How to change terminal colors when connecting to SSH hosts

Question

So you want to change terminal colors and reset them back on exit?

It's possible thanks to .ssh/config, alias, and setterm

Answer 1

• .bash_aliases:

  function ssh_alias() {
    ssh "$@";
    setterm -default -clear rest;
    # If `-clear rest` gives error `setterm: argument error: 'rest'`, try `-clear reset` instead 
  }
  
  alias ssh=ssh_alias
  

• /etc/ssh/ssh_config:

  # Ensure this line exists:
    PermitLocalCommand yes
  

• .ssh/config:

  Host your.production.host
    User root
    LocalCommand setterm -term linux -back red -fore white -clear rest
  

In Bash, you can now:

some command

# all in default colors:
  ssh your.production.host

# colors changed:
# ....

exit
# colors changed back! yeea!

---

Alternative to setterm:

If you are using gnome-terminal, or another xterm, and are frustrated by the limited color choices of setterm, and/or your setterm changes are being overridden by color codes in your command prompt [$PS1], instead of setterm you may wish to use xtermcontrol, as demonstrated in this answer.

• For example, xtermcontrol --bg '#600' will make the terminal background a dark red, although you may need to install xtermcontrol before using it (e.g. sudo apt install xtermcontrol on Debian-based systems)

Answer 2

(Read gaRex's response first)

setterm has changed the arguments in recent versions: (more info: man setterm)

• .bash_aliases:

  function ssh_alias() {
    ssh $@;
    setterm --default --clear all;
  }
  
  alias ssh=ssh_alias
  

  You can still use --clear rest and reload .bash_aliases via exec bash
  
  
• .ssh/config:

  Host myproject.pro
    HostName myproject.com
    User root
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/myproject
    LocalCommand setterm --term linux --background white --foreground black --clear all
  

Answer 3

I needed this when connecting to my own computers. What I did was as simple as adding this snippet to my .bash_profile (which is in my dotfiles, so it ends up in most of my computers anyway):

[ -n "$SSH_CONNECTION" ] && echo -e "\033]11;#336699\a"

You can change the 336699 for any hex color you want.

Answer 4

I follow a similar approach to Enrico's, changing the background/foreground of the terminal, then connecting to the server, and changing back the original color when disconnecting from the servers, with no admin permission needed, only requiring a few lines added to .bash_aliases:

alias background_local='printf "\e]11;#333333\e\\"'
alias background_server='printf "\e]11;#336699\e\\"'
alias goto_server='background_server; ssh server ; background_local"

• If you wish, you can mix and match, changing also the foreground color with the command:

  alias foreground_server='printf "\e]10;#fff2af\e\\"'
  

  
  

I assumed you have a working .ssh/config file, so ssh server connects to your server; for completeness, in .ssh/config you may want to have:

Host server
  HostName address.to.your.server
  User yourusername

Answer 5

On Apple Mac/OSX, setterm is not available, but you can use osascript with a little shell script:

#!/bin/sh

DEFAULT_SCHEME=Basic
SCHEME=${1:-$DEFAULT_SCHEME}
SAFE_SCHEME=\"${SCHEME//\"/}\"  # sanitize user input

/usr/bin/osascript <<EOF
tell application "Terminal"
  set current settings of window 1 to settings set $SAFE_SCHEME
end tell
EOF

• This takes a single argument corresponding to one of the colour schemes terminal knows about (e.g. Ocean) and may be invoked in place of setterm in the above answers, remembering to also add it to ~/.bash_aliases so the terminal reverts to the original colour scheme when when you exit the ssh session
  
  

The default bash profile on OSX does not source .bash_aliases, so you may need to add something like this to ~/.bash_profile:

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
  source ~/.bash_aliases
fi

• For additional information on how to change the terminal colours in OSX, see this SO answer.

Answer 6

I'm using Yakuake, but the same steps work with Konsole, so this answer is "KDE/Konsole" specific.

I wanted to change terminal colors when connected to important servers, and switch it back when ssh session was closed. Based on gaRex's answer I did the following:

1. Enabled PermitLocalCommand yes in ~/.ssh/config
2. Added LocalCommand konsoleprofile ColorScheme=RedOnBlack;TabColor=#FF0000 to the Host directive for production servers
3. Modified ssh to be a function in my ~/.zshrc, by inserting ssh() { /usr/bin/ssh "$@" ; konsoleprofile ColorScheme=Breeze} there

/usr/bin/konsoleprofile is a neat script, self described as

A command-line tool to change the current tab's profile options.

So before every ssh connection, my current console will change it's color scheme to RedOnBlack, and tab color will be red too (this works only in Konsole so far, can't find a way to change yakuake tab color)

And then, after SSH is closed, color scheme will be reset to my default - Breeze.