ‘.tlz’, ‘.txz’, ‘.tzst’ — (Compressed) tape archives
  • .warc’ — Web archives
  • .xar’ — macOS XAR archives
  • .xpi’ — XPInstall Mozilla addons
  • .xps’ — Open XML Paper Specification (OpenXPS) documents
  • .zip’, ‘.ZIP’ — ZIP archives

File archives could also be compressed, identified by an additional compression suffix. Valid compression suffixes are listed in the constant tramp-archive-compression-suffixes. They are ‘.bz2’, ‘.gz’, ‘.lrz’, ‘.lz’, ‘.lz4’, ‘.lzma’, ‘.lzo’, ‘.uu’, ‘.xz’, ‘.Z’, and ‘.zst’. A valid archive file name would be /path/to/dir/file.tar.gz/dir/file. Even several suffixes in a row are possible, like /path/to/dir/file.tar.gz.uu/dir/file.

An archive file name could be a remote file name, as in /ftp:anonymous@ftp.gnu.org:/gnu/tramp/tramp-2.4.5.tar.gz/INSTALL. Since all file operations are mapped internally to GVFS operations, remote file names supported by tramp-gvfs perform better, because no local copy of the file archive must be downloaded first. For example, ‘/sftp:user@host:...’ performs better than the similar ‘/scp:user@host:...’. See the constant tramp-archive-all-gvfs-methods for a complete list of tramp-gvfs supported method names.

If url-handler-mode is enabled, archives could be visited via URLs, like https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tramp/tramp-2.4.5.tar.gz/INSTALL. This allows complex file operations like

(progn
  (url-handler-mode 1)
  (ediff-directories
   "https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tramp/tramp-2.4.4.tar.gz/tramp-2.4.4"
   "https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tramp/tramp-2.4.5.tar.gz/tramp-2.4.5" ""))

It is even possible to access file archives in file archives, as

(progn
  (url-handler-mode 1)
  (find-file
   "https://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/c/coreutils/\
coreutils_8.28-1_amd64.deb/control.tar.gz/control"))

In order to disable file archives, you could add the following form to your init file:

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-archive-enabled nil)

6 Reporting Bugs and Problems

TRAMP’s development team is actively engaged in solving bugs and problems and looks to feature requests and suggestions.

TRAMP’s mailing list is the place for more advice and information on working with TRAMP, solving problems, discussing, and general discussions about TRAMP.

TRAMP’s mailing list is moderated but even non-subscribers can post for moderator approval. Sometimes this approval step may take as long as 48 hours due to public holidays.

tramp-devel@gnu.org is the mailing list. Messages sent to this address go to all the subscribers. This is not the address to send subscription requests to.

To subscribe to the mailing list, visit: the TRAMP Mail Subscription Page.

Check if the bug or problem is already addressed in See Frequently Asked Questions.

Run M-x tramp-bug RET to generate a buffer with details of the system along with the details of the TRAMP installation. Please include these details with the bug report.

The bug report must describe in as excruciating detail as possible the steps required to reproduce the problem. These details must include the setup of the remote host and any special or unique conditions that exist.

Include a minimal test case that reproduces the problem. This will help the development team find the best solution and avoid unrelated detours.

To exclude cache-related problems, flush all caches before running the test, Cleanup remote connections. Alternatively, and often better for analysis, reproduce the problem in a clean Emacs session started with emacs -Q. Then, TRAMP does not load the persistency file (see Reusing connection related information), and it does not use passwords from auth-source.el (see Reusing passwords for several connections). The latter does not happen for the sudoedit method, otherwise it would be unusable.

If you use the GNU ELPA version of TRAMP, you must load it explicitly, because emacs -Q ignores installed ELPA packages. Call (version number adapted)

$ emacs -Q -l ~/.emacs.d/elpa/tramp-2.4.5.1/tramp-autoloads

When including TRAMP’s messages in the bug report, increase the verbosity level to 6 (see Traces) in the ~/.emacs file before repeating steps to the bug. Include the contents of the *tramp/foo* and *debug tramp/foo* buffers with the bug report. Both buffers could contain non-ASCII characters which are relevant for analysis, append the buffers as attachments to the bug report. This is also needed in order to avoid line breaks during mail transfer.

If you send the message from Emacs, you are asked about to append these buffers to the bug report. If you use an external mail program, you must save these buffers to files, and append them with that mail program.

