ssh X forwarding

If you want to ssh to a machine, and then run X programs there that get display on your local machine, you have several choices. You can get this on a one time basis via one of the following: 
ssh -X machine
ssh -Y machine

To make this happen on every machine you ever ssh to, without the -X or -Y option, edit the file ~/.ssh/config (or /etc/ssh/ssh_config) and enter or uncomment a set of lines like: 

Host *
  GSSAPIAuthentication yes
  ForwardX11 yes
  ForwardX11Trusted yes
  ServerAliveInterval 15

To restrict this to just one machine, specify Host wally rather than the global Host *.

Hot Tip

To run wireshark on a remote machine: 
ssh -X root@mmt wireshark
Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in computing / tom@mmto.org