The ssh-deploy plug-in for Emacs makes it possible to effortlessly deploy local files and directories to remote hosts via Tramp (including but not limited to SSH, SFTP, FTP). It tries to provide functions that can be easily used by custom scripts.

• Define syncing configuration per directory or per file (using DirectoryVariables or File Variables)
• Control whether uploads of files should be automatic on save
• Manual downloads and uploads of directories and files
• Automatic and manual detection of remote changes of files using local revisions
• Launch remote eshell and shell terminals in base or relative directory
• Launch remote dired browsing in base or relative directory
• Launch difference sessions for files using ediff
• Launch difference sessions for directories using a custom implementation of recursive directory differences over Tramp based on ediff
• Rename files and directories on local host and have it mirrored on the remote
• Delete files and directories on local host and have it mirrored on the remote
• Open corresponding file on the remote host
• Open SQL database-session on remote hosts
• Run custom deployment scripts, make scripts run when saving file inside directory
• All operations support asynchronous mode if (make-thread) or async.el is installed. (You need to setup an automatic authorization for this, i.e. ~/.authinfo.gpg and/or key-based password-less authorization)
• Tries to follow best-practice both in terms of performance and code style

The idea for this plug-in was to mimic the behavior of PhpStorm deployment functionality.

This application is made by Christian Johansson [email protected] 2016-2021 and is licensed under GNU General Public License 3 (GNU GPL 3).

Here is a list of other variables you can set globally or per directory:

• ssh-deploy-root-local The local root that should be under deployment (string)
• ssh-deploy-root-remote The remote Tramp root that is used for deployment (string)
• ssh-deploy-debug Enables debugging messages (integer)
• ssh-deploy-revision-folder The folder used for storing local revisions (string)
• ssh-deploy-automatically-detect-remote-changes Enables automatic detection of remote changes (integer)
• ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save Enabled automatic uploads on save (integer)
• ssh-deploy-force-on-explicit-save Enables forced uploads on explicit save actions (integer)
• `ssh-deploy-run-script-on-explicit-save' - Enabled automatic running of the deployment script on save (integer)
• ssh-deploy-exclude-list A list defining what paths to exclude from deployment (list)
• ssh-deploy-async Enables asynchronous transfers (you need to have (make-thread) or async.el installed as well) (integer)
• ssh-deploy-remote-sql-database Default database when connecting to remote SQL database (string)
• ssh-deploy-remote-sql-password Default password when connecting to remote SQL database (string)
• ssh-deploy-remote-sql-port - Default port when connecting to remote SQL database (integer)
• ssh-deploy-remote-sql-server Default server when connecting to remote SQL database (string)
• ssh-deploy-remote-sql-user Default user when connecting to remote SQL database (string)
• ssh-deploy-remote-shell-executable Default remote shell executable when launching shell on remote host (string)
• ssh-deploy-verbose Show messages in message buffer when starting and ending actions (integer)
• ssh-deploy-script - Your custom lambda function that will be called using (funcall) when running deploy script handler (function)
• ssh-deploy-async-with-threads - Whether to use threads (make threads) instead of processes (async-start) for asynchronous operations (integer)

When integers are used as booleans, above zero means true, zero means false and nil means unset and fallback to global settings.

• Download ssh-deploy and place it at ~/.emacs.d/ssh-deploy/ or install via package.el (M-x list-packages or M-x package-install + ssh-deploy) from the ELPA or MELPA repository.
• So if you want to deploy /Users/username/Web/MySite/ to create this DirectoryVariables file in your project root at /Users/username/Web/MySite/.dir-locals.el.

You really need to do a bit of research about how to connect via different protocols using Tramp on your operating system, I think Windows users should use plink for most protocols. Linux should work out of the box and macOS requires a bit of tweaking to get FTP support.

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/ssh:[email protected]:/var/www/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-remote-sql-database . "myuser")
  (ssh-deploy-remote-sql-password . "mypassword")
  (ssh-deploy-remote-sql-user . "myuser")
)))

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/sftp:[email protected]:/var/www/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-force-on-explicit-save . 1)
)))

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/ssh:[email protected]#2120:/var/www/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 0)
  (ssh-deploy-async . 0)
)))

You can pipe remote connections as well like this:

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/ssh:[email protected]|sudo:[email protected]:/var/www/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-async . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-async-with-threads . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-script . (lambda() (let ((default-directory ssh-deploy-root-remote)) (shell-command "bash compile.sh"))))
)))

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/ssh:[email protected]|sudo:[email protected]:/var/www/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-async . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-async-with-threads . 0)
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 0)
  (ssh-deploy-script . (lambda() (let ((default-directory ssh-deploy-root-local)) (shell-command "bash compile.sh") (ssh-deploy-upload-handler))))
)))

If you have a password-less sudo on your remote host you should be to do this asynchronously or if you have your sudo credentials in your ~/.authinfo.gpg file.

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/ftp:[email protected]:/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 1)
)))

For automatic SSH connections you need to setup a password-less public-key authorization. You need to research how to setup this on your operating system.

If you have a SSH connection that is using a different identity-file than the default, or if it is using a different port than the default you just need to edit your local SSH-config ~/.ssh/config to make it work using this plug-in, like this:

## My special connection (replace remote-host, remote-port and identity-file with your values)
Host remote-host
    Port remote-port
    IdentityFile identity-file

For automatic FTP connections you need to setup ~/.authinfo.gpg with your login credentials. An example of contents:

machine myserver.com login myuser port ftp password mypassword
machine myserver2.com login myuser2 port ssh password mypassword2
machine myserver3.com login myuser3 port sftp password mypassword3

Set your user and group as owner and file permissions to 600. Emacs should now be able to automatically connect to this server via FTP without any user interaction.