Note that a verbosity level greater than 6 is not necessary at this stage. Also note that a verbosity level of 6 or greater, the contents of files and directories will be included in the debug buffer. Passwords typed in TRAMP will never be included there.

7 Frequently Asked Questions

8 How file names, directories and localnames are mangled and managed

8.1 Splitting a localname into its component parts

TRAMP package redefines lisp functions file-name-directory and file-name-nondirectory to accommodate the unique file naming syntax that TRAMP requires.

The replacements dissect the file name, use the original handler for the localname, take that result, and then re-build the TRAMP file name. By relying on the original handlers for localnames, TRAMP benefits from platform specific hacks to the original handlers.

8.2 Integrating with external Lisp packages

In general, it is not recommended to use TRAMP functions and variables not described in this manual. They might change their signature and/or semantics without any announcement.

8.2.1 File name completion

Sometimes, it is not convenient to open a new connection to a remote host, including entering the password and alike. For example, this is nasty for packages providing file name completion. Such a package could signal to TRAMP, that they don’t want it to establish a new connection. Use the variable non-essential temporarily and bind it to non-nil value.

(let ((non-essential t))
  …)

8.2.2 File attributes cache

Keeping a local cache of remote file attributes in sync with the remote host is a time-consuming operation. Flushing and re-querying these attributes can tax TRAMP to a grinding halt on busy remote hosts.

To get around these types of slow-downs in TRAMP’s responsiveness, set the process-file-side-effects to nil to stop TRAMP from flushing the cache. This is helpful in situations where callers to process-file know there are no file attribute changes. The let-bind form to accomplish this:

(let (process-file-side-effects)
  …)

For asynchronous processes, TRAMP uses a process sentinel to flush file attributes cache. When callers to start-file-process know beforehand no file attribute changes are expected, then the process sentinel should be set to the default state. In cases where the caller defines its own process sentinel, TRAMP’s process sentinel is overwritten. The caller can still flush the file attributes cache in its process sentinel with this code:

(unless (memq (process-status proc) '(run open))
  (dired-uncache remote-directory))

Since TRAMP traverses subdirectories starting with the root directory, it is most likely sufficient to make the default-directory of the process buffer as the root directory.

8.2.3 Timers

Timers run asynchronously at any time when Emacs is waiting for sending a string to a process, or waiting for process output. They can run any remote file operation, which would conflict with the already running remote file operation, if the same connection is affected. TRAMP detects this situation, and raises the remote-file-error error. A timer function should avoid this situation. As a minimum, it should protect itself against this error, by wrapping the timer function body as follows:

(ignore-error 'remote-file-error
  …)

9 How to Customize Traces

TRAMP messages are raised with verbosity levels ranging from 0 to 10. TRAMP does not display all messages; only those with a verbosity level less than or equal to tramp-verbose.

The verbosity levels are

With tramp-verbose greater than or equal to 4, messages are also written to a TRAMP debug buffer. Such debug buffers are essential to bug and problem analyzes. For TRAMP bug reports, set the tramp-verbose level to 6 (see Reporting Bugs and Problems).

The debug buffer is in Outline Mode. In this buffer, messages can be filtered by their level. To see messages up to verbosity level 5, enter C-u 6 C-c C-q.

TRAMP handles errors internally. Hence, to get a Lisp backtrace, the following settings are required:

(setq debug-on-error t
      debug-on-signal t)

If tramp-verbose is greater than or equal to 10, Lisp backtraces are also added to the TRAMP debug buffer in case of errors.

In very rare cases it could happen, that TRAMP blocks Emacs. Killing Emacs does not allow inspecting the debug buffer. In that case, you can instruct TRAMP to mirror the debug buffer to a file:

(customize-set-variable 'tramp-debug-to-file t)

The debug buffer is written as a file in your temporary-file-directory, which is usually /tmp/. Use this option with care, because it could decrease the performance of TRAMP actions.

If tramp-verbose is greater than or equal to 11, TRAMP function call traces are written to a TRAMP trace buffer.

Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
https://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
  1. PREAMBLE

    The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.

    This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.

    We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

  2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

    This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The “Document”, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law.

    A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.

    A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document’s overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.

    The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.

    The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.

    A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.

    Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.

