NAME

       mosh - mobile shell with roaming and intelligent local echo

SYNOPSIS

       mosh [options] [--] [user@]host [command...]

DESCRIPTION

       mosh  (mobile  shell)  is  a  remote terminal application that supports intermittent connectivity, allows
       roaming, and provides speculative local echo and line editing of user keystrokes.

       Compared with ssh, mosh is more robust — its connections  stay  up  across  sleeps  and  changes  in  the
       client's IP address — and more responsive, because the protocol is tolerant of packet loss and the client
       can echo most keystrokes immediately, without waiting for a network round-trip.

       mosh  uses  ssh  to establish a connection to the remote host and authenticate with existing means (e.g.,
       public-key authentication or a password). mosh executes the unprivileged mosh-server  helper  program  on
       the  server,  then  closes  the SSH connection and starts the mosh-client, which establishes a long-lived
       datagram connection over UDP.

       To improve responsiveness, mosh runs a predictive model of  the  server's  behavior  in  the  background,
       trying  to  guess  the  effect  of  each keystroke on the screen. It makes predictions for normal typing,
       backspace, and the left- and right-arrow keys. When  it  is  confident,  mosh  displays  the  predictions
       without  waiting  for the server. The predictive model must prove itself anew on each row of the terminal
       and after each control character, so mosh avoids echoing passwords or non-echoing editor commands.

       By default, mosh shows its predictions only  on  high-latency  connections  and  to  smooth  out  network
       glitches.  (On  longer-latency  links, the predicted cells are underlined until confirmed by the server.)
       Occasional echo mistakes are corrected within a network round-trip and do not cause lasting effect.

       mosh does not support X forwarding or the non-interactive uses  of  SSH,  including  port  forwarding  or
       sshfs.  mosh  works  through  typical  client-side  network  address translators but requires UDP to pass
       between client and server. By default, mosh uses the ports between 60000 and 61000, but allows  the  user
       to request a particular UDP port instead.

       mosh  will  do its best to arrange a UTF-8 character set locale on the client and server. The client must
       have locale-related environment variables that specify UTF-8. mosh will pass these  client  variables  to
       the  mosh-server  on its command line, but in most cases they will not need to be used. mosh-server first
       attempts to use its own  locale-related  environment  variables,  which  come  from  the  system  default
       configuration  (sometimes /etc/default/locale) or from having been passed over the SSH connection. But if
       these variables don't call for the use of UTF-8, mosh-server will apply  the  locale-related  environment
       variables from the client and try again.

OPTIONS

       command
              Command to run on remote host. By default, mosh executes a login shell.

       --client=PATH
              path to client helper on local machine (default: "mosh-client")

       --server=COMMAND
              command to run server helper on remote machine (default: "mosh-server")

              The server helper is unprivileged and can be installed in the user's home directory.

       --ssh=COMMAND
              OpenSSH command to remotely execute mosh-server on remote machine (default: "ssh")

              An alternate ssh port can be specified with, e.g., --ssh="ssh -p 2222".

       --predict=WHEN
              Controls  use  of  speculative local echo. WHEN defaults to `adaptive' (show predictions on slower
              links and to smooth out network glitches) and can also be `always` or `never'.

              The MOSH_PREDICTION_DISPLAY environment variable controls this setting permanently and  can  adopt
              the same three values.

              Even  on  `always',  mosh  will only show predictions when it is confident. This generally means a
              previous prediction on the same row of the terminal has been confirmed by the server, without  any
              intervening control character keystrokes.

       -a     Synonym for --predict=always

       -n     Synonym for --predict=never

       -p PORT[:PORT2], --port=PORT[:PORT2]
              Use a particular server-side UDP port or port range, for example, if this is the only port that is
              forwarded  through  a firewall to the server. Otherwise, mosh will choose a port between 60000 and
              61000.

       --no-init
              Do not send the smcup initialization string and rmcup  deinitialization  string  to  the  client's
              terminal. On many terminals this disables alternate screen mode.

ESCAPE SEQUENCES

       The  escape  sequence to shut down the connection is Ctrl-^ .  (typically typed with Ctrl-Shift-6, then a
       period). To send a literal Ctrl-^, type Ctrl-^ ^. The sequence Ctrl-^ Ctrl-Z suspends the client.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       MOSH_PREDICTION_DISPLAY
              Controls local echo as described above.

       MOSH_TITLE_NOPREFIX
              When set, inhibits prepending "[mosh]" to window title.

SEE ALSO

       mosh-client(1), mosh-server(1).

       Project home page: http://mosh.mit.edu

AUTHOR

       mosh was written by Keith Winstein <mosh-devel@mit.edu>.

BUGS

       Please report bugs to mosh-devel@mit.edu. Users may also  subscribe  to  the  mosh-users@mit.edu  mailing
       list, at
       http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mosh-users

                                                  October 2012                                           MOSH(1)