By combining a ~/.authinfo.gpg setup and a public-key setup you should be able to have a interaction-free public-key password-based authorization that can be used asynchronously.

• And add this to your emacs-init-script: (1)

;; ssh-deploy - prefix = C-c C-z, f = forced upload, u = upload, d = download, x = diff, t = terminal, b = browse, h = shell
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/ssh-deploy/")
(require 'ssh-deploy)
(ssh-deploy-line-mode) ;; If you want mode-line feature
(ssh-deploy-add-menu) ;; If you want menu-bar feature
(ssh-deploy-add-after-save-hook) ;; If you want automatic upload support
(ssh-deploy-add-find-file-hook) ;; If you want detecting remote changes support
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-z") 'ssh-deploy-prefix-map)

If you want to use the pre-defined hydra you can use this key-binding instead:

(ssh-deploy-hydra "C-c C-z")

• Or use the use-package and hydra-script I'm using:

      (use-package ssh-deploy
        :ensure t
        :demand
        :after hydra
        :hook ((after-save . ssh-deploy-after-save)
               (find-file . ssh-deploy-find-file))
        :config
        (ssh-deploy-line-mode) ;; If you want mode-line feature
        (ssh-deploy-add-menu) ;; If you want menu-bar feature
        (ssh-deploy-hydra "C-c C-z") ;; If you want the hydra feature
      )

(1) You can remove the (add-to-list) and (require) lines if you installed via ELPA or MELPA repository.

• Restart Emacs or re-evaluate your emacs-init-script

File contents /Users/username/Web/MySite/.dir-locals.el:

((nil . (
  (ssh-deploy-root-local . "/Users/username/Web/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-root-remote . "/ssh:[email protected]|sudo:[email protected]:/var/www/MySite/")
  (ssh-deploy-async . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-on-explicit-save . 1)
  (ssh-deploy-script . (lambda() (let ((default-directory ssh-deploy-root-remote))(shell-command "bash compile.sh"))))
)))

• Now when you save a file somewhere under the directory /Users/username/Web/MySite/, the script will launch and deploy the file with the remote server.
• If you press C-c C-z x and the current buffer is a file, you will launch a ediff session showing differences between local file and remote file via Tramp, or if current buffer is a directory it will open a buffer showing directory differences w* If you press C-c C-z f you will force upload local file or directory to remote host even if they have external changes.
• If you press C-c C-z u you will upload local file or directory to remote host.
• If you press C-c C-z d you will download the current file or directory from remote host and then reload current buffer.
• If you press C-c C-z D you will delete the current file or directory after a confirmation on local and remote host.
• If you press C-c C-z t you will open a terminal with remote host in base directory via eshell.
• If you press C-c C-z T you will open a terminal with remote host in current directory via eshell.
• If you press C-c C-z h you will open a terminal with remote host in base directory via shell.
• If you press C-c C-z H you will open a terminal with remote host in current directory via shell.
• If you press C-c C-z b you will browse base directory on remote host in dired.
• If you press C-c C-z B you will browse current directory on remote host in dired.
• If you press C-c C-z R you will rename current file or directory.
• If you press C-c C-z e you will check for remote changes to the current file.
• If you press C-c C-z o you will open remote file corresponding to local file.
• If you press C-c C-z m you will open remote sql-mysql session on remote host.
• If you press C-c C-z s you will run your custom deploy script.

The local path and local root is evaluated based on their truename so if you use different symbolic local paths it shouldn't affect the deployment procedure.

The above configuration example uses the Emacs plug-in use-package which I highly recommend.

macOS 10.13 removed the Darwin port of BSD ftp which is needed for ange-ftp, which is required by Tramp. You can get it back by doing this:

1. Download https://opensource.apple.com/tarballs/lukemftp/lukemftp-16.tar.gz or some other version from https://opensource.apple.com/tarballs/lukemftp/
2. Extract archive
3. Visit folder for tnftp inside the extracted archive in terminal
4. Type ./configure then make and then sudo make install
5. Type mv ./src/ftp /usr/local/bin/ftp

Ange-FTP defaults to ~/.netrc so you need to add this to your init script:

(setq ange-ftp-netrc-filename "~/.authinfo.gpg")

Thanks shrubbroom for poiting out that evil-mode has a upstream bug were the function hack-local-variables are not executed as expected and this results in that DirectoryVariables are not set, to fix this you can add this to your init-script:

(advice-add #'turn-on-evil-mode :before
              (lambda (&optional args)
                (when (eq major-mode 'fundamental-mode)
                  (hack-local-variables))))

Run make test from plug-in folder to run tests

if you need to specify specific Emacs use export syntax i.e. export emacs="YOUR_PATH" && make tests

Make sure to load if before the unit tests, i.e. ~/Documents/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -L ../elpa/async-20180527.1730/ -L . -l ../elpa/async-20180527.1730/async.el -l ssh-deploy-test.el

• Tramp - Transparent Remote (file) Access, Multiple Protocol
• ELPA - GNU Emacs Lisp Package Archive
• MELPA - Milkypostman’s Emacs Lisp Package Archive
• Directory Variables
• Ediff Mode
• emacs-async
• use-package
• The Emacs Lisp Style Guide