    The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page” means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

    The “publisher” means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document to the public.

    A section “Entitled XYZ” means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, “Endorsements”, or “History”.) To “Preserve the Title” of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition.

    The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.

  3. VERBATIM COPYING

    You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.

    You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.

  4. COPYING IN QUANTITY

    If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

    If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

    If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

    It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.

  5. MODIFICATIONS

    You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:

    1. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
    2. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
    3. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
    4. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
    5. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
    6. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
    7. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
    8. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
    9. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
    10. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the “History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
    11. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
    12. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
    13. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
    14. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
    15. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

    If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version’s license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

    You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

    You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

    The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

  6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

    You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.

    The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.

    In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any sections Entitled “Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You must delete all sections Entitled “Endorsements.”

  7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

    You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

    You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

  8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

    A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation’s users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

    If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document’s Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.

  9. TRANSLATION

    Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.

    If a section in the Document is Entitled “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, or “History”, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title.

  10. TERMINATION

    You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

    However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

    Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice.

    Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does not give you any rights to use it.

  11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

    The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

    Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be used, that proxy’s public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.

  12. RELICENSING

    “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site” (or “MMC Site”) means any World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration” (or “MMC”) contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.

    “CC-BY-SA” means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco, California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license published by that same organization.

    “Incorporate” means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part of another Document.

    An MMC is “eligible for relicensing” if it is licensed under this License, and if all works that were first published under this License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008.

    The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1, 2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

  Copyright (C)  year  your name.
  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
  or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
  with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
  Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
  Free Documentation License''.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the “with…Texts.” line with this:

    with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
    the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
    being list.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.

Function Index

Jump to:   L   M   P   S   T  
Index Entry  Section

L
list-system-processes: Remote processes

M
make-process: Remote processes
my-tramp-parse: Customizing Completion

P
process-attributes: Remote processes

S
start-file-process: Remote processes

T
tramp-bug: Bug Reports
tramp-change-syntax: Change file name syntax
tramp-cleanup-all-buffers: Cleanup remote connections
tramp-cleanup-all-connections: Cleanup remote connections
tramp-cleanup-connection: Cleanup remote connections
tramp-cleanup-this-connection: Cleanup remote connections
tramp-crypt-add-directory: Keeping files encrypted
tramp-crypt-remove-directory: Keeping files encrypted
tramp-get-completion-function: Customizing Completion
tramp-get-completion-function: Ssh setup
tramp-parse-etc-group: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-hosts: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-netrc: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-passwd: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-rhosts: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-sconfig: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-shostkeys: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-shosts: Customizing Completion
tramp-parse-sknownhosts: Customizing Completion
tramp-rename-files: Renaming remote files
tramp-rename-these-files: Renaming remote files
tramp-set-completion-function: Customizing Completion
tramp-set-completion-function: Ssh setup

Jump to:   L   M   P   S   T  

Variable Index

Jump to:   A   B   C   D   E   F   H   I   L   N   P   R   S   T  
Index Entry  Section

A
ange-ftp-netrc-filename: Password handling
async-shell-command-width: Remote processes
auth-source-debug: Password handling
auth-source-save-behavior: Password handling
auth-sources: Password handling
auto-save-file-name-transforms: Auto-save File Lock and Backup

B
backup-directory-alist: Auto-save File Lock and Backup

C
COLUMNS, environment variable: Remote processes
ControlPath, ssh option: Ssh setup
ControlPersist, ssh option: Ssh setup
customize-package-emacs-version-alist: Obtaining TRAMP

D
debug-ignored-errors: Frequently Asked Questions
DISPLAY, environment variable: Remote processes

E
EDITOR, environment variable: Frequently Asked Questions
enable-remote-dir-locals: Configuration
ENV, environment variable: Remote processes
ESHELL, environment variable: Remote shell setup

F
ForwardX11, ssh option: Remote processes
ForwardX11Trusted, ssh option: Remote processes

H
HGPLAIN, environment variable: Remote processes
HISTFILE, environment variable: Frequently Asked Questions
HISTFILESIZE, environment variable: Frequently Asked Questions
HISTORY, environment variable: Remote processes
HISTSIZE, environment variable: Frequently Asked Questions

I
Include, ssh option: Ssh setup
INSIDE_EMACS, environment variable: Remote shell setup
INSIDE_EMACS, environment variable: Remote shell setup
INSIDE_EMACS, environment variable: Remote processes

