mobile-shell / mobile-shell/mosh

Have mosh print the ssh … mosh-server command it’s running, for better debugging discoverability

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feature good first issue
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Description

Often the first step to debugging why mosh doesn’t work is to try launching mosh-server via ssh in the same way that mosh does (as described in @eminence’s handy Debugging and Theory guide). We could make that easier and more discoverable by having mosh print the exact ssh command it’s running.

We’d probably want to tidy up our shell quoting so this output isn’t full of unnecessary quotes and quoted quotes.

$ mosh localhost
/usr/bin/mosh: Running 'ssh' '-n' '-tt' '-S' 'none' '-o' 'ProxyCommand='\''mosh'\'' '\''--family=prefer-inet'\'' --fake-proxy -- %h %p' 'localhost' '--' 'mosh-server '\''new'\'' '\''-c'\'' '\''256'\'' '\''-s'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LANG=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LANGUAGE=en_US'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8'\'' '\''-l'\'' '\''LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8'\'''
bash: mosh-server: command not found
Connection to localhost closed.
/usr/bin/mosh: Did not find mosh server startup message. (Have you installed mosh on your server?)

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the code that assembles and launches mosh's ssh command, using the linked Debugging and Theory guide and the example output as behavioral references. Improve the displayed shell quoting so the exact command is discoverable and readable, then verify that mosh prints the command it runs while preserving the existing server startup behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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