
Show HN: Blink Shell for iOS, an Open-Source, Mosh and SSH Terminal for Pros - carloscabanero
http://blink.sh
======
isomorphic
The US$19.99 price is a bit steep to buy sight-unseen. That's more of an App
Store problem than Blink's fault. Obviously the price is fine if it works
better than Prompt.

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BoringCode
It appears to be open source.
[https://github.com/blinksh/blink](https://github.com/blinksh/blink)

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carloscabanero
That is correct. You can compile it and install it yourself, or participate in
our continuous testing.

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Terribledactyl
Oh wow, thank you very much for simplifying the build process. I tried a few
months back and it was... painful.

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carloscabanero
Thanks for giving it a try again! It is complex with all the dependencies, but
doing precompiled libs helped a ton to alleviate the situation.

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rcarmo
Two things I'd like to see:

1) Support for 1Password import of private keys 2) Support for the Citrix X1
Mouse:
[http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/11/06/1930](http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2016/11/06/1930)

(Yes, terminals are more useful with mice too :))

~~~
carloscabanero
Thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely consider 1Password in the
future, although not a fan of reusing private keys everywhere :)

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resure
1Password is not necessarily for reusing keys, it's just very usual way to
transfer private things to mobile devices :)

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nfoz
I'm a bit annoyed by the name "Blink Shell" because I think this is a Terminal
Emulator and not a shell? But maybe I'm wrong?

But maybe I'm just being too restrictive in what I mean by the term "shell",
which has multiple uses (e.g. "Desktop shell")..... so I guess the command-
line shell is a program that one runs in a UI shell, the latter of which might
be a terminal / terminal-emulator?

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shakna
If you want to go down this track, it runs mosh, which is a shell, in the same
way as Secure SHell.

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matt-attack
Would be great if it used the swipe up/down/left/right to do arrow keys. Super
handy feature in a competing terminal/ash iOS client. Swipe up for quick
access to history, and swipe left/right for quickly moving your cursor around.

~~~
carloscabanero
Thanks for the idea, I tried it out but always end up long passing what I'm
looking for due to inertia. I would like something smarter like iTerm with the
cursor though.

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matt-attack
Servauditor's use of it is super usable. No interia at all. A swipe gives one
click. It's so fast and pleasant to use.

If only Serverauditor didn't fail at typing ctrl-j I'd be using it...

~~~
carloscabanero
I couldn't really figure out how to scroll on SA. And that font...

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rcarmo
Bought it even though it apparently has no agent forwarding (also, see my
other comment here about 1Password and mouse - yes, mouse! - support).

Pretty good, refresh seems faster than Prompt, especially when using htop and
tmux on the LAN (something that always bugged me about Prompt).

Hope it gets Citrix X1 mouse support, and there's something else I'd love to
see that doesn't require buying exotic hardware to test - external display
support.

Yes, you can render independent displays on an iOS device. Being able to have
two terminals open or a terminal and a browser on independent displays would
be (even more of) a killer app.

~~~
carloscabanero
Thanks for giving it a try and please check this out!
[https://mobile.twitter.com/dcab/status/789838892753117186](https://mobile.twitter.com/dcab/status/789838892753117186)

It was done by one of our collaborators (advantages of open source), and it
allows for multiple terminals just as you mention :)

Having a browser within the app has also been suggested, yo transform it in a
nice dev tool instead of a terminal. We are still thinking what this could
really be in the future,so any feedback and forward thinking is really
appreciated!

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rcarmo
Great, hope that makes it to the next update :)

As to the web browser, I was just thinking of reading docs, but having an
inspector (a la Firebug Lite) might be useful.

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goerz
While I'm personally fine with the $20 price tag, it does seem a bit steep for
more casual users (ignoring the fact that they can also get it for free if
they compile it for themselves). I wonder if this might hinder adoption. On
the other hand, I think the value that Blink provides is potentially so large
that it might make sense to get revenue also from donations (one-time or
recurring).

Blink's value derives not just from the excellent design of the app, with
highly accurate and fast rendering, or it's features (mosh, most importantly).
To me, the way in which Blink really blows the competition (e.g. Prompt) out
of the water its open source development process. As a beta tester, I have
found Carlos to be highly responsive to feature requests and bug reports on
Github. This gives me the feeling that as a user, I actually have influence
over the features of Blink, unlike other software, where maybe I can beg Panic
Inc via a tweet to implement port forwarding. I would be happy to donate
something like $5/month to the continued and highly responsive development of
Blink. I think true open source on iOS is so rare that we should make a point
of proving that it can be commercially viable.