L
lock-file-name-transforms: Auto-save File Lock and Backup

N
non-essential: External packages

P
password-cache: Password handling
password-cache-expiry: Password handling
password-word-equivalents: Remote shell setup
PATH, environment variable: External methods
proced-show-remote-processes: Remote processes
process-connection-type: Remote processes
process-file-return-signal-string: Remote processes
process-file-side-effects: External packages
ProxyCommand, ssh option: Firewalls
ProxyCommand, ssh option: Ssh setup
ProxyJump, ssh option: Ssh setup

R
remote-file-error: Frequently Asked Questions
remote-file-error: External packages
remote-file-name-inhibit-auto-save-visited: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
remote-file-name-inhibit-cache: Frequently Asked Questions
remote-file-name-inhibit-locks: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
remote-file-name-inhibit-locks: Frequently Asked Questions
RemoteCommand, ssh option: Remote shell setup

S
ServerAliveCountMax, ssh option: Ssh setup
ServerAliveInterval, ssh option: Ssh setup
shell-command-switch: Remote processes
shell-file-name: Remote processes
SHELLNAME, environment variable: Remote shell setup
SSH_AUTH_SOCK, environment variable: Ssh setup

T
TERM, environment variable: Remote shell setup
TERM, environment variable: Remote shell setup
tramp-actions-before-shell: Remote shell setup
tramp-adb-connect-if-not-connected: External methods
tramp-adb-connection-local-default-ps-profile: Remote processes
tramp-adb-connection-local-default-ps-variables: Remote processes
tramp-adb-program: External methods
tramp-allow-unsafe-temporary-files: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
tramp-archive-all-gvfs-methods: Archive file names
tramp-archive-compression-suffixes: Archive file names
tramp-archive-enabled: Archive file names
tramp-archive-suffixes: Archive file names
tramp-auto-save-directory: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
tramp-backup-directory-alist: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
tramp-cleanup-all-connections-hook: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-cleanup-connection-hook: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-completion-function-alist: Customizing Completion
tramp-completion-use-auth-sources: File name completion
tramp-completion-use-cache: File name completion
tramp-confirm-rename-file-names: Renaming remote files
tramp-connection-local-bsd-ps-profile: Remote processes
tramp-connection-local-bsd-ps-variables: Remote processes
tramp-connection-local-busybox-ps-profile: Remote processes
tramp-connection-local-busybox-ps-variables: Remote processes
tramp-connection-local-darwin-ps-profile: Remote processes
tramp-connection-local-darwin-ps-variables: Remote processes
tramp-connection-properties: Predefined connection information
tramp-crypt-encfs-option: Keeping files encrypted
tramp-crypt-save-encfs-config-remote: Keeping files encrypted
tramp-debug-to-file: Traces and Profiles
tramp-default-host: Default Host
tramp-default-host-alist: Default Host
tramp-default-method: Default Method
tramp-default-method-alist: Default Method
tramp-default-proxies-alist: Multi-hops
tramp-default-remote-path: Remote programs
tramp-default-rename-alist: Renaming remote files
tramp-default-user: Default User
tramp-default-user-alist: Default User
tramp-encoding-shell: Remote shell setup
tramp-file-name-regexp: Change file name syntax
tramp-fuse-unmount-on-cleanup: FUSE setup
tramp-gvfs-methods: GVFS-based methods
tramp-handle-file-local-copy-hook: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-handle-write-region-hook: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-histfile-override: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-ignored-file-name-regexp: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-inline-compress-commands: Inline methods
tramp-inline-compress-start-size: Inline methods
tramp-local-host-regexp: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-methods: Customizing Methods
tramp-mode: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-otp-password-prompt-regexp: Remote shell setup
tramp-own-remote-path: Remote programs
tramp-password-prompt-regexp: Remote shell setup
tramp-persistency-file-name: Connection caching
tramp-process-attributes-ps-args: Remote processes
tramp-process-attributes-ps-format: Remote processes
tramp-process-connection-type: Remote processes
tramp-rclone-program: FUSE-based methods
tramp-remote-coding-commands: Inline methods
tramp-remote-path: Remote programs
tramp-remote-process-environment: Remote processes
tramp-restricted-shell-hosts-alist: Multi-hops
tramp-save-ad-hoc-proxies: Ad-hoc multi-hops
tramp-sh-extra-args: Remote shell setup
tramp-shell-prompt-pattern: Remote shell setup
tramp-show-ad-hoc-proxies: Ad-hoc multi-hops
tramp-smb-options: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-ssh-controlmaster-options: Ssh setup
tramp-sshfs-program: FUSE-based methods
tramp-temp-name-prefix: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-terminal-type: Remote shell setup
tramp-theme-face-remapping-alist: Frequently Asked Questions
tramp-use-scp-direct-remote-copying: Ssh setup
tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options: Ssh setup
tramp-verbose: Traces and Profiles
tramp-version: Obtaining TRAMP
tramp-wrong-passwd-regexp: Remote shell setup

