Windows remote development with SSH: SSH only set up for WSL

[yw5aj]

Hi all,

First of all, thank you for the amazing tool!

I've been trying to use Sky Pilot with Windows and my set-up with WSL is all great. Except for that one thing: when I try to use it as a development cluster, the ssh is only set up with WSL. Therefore, when I open VS Code I cannot locate the set up SSH config because it's in its parent Windows environment, not WSL. Could anyone help share some guidance on this?

Best,
Shawn

[romilbhardwaj]

Hey @yw5aj - currently we don't have a good solution for supporting windows native ssh configs. A workaround could be to copy over the contents of the wsl:~/.sky/generated/ssh/* to your windows %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\config?

You may also need to copy over wsl:~/.ssh/sky-key to a location on your windows path and edit the IdentityFile path in your ssh config.

[yw5aj]

Thank you @romilbhardwaj ! It works well as you instructed. Got a script to do that in case it helps others in the future.

Would be wondering if Windows support would be in sight - this might be able to become slightly more elegant :)

import os
import subprocess
import shutil

def wsl_to_windows_path(wsl_path):
    """
    Convert a WSL path to a Windows path.
    """
    result = subprocess.run(['wsl', 'wslpath', '-w', wsl_path], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, text=True)
    return result.stdout.strip()

def copy_ssh_files_to_config(wsl_ssh_dir, windows_ssh_dir):
    """
    Copy non-hidden SSH files from WSL to a single config file in the Windows SSH directory.
    """
    try:
        if not os.path.exists(windows_ssh_dir):
            os.makedirs(windows_ssh_dir)

        wsl_files = subprocess.run(['wsl', 'ls', wsl_ssh_dir], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, text=True).stdout.split()
        config_path = os.path.join(windows_ssh_dir, 'config')

        with open(config_path, 'w') as config_file:
            for file_name in wsl_files:
                if not file_name.startswith('.'):
                    wsl_file_path = os.path.join(wsl_ssh_dir, file_name)
                    with open(wsl_to_windows_path(wsl_file_path), 'r') as file:
                        config_file.write(file.read())
                        config_file.write('\n')
        print("SSH files copied to config successfully.")
    except PermissionError as e:
        print(f"Permission error copying SSH files: {e}. Please ensure you have proper permissions.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error copying SSH files: {e}")

def update_ssh_config(windows_ssh_dir, identity_file):
    """
    Update the SSH config file to use the correct IdentityFile path.
    """
    try:
        config_path = os.path.join(windows_ssh_dir, 'config')
        if os.path.isfile(config_path):
            with open(config_path, 'r') as file:
                lines = file.readlines()

            with open(config_path, 'w') as file:
                for line in lines:
                    if line.strip().startswith('IdentityFile'):
                        file.write(f'  IdentityFile {identity_file}\n')
                    else:
                        file.write(line)
        print("SSH config file updated successfully.")
    except PermissionError as e:
        print(f"Permission error updating SSH config file: {e}. Please ensure you have proper permissions.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error updating SSH config file: {e}")

def copy_ssh_key_from_wsl(wsl_ssh_dir, windows_ssh_dir, key_file):
    """
    Copy the sky-key from WSL to Windows SSH directory.
    """
    try:
        wsl_key_path = os.path.join(wsl_ssh_dir, key_file)
        windows_key_path = os.path.join(windows_ssh_dir, key_file)
        if os.path.exists(windows_key_path):
            print(f"{key_file} already exists in {windows_ssh_dir}. Copy skipped.")
        else:
            shutil.copy(wsl_to_windows_path(wsl_key_path), windows_key_path)
            print("sky-key copied successfully.")
    except PermissionError as e:
        print(f"Permission error copying sky-key: {e}. Please ensure you have proper permissions.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error copying sky-key: {e}")

def set_permissions(identity_file):
    """
    Set correct permissions for the SSH key file.
    """
    try:
        os.system(f'icacls {identity_file} /inheritance:r')
        os.system(f'icacls {identity_file} /grant:r {os.getlogin()}:(R)')
        print("Permissions set successfully.")
    except PermissionError as e:
        print(f"Permission error setting permissions: {e}. Please ensure you have proper permissions.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error setting permissions: {e}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    wsl_ssh_dir = "~/.sky/generated/ssh/"
    windows_ssh_dir = os.path.expanduser("~/.ssh/")
    identity_file = os.path.join(windows_ssh_dir, "sky-key")

    copy_ssh_files_to_config(wsl_ssh_dir, windows_ssh_dir)
    copy_ssh_key_from_wsl("~/.ssh/", windows_ssh_dir, "sky-key")
    update_ssh_config(windows_ssh_dir, identity_file)
    set_permissions(identity_file)

[yw5aj]

Just a thought: we can get the Windows home folder via something like wslpath "$(cmd.exe /c "echo %USERPROFILE%" 2>/dev/null | tr -d '\r')" within WSL. Could we technically just copy over the sky-key at the same time when this file is created, and create the files needed during sky launch?