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VertexRed
Wouldn't that require a jailbreak?

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goerz
Self-compiling, you mean? I don't think so... just a copy of Xcode

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VertexRed
But how will you install it on the phone? They only allow installs through App
Store.

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goerz
I haven't tried this myself, but my understanding is that Xcode can install
compiled apps directly onto your iOS device, without a jailbreak:
[http://osxdaily.com/2016/01/12/howto-sideload-apps-iphone-
ip...](http://osxdaily.com/2016/01/12/howto-sideload-apps-iphone-ipad-xcode/)

~~~
carloscabanero
With a dev license you can install pretty much anything on your device through
XCode. And if you do not want to compile but wanna collaborate on the project,
we offer the possibility to become a tester of our RAW branch :)

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maxgashkov
Could you consider adding config sync via iCloud/Dropbox? It's quite a pain to
sync host lists across several iOS devices.

~~~
carloscabanero
This is coming :)
[https://github.com/blinksh/blink/issues/141](https://github.com/blinksh/blink/issues/141)

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RBerenguel
Been using it (beta testing on iPhone and paid version on iPad so I can
compare) for a while. Improving steadily, solid connectivity. So far happy
with it, even if the price felt somewhat high.

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sirn
Does it support Ed25519 keys? This is one of the things that Panic's Prompt
still lack support of, and I really miss it :(

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carloscabanero
Not yet, but we are working on it. We use libssh2 and I'm working on a patch
for that.

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sirn
Cool, thanks. :-)

I just bought the app and play with it for few minutes, here's some quick
feedback:

1\. Love the fact the interface is just a CLI!

2\. But would be nice if content of `help` was shown by default. `blink>`
wasn't very helpful ;-)

3\. Ability to bind Caps Lock to "ESC on tap, Ctrl on Hold" would be really
cool.

Otherwise I really like what I'm seeing so far. Finally Mosh client on my iPad
Pro!

Edit: and 4, ability to bind Alt/Option key as Meta (rather than iOS' default
special character input, e.g. Alt-x should send M-x)

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carloscabanero
Thanks a lot for the feedback!!

You can actually do number 3. On Config > Keyboard select Caps as Ctrl at the
modifier section, and also toggle the Caps as ESC. That will give you Ctrl on
hold, and ESC on tap. :)

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rhinoceraptor
Does caps->ctrl work on the iPad Pro smart keyboard?

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carloscabanero
Yes, Caps as Ctrl work on the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard.

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vesak
Marvellous! I tried an iPad Pro about half a year ago, but the lack of a good
ssh/mosh client made me return it. Perhaps I'll need to check it out again --
especially the smaller Pro seems like it could be a fine choice now for a
portable terminal.

(I did try Panic back then -- I thought it was quite awkward)

~~~
hellofunk
Heck an iPad Air 2 is fast and cheap, if you just need a terminal, or anything
else. Pro is good if you use stylus or need ridiculous power.

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matt4077
Unlike other ssh terminals that mostly serve the amateur ssh market?

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matt_wulfeck
Does anyone know if I have the option to import and SSH private key and
whether or not that data is stored in the secure enclave? If so this would be
very valuable for working on the go, but I'm very weary of the security if it
will be used for work.

I'd love to see some documentation regarding he security, and some proof that
keys are not exportable.

~~~
carloscabanero
It allows to import an SSH key. When doing that, the public key is stored in
disc, and the private key is sent to Keychain (since iOS 7 or 8 encrypted with
the Secure Enclave), and only a reference is stored. In this way keys are not
exportable or sent to the backup. We use UICKeyChainStore for that, and can
check the code yourself too :)

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Slick!

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eridius
I thought GPL was incompatible with the App Store? Wasn't VLC famously pulled
from the App Store over a complaint about this? I know VLC eventually got back
on, but I'm having trouble finding any info about how they resolved the
problem.

~~~
carloscabanero
Mosh and technologies involved actually have an iOS exception that makes it
compatible as long as the resulting project is GPL'd too.

In the case of VLC they had to relicense, so a process very similar to this
one.

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eridius
Does Mosh itself not depend on any other GPL'd code?

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carloscabanero
Other libraries are system libraries and BSD licensed like protobuf.

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rhinoceraptor
How does it compare to Panic's Prompt?

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carloscabanero
Three things: \- Mosh & SSH support: In Prompt and any other iOS ssh client,
connections break every 3 minutes. With Mosh that isn't a problem. \- Full
external keyboard support: Alt as Esc, Caps as Ctrl, you can have your
terminal as you do in your desktop/laptop. \- Speed and rendering: Blink uses
Google's HTerm, so it is faster and you can add your own themes and fonts.