Jump to:   A   B   C   D   E   F   H   I   L   N   P   R   S   T  

Concept Index

Jump to:   .   7  
A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Z  
Index Entry  Section

.
.login file: Remote shell setup
.profile file: Remote shell setup

7
7z file archive suffix: Archive file names

A
adb method: Quick Start Guide
adb method: External methods
afp method: Quick Start Guide
afp method: GVFS-based methods
alternative file name syntax: Change file name syntax
android: Quick Start Guide
android (with adb method): External methods
android shell setup for ssh: Android shell setup
apk file archive suffix: Archive file names
ar file archive suffix: Archive file names
archive file names: Archive file names
archive method: Archive file names
Asynchronous remote processes: Remote processes
Asynchronous remote processes: Remote processes
auto-save: Auto-save File Lock and Backup

B
backup: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
base-64 encoding: Inline methods
base-64 encoding: Inline methods
behind the scenes: Overview
bug reports: Bug Reports

C
cab file archive suffix: Archive file names
CAB file archive suffix: Archive file names
caching: Connection caching
change file name syntax: Change file name syntax
choosing the right method: Default Method
cleanup: Cleanup remote connections
compile: Remote processes
configuration: Configuration
connection types, overview: Connection types
cpio file archive suffix: Archive file names
crate file archive suffix: Archive file names
create your own methods: Customizing Methods
customizing completion: Customizing Completion
customizing methods: Customizing Methods
cygwin and fakecygpty: Ssh setup
cygwin and ssh-agent: Ssh setup
cygwin, issues: Ssh setup

D
dav method: Quick Start Guide
dav method: GVFS-based methods
davs method: Quick Start Guide
davs method: GVFS-based methods
dbus: GVFS-based methods
deb file archive suffix: Archive file names
default configuration: Configuration
default host: Default Host
default method: Default Method
default user: Default User
depot file archive suffix: Archive file names
details of operation: Overview
doas method: Quick Start Guide
doas method: Quick Start Guide
doas method: Inline methods
docker method: Inline methods

E
encfs: Keeping files encrypted
encfsctl: Keeping files encrypted
Encrypt remote directories: Keeping files encrypted
epub file archive suffix: Archive file names
eshell: Remote processes
exe file archive suffix: Archive file names
external methods: External methods

F
fakecygpty and cygwin: Ssh setup
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
fcp method: External methods
file archive suffix 7z: Archive file names
file archive suffix apk: Archive file names
file archive suffix ar: Archive file names
file archive suffix cab: Archive file names
file archive suffix CAB: Archive file names
file archive suffix cpio: Archive file names
file archive suffix crate: Archive file names
file archive suffix deb: Archive file names
file archive suffix depot: Archive file names
file archive suffix epub: Archive file names
file archive suffix exe: Archive file names
file archive suffix iso: Archive file names
file archive suffix jar: Archive file names
file archive suffix lzh: Archive file names
file archive suffix LZH: Archive file names
file archive suffix msu: Archive file names
file archive suffix MSU: Archive file names
file archive suffix mtree: Archive file names
file archive suffix odb: Archive file names
file archive suffix odf: Archive file names
file archive suffix odg: Archive file names
file archive suffix odp: Archive file names
file archive suffix ods: Archive file names
file archive suffix odt: Archive file names
file archive suffix pax: Archive file names
file archive suffix rar: Archive file names
file archive suffix rpm: Archive file names
file archive suffix shar: Archive file names
file archive suffix tar: Archive file names
file archive suffix tbz: Archive file names
file archive suffix tgz: Archive file names
file archive suffix tlz: Archive file names
file archive suffix txz: Archive file names
file archive suffix tzst: Archive file names
file archive suffix warc: Archive file names
file archive suffix xar: Archive file names
file archive suffix xpi: Archive file names
file archive suffix xps: Archive file names
file archive suffix zip: Archive file names
file archive suffix ZIP: Archive file names
file archives: Archive file names
file name completion: File name completion
file name examples: File name syntax
file name syntax: Quick Start Guide
file name syntax: File name syntax
file-lock: Auto-save File Lock and Backup
frequently asked questions: Frequently Asked Questions
fsh (with fcp method): External methods
fsh method: External methods
ftp method: External methods
fuse-based methods: Quick Start Guide
fuse-based methods: FUSE-based methods

