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Matifou
Asked: 2019-11-27 11:18:27 +0800 CST

Nautilus: add dynamic bookmark for sftp folder with changing IP?

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I would like to add a bookmark in nautilus to a sftp server whose ip address changes over time.

I am connecting through sftp to a (google cloud instance) server, inserting in the file explorer the address:

sftp://[email protected]/home/

where xx.xxx.xx.xx is an IP address. I would like to add this as a bookmark in Nautilus, which I can easily do with ctrl +d. However, the ip address keeps changing from day to day. I can retrieve the IP address with a command like:

gcloud compute instances describe instancename --format="get(networkInterfaces[0].accessConfigs[0].natIP)"

Is there any way I can have a dynamic Nautilus bookmark, that would use the command above to create the correct address? Or can I run a command myself to update a static nautilus bookmark?

Thanks!

nautilus shortcuts sftp bookmarks

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can add a fake domain pointing to the ip.

    Edit /etc/hosts and add

    xx.xxx.xx.xx    my_foo_domain

    To access then you just insert sftp://your_user@my_foo_domain

    This way you don't have to create a shortcut everytime, but you have to edit /etc/hosts everytime. You can create a command to refresh the ip, like (backup your /etc/hosts):

    sed -i -E 's/^[.0-9]*[[:blank:]](my_foo_domain)/<your new ip> \1/' /etc/hosts

    You can create a function placed in your .bahsrc:

    _renew_ip() {
  ip=$(gcloud compute instances describe instancename --format="get(networkInterfaces[0].accessConfigs[0].natIP)")
  sed -i -E "s/^[.0-9]*[[:blank:]]*(my_foo_domain)/$ip \1/" /etc/hosts
}

alias renew_ip='bash -c "$(declare -f _renew_ip); _renew_ip"' 
alias sudo='sudo '

    And then you can just call the function:

    sudo renew_ip
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