~~~
mark_l_watson
Looks like a nice app. One correction through: I use Prompt a lot and have
been for a long time. I don't have connections break when I use it.

You might provide a video clip of a demo to help make a purchase decision.

~~~
evilduck
They meant if you close it and, say, want to read or follow along with a book
in iBooks and not use split view, you have to multitask back to Prompt every 3
minutes or iOS will suspend the app, killing your SSH connection in the
process. Since Prompt is closed source and on the App Store, they can't use
mosh which solves this problem.

~~~
mark_l_watson
Thanks for clarifying that. I use it for 5 or 10 minutes, finish whatever I am
doing, then logout.

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JoshTriplett
I'm extremely impressed by this. If you ever decide to build an Android
version, sign me up.

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Note that you can use mosh on Android using Termux
([https://termux.com](https://termux.com)) - run 'apt update && apt install
mosh' to install the mosh package.

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adolph
Does Blink have high function key numbers like F-17? The lack in Prompt forces
some ungraceful exits for Epic Cache admins.

Also, does it have a method of emulating the non-numeric characters generated
by the numeric keypad of a big old keyboard?

~~~
carloscabanero
I can definitely increase the number of F keys either on the on-screen
keyboard and the F keys mapping.

Blink also supports Cursor keys and remap of those (by default Cmd + Arrow).

My plan is to have some kind of "special keys maps", like iTerm does, to
emulate any other key through defined combinations. That I guess should cover
the rest of the special keys you might need.

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eddiecalzone
Looks amazing - can't wait to try it! FWIW, noticed a minor typo in
www.blink.sh: "Blink can and should be >you< all-day-long tool."

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carloscabanero
Fixed! Thanks :)

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ehPReth
Does it allow you to verify fingerprints? [Hopefully with the new & improved
case-sensitive SHA256 format as well? :)]

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carloscabanero
If I remember, fingerprint was verified using libssh2, but I do not think they
do SHA256 yet. Tried to look in their documentation but didn't find it. Would
be a great addition too.

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zejay
Right now it seems to show an SHA1 hash encoded in hex, which is very
inconvenient because ssh-keygen displays either MD5 in hex or SHA256 in
base64. It should at least tell the user what hash algo was used, I found that
out by trial and error.

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tammer
can I map ⌘ to meta?

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carloscabanero
You can map ⌘ to Ctrl or ESC, very useful for Emacs :)

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tammer
I think you've got an excellent product here that stands as a hallmark of what
the future of work on iOS looks like

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carloscabanero
Thanks!! I might actually use that for our webpage :)

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jansenv
This is an excellent website design. I'll definitely be checking this software
out

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carloscabanero
I know, Jamie Zawinski will be proud :D

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ianai
I bought it after the discussion here. I'm super impressed.

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carloscabanero
Thanks! Any feedback will be greatly appreciated too, we want to make Blink
the best terminal for iOS. :)

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mrmondo
$31?!

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zymhan
Well, $20 USD. Not sure what $ you mean.

If you aren't SSHing to boxes from a mobile device often enough that $20
doesn't seem worth it, then this likely isn't for you.

I for one would pay that at the drop of a hat if I only had a cell phone and
my servers were down. It's certainly not much for an everyday productivity
tool.

~~~
jlgaddis
I'm not "knocking" this app by any means. Just from the comments here, it's
obviously a great tool for a lot of people.

> _... if I only had a cell phone and my servers were down._

I just use my cellphone as a hotspot, my MBP connects to it, and I'm online.
Several of my co-workers do the same thing. Is that uncommon? I kinda just
assumed that's what most people do (assuming they have a laptop with them, of
course).

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stormbeta
Ditto. The idea of doing any kind of professional work in a shell via an iOS
device doesn't make sense to me at all, and making the shell fancier wouldn't
help.

~~~
goerz
I can only speak for myself here, but for me having Blink means that I can
travel for a week and not bring my laptop. Other apps like Prompt were pretty
decent, but Blink has brought all the pain points (compared to my Macbook) to
(almost) zero, through faster rendering and its amazing support for shortcuts
and remapping the keys an the Smart Keyboard. I mostly do development of
numeric software, so even when I'm working on the Mac, I'm always just
connected to the development server or cluster nodes, with tmux + vim.