G
gdb: Remote processes
gdrive method: Quick Start Guide
gdrive method: GVFS-based methods
git method: Customizing Methods
GNOME Online Accounts: Quick Start Guide
GNOME Online Accounts: GVFS-based methods
GNU ELPA: Obtaining TRAMP
google drive: Quick Start Guide
google drive: GVFS-based methods
gud.el: Remote processes
gvfs-based methods: Quick Start Guide
gvfs-based methods: GVFS-based methods

H
hdfs method: Customizing Methods
how it works: Overview
http tunnel: Firewalls

I
inline methods: Inline methods
iso file archive suffix: Archive file names

J
jar file archive suffix: Archive file names

K
kerberos (with krlogin method): Inline methods
kerberos (with ksu method): Inline methods
krlogin method: Inline methods
ksu method: Inline methods
kubernetes method: Inline methods

L
lxc method: Customizing Methods
lxd method: Customizing Methods
lzh file archive suffix: Archive file names
LZH file archive suffix: Archive file names

M
media: GVFS-based methods
method adb: Quick Start Guide
method adb: External methods
method afp: Quick Start Guide
method afp: GVFS-based methods
method archive: Archive file names
method dav: Quick Start Guide
method dav: GVFS-based methods
method davs: Quick Start Guide
method davs: GVFS-based methods
method doas: Quick Start Guide
method doas: Quick Start Guide
method doas: Inline methods
method docker: Inline methods
method fcp: External methods
method fsh: External methods
method ftp: External methods
method gdrive: Quick Start Guide
method gdrive: GVFS-based methods
method git: Customizing Methods
method hdfs: Customizing Methods
method krlogin: Inline methods
method ksu: Inline methods
method kubernetes: Inline methods
method lxc: Customizing Methods
method lxd: Customizing Methods
method mtp: Quick Start Guide
method mtp: GVFS-based methods
method nc: External methods
method nextcloud: Quick Start Guide
method nextcloud: GVFS-based methods
method nspawn: Customizing Methods
method plink: Quick Start Guide
method plink: Quick Start Guide
method plink: Inline methods
method plinkx: Inline methods
method podman: Inline methods
method pscp: External methods
method psftp: External methods
method rclone: Quick Start Guide
method rclone: FUSE-based methods
method rcp: External methods
method rsh: Inline methods
method rsync: External methods
method scp: External methods
method scpx: External methods
method scpx with cygwin: Ssh setup
method sftp: Quick Start Guide
method sftp: GVFS-based methods
method sg: Quick Start Guide
method sg: Inline methods
method smb: Quick Start Guide
method smb: External methods
method ssh: Quick Start Guide
method ssh: Quick Start Guide
method ssh: Inline methods
method sshfs: Quick Start Guide
method sshfs: FUSE-based methods
method sshx: Inline methods
method sshx with cygwin: Ssh setup
method su: Quick Start Guide
method su: Quick Start Guide
method su: Inline methods
method sudo: Quick Start Guide
method sudo: Quick Start Guide
method sudo: Inline methods
method sudoedit: Quick Start Guide
method sudoedit: External methods
method telnet: Inline methods
method vagrant: Customizing Methods
methods, external: External methods
methods, fuse: Quick Start Guide
methods, fuse: FUSE-based methods
methods, gvfs: Quick Start Guide
methods, gvfs: GVFS-based methods
methods, inline: Inline methods
ms windows (with smb method): Quick Start Guide
ms windows (with smb method): External methods
ms windows and ssh: Ssh setup
ms windows and ssh-agent: Ssh setup
ms Windows, issues: Ssh setup
msu file archive suffix: Archive file names
MSU file archive suffix: Archive file names
mtp method: Quick Start Guide
mtp method: GVFS-based methods
mtree file archive suffix: Archive file names
multi-hop: Multi-hops
multi-hop, ad-hoc: Ad-hoc multi-hops

