Remote hosts

ProcessLama shows the processes of other machines in their own tabs. It connects with your OpenSSH client, copies a small helper program to the host and streams the process tree back. The helper runs as your SSH user and never uses sudo.

Requirements

• On this computer: OpenSSH 8.9 or newer, and a key-based login that works without a prompt (a key in your agent, or one without passphrase). ProcessLama runs ssh with BatchMode=yes and StrictHostKeyChecking=yes: connect once with ssh <alias> in a terminal to trust the host key.
• Linux hosts: x86_64 or arm64 with glibc 2.34 or newer (for example Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, RHEL 9).
• macOS hosts: Apple silicon or Intel, macOS 13 or newer.

Your ~/.ssh/config

ProcessLama stores only a host alias. User names, ports, keys and jump hosts belong in ~/.ssh/config:

Host build-box
    HostName build-box.example.net
    User deploy
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Host db-internal
    HostName 10.0.4.12
    User ops
    ProxyJump bastion

Check that ssh <alias> true returns without asking anything, then use the alias in ProcessLama.

Adding a host

Click + at the end of the tab strip (Ctrl+T, ⌘T on macOS) and choose Add remote host…. Enter the alias and click Test connection. Save, and the host opens in a tab. When the helper is missing, ProcessLama shows its path, version, size and checksum and asks before installing it, unless you turned on Install helper automatically.

The helper goes to ~/.local/lib/processlama/ on the host, its icon cache to ~/.cache/processlama/.

Common problems

• noexec home directory: the helper cannot run from a home directory mounted noexec. ProcessLama does not install anywhere else.
• Login scripts: text printed by ~/.bashrc is skipped, but a script that reads input stops the helper from starting. Guard interactive parts with case $- in *i*) ;; *) return ;; esac.
• Only your processes: hosts mounted with hidepid=2 hide other users' processes; the tab says so.

Network rates on Linux hosts

Per-process network rates need the ProcessLama network service on the host. Machines with the ProcessLama RPM or DEB already have it. For other hosts, the downloads page lists it under “Network service for remote Linux hosts”. In a remote tab, the network banner's Copy install command copies a command you run on the host; ProcessLama never runs sudo itself.

macOS hosts

An SSH session on macOS has no privacy permissions. For processes of other users, including root, the inspector shows files, sockets and threads as restricted; security details stay available. Your own processes show everything.

When the connection drops

The tab keeps its last sample and marks it stale with the time and the reason, and ProcessLama reconnects after 2, 5, 15 and 30 seconds, then every minute for up to ten minutes. Processes are never shown as ended only because the connection dropped.

Removing the helper

In Preferences → Remote hosts, open the host's menu and choose Remove helper from host…. Or run ssh <alias> 'rm -rf ~/.local/lib/processlama ~/.cache/processlama'.

Privacy

ProcessLama stores only the alias and what the helper last reported (system, architecture, helper version). It stores no user names, ports, keys or passwords, and its logs contain no host names or aliases.