con

A collection of small CLI scripts that help you connect to remote hosts without typing hostnames manually. Each script reads available hosts from a source (SSH config file or GCP API), displays a numbered list, and opens an SSH session to the host you select.

Scripts

Script	OS / Environment	Backend
con.sh	Linux / macOS (Bash)	OpenSSH via ~/.ssh/config
con.ps1	Windows (PowerShell)	OpenSSH via ~/.ssh/config
gcp-con.sh	Linux / macOS (Bash)	Google Cloud VMs via gcloud

very-old.ps1 is a historical prototype kept for reference only. Do not use it in practice.

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con.sh — Linux / macOS

Connects to SSH hosts defined in ~/.ssh/config.

Requirements

Dependency	Notes
Bash 4.0+	macOS ships with Bash 3.2; install a newer version via Homebrew (brew install bash)
awk	Any standard implementation
OpenSSH client (ssh)	Must be on PATH
~/.ssh/config	Must exist and contain at least one Host entry

Installation

Option A — alias (recommended)

Clone the repository once and add an alias to your shell profile. This way updates only require a git pull and the alias always points to the latest version.

git clone git@github.com:zwieratko/con.git ~/tools/con

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:
alias con="$HOME/tools/con/con.sh"

Reload your shell (source ~/.bashrc / source ~/.zshrc) and you can call the script simply as con.

Option B — copy to PATH

git clone git@github.com:zwieratko/con.git ~/tools/con
cd ~/tools/con
chmod +x con.sh
sudo cp con.sh /usr/local/bin/con

Usage

con               # show numbered list of hosts, then prompt for selection
con <number>      # connect directly to host <number> without prompting

Notes

• The last 2 entries in ~/.ssh/config are always excluded from the list. This is intentional — typically the trailing entries are catch-all (Host *) or group-separator blocks that should not be dialled directly. Adjust the exceptLast variable in the script if your config differs.
• There is no -v (version) or -h (help) flag.
• The ##div grouping separator supported by con.ps1 is not implemented here.

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con.ps1 — Windows / PowerShell

Connects to SSH hosts defined in ~/.ssh/config. This is the first and most feature-complete implementation.

Requirements

Dependency	Notes
PowerShell 5.1+	Windows PowerShell (built-in) or PowerShell Core 7+
OpenSSH client (ssh)	Must be on PATH; available as an optional Windows feature
~/.ssh/config	Must exist and contain at least one Host entry

Installation

Option A — alias (recommended)

Clone the repository once and add an alias to your PowerShell profile. Updates only require a git pull.

git clone git@github.com:zwieratko/con.git "$HOME\tools\con"

# Add to your PowerShell profile ($PROFILE):
Set-Alias con "$HOME\tools\con\con.ps1"

Reload your profile (. $PROFILE) and you can call the script as con.

Option B — copy to PATH

git clone git@github.com:zwieratko/con.git "$HOME\tools\con"
cd "$HOME\tools\con"

# Copy to a directory that is already on your PATH, e.g. ~/bin:
Copy-Item con.ps1 "$HOME\bin\con.ps1"

# Or add the repository directory to PATH in your PowerShell profile:
$env:PATH += ";$HOME\tools\con"

Usage

con                   # show numbered list of hosts, then prompt for selection
con <number>          # connect directly to host <number>
con -s <number>       # same as above (short form)
con -v                # print version
con -h                # print help

Host grouping with ##div

You can visually group hosts in the menu by placing a comment that starts with ##div on the line immediately before a Host block in your ~/.ssh/config:

## ##div
Host prod-web-01
    HostName 192.168.1.10
    User deploy

## ##div
Host staging-web-01
    HostName 192.168.1.20
    User deploy

The script detects these markers and prints a blank line above the group in the menu, making long host lists easier to read.

Notes

• The last 3 entries in ~/.ssh/config are excluded from the list (same rationale as con.sh). Adjust $itemCount = $allHostsArray.count - 3 in the script if your config differs.
• Terminal foreground and background colors are saved before the SSH session and restored automatically after it ends.
• The menu header shows the current date and time.

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gcp-con.sh — Linux / macOS / Google Cloud

Connects to Google Cloud Platform VM instances using gcloud compute ssh with IAP (Identity-Aware Proxy) tunneling. Hosts are discovered dynamically from the GCP API — no static config file needed.

Requirements

Dependency	Notes
Bash 4.0+	See note under con.sh for macOS
Google Cloud SDK (gcloud)	Must be installed and authenticated (gcloud auth login)
IAP enabled	The target VMs must be reachable via Identity-Aware Proxy
GCP project	Must be configured (see below)

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
GCLOUD_PROJECT	Optional	GCP project ID to use. If not set, the script falls back to gcloud config get-value project.

Installation

Option A — alias (recommended)

git clone git@github.com:zwieratko/con.git ~/tools/con

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:
alias gcp-con="$HOME/tools/con/gcp-con.sh"

Reload your shell and call the script as gcp-con.

Option B — copy to PATH

git clone git@github.com:zwieratko/con.git ~/tools/con
cd ~/tools/con
chmod +x gcp-con.sh
sudo cp gcp-con.sh /usr/local/bin/gcp-con

Usage

gcp-con               # list running VMs and prompt for selection
gcp-con <number>      # connect directly to VM <number>
gcp-con -h            # show help

# Override the GCP project for a single run:
GCLOUD_PROJECT=my-other-project gcp-con

Notes

• Only VMs with STATUS=RUNNING are listed.
• Connection is always made via IAP tunnel (--tunnel-through-iap). The VM does not need a public IP address.
• The script uses set -euo pipefail, so it exits immediately on any unexpected error.
• Both the VM name and zone are shown before connecting.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.