N
nc method: External methods
nc unix command: Remote shell setup
nextcloud: Quick Start Guide
nextcloud: GVFS-based methods
nextcloud method: Quick Start Guide
nextcloud method: GVFS-based methods
nspawn method: Customizing Methods

O
obtaining TRAMP: Obtaining TRAMP
odb file archive suffix: Archive file names
odf file archive suffix: Archive file names
odg file archive suffix: Archive file names
odp file archive suffix: Archive file names
ods file archive suffix: Archive file names
odt file archive suffix: Archive file names
overview: Overview

P
passwords: Password handling
pax file archive suffix: Archive file names
perldb: Remote processes
plink (with pscp method): External methods
plink (with psftp method): External methods
plink method: Quick Start Guide
plink method: Quick Start Guide
plink method: Inline methods
plinkx method: Inline methods
podman method: Inline methods
powershell: Remote processes
proced: Remote processes
proxy hosts: Multi-hops
proxy hosts, ad-hoc: Ad-hoc multi-hops
proxy hosts, http tunnel: Firewalls
pscp method: External methods
psftp method: External methods
putty (with pscp method): External methods
putty (with psftp method): External methods

Q
quick start guide: Quick Start Guide

R
rar file archive suffix: Archive file names
rclone method: Quick Start Guide
rclone method: FUSE-based methods
rclone setup: FUSE setup
rcp method: External methods
recompile: Remote processes
remote shell setup: Remote shell setup
rpm file archive suffix: Archive file names
rsh (with rcp method): External methods
rsh method: Inline methods
rsync method: External methods

S
save remote files: Renaming remote files
scp method: External methods
scpx method: External methods
scpx method with cygwin: Ssh setup
selecting config files: Customizing Completion
separate syntax: Change file name syntax
sftp method: Quick Start Guide
sftp method: GVFS-based methods
sg method: Quick Start Guide
sg method: Inline methods
shar file archive suffix: Archive file names
shell: Remote processes
shell init files: Remote shell setup
shell-command: Remote processes
simplified syntax: Change file name syntax
smb method: Quick Start Guide
smb method: External methods
smbclient: Quick Start Guide
smbclient: External methods
ssh (with rsync method): External methods
ssh (with scp method): External methods
ssh (with scpx method): External methods
ssh method: Quick Start Guide
ssh method: Quick Start Guide
ssh method: Inline methods
sshfs method: Quick Start Guide
sshfs method: FUSE-based methods
sshfs setup: FUSE setup
sshx method: Inline methods
sshx method with cygwin: Ssh setup
SSH_AUTH_SOCK and emacs on ms windows: Ssh setup
su method: Quick Start Guide
su method: Quick Start Guide
su method: Inline methods
sudo method: Quick Start Guide
sudo method: Quick Start Guide
sudo method: Inline methods
sudoedit method: Quick Start Guide
sudoedit method: External methods

T
tar file archive suffix: Archive file names
tbz file archive suffix: Archive file names
telnet (with nc method): External methods
telnet method: Inline methods
tgz file archive suffix: Archive file names
tlz file archive suffix: Archive file names
TRAMP theme: Frequently Asked Questions
tset unix command: Remote shell setup
txz file archive suffix: Archive file names
type-ahead: Usage
tzst file archive suffix: Archive file names

U
unix command nc: Remote shell setup
unix command tset: Remote shell setup
using non-standard methods: Customizing Methods
using TRAMP: Usage
uu encoding: Inline methods

V
vagrant method: Customizing Methods

W
warc file archive suffix: Archive file names
WebDAV: GVFS-based methods
winexe: Remote processes

X
xar file archive suffix: Archive file names
xpi file archive suffix: Archive file names
xps file archive suffix: Archive file names

Z
zip file archive suffix: Archive file names
ZIP file archive suffix: Archive file names
zsh setup: Remote shell setup

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Footnotes

(1)

This shouldn’t be needed with recent OpenSSH versions for MS Windows. Use method sshx.