pyTextFilter

pyTextFilter is a tool that allows you to edit text files on a remote machine using your favorite local text editor.

Project History & Status

This project was originally inspired by TextEditAid, a now-defunct Google Chrome extension that allowed editing textarea contents in an external editor.

Note

The TextEditAid extension is no longer maintained or available. This project is no longer relevant to that extension.

Today, pyTextFilter is a standalone utility for seamless remote text editing.

How It Works

The system consists of a local server and a remote client:

1. Remote Client: You run a script (edit-client or editclient.js) on the remote machine (e.g., via SSH or in a VM).
2. Send: The client sends the file content to the pytextfilter server running on your local machine.
3. Edit: The local server spawns your configured text editor with the content.
4. Update: Once you save and close the editor, the modified content is sent back to the remote client.
5. Overwrite: The remote client overwrites the original file with the changes.

Components

• Server: pytextfilter.py (Runs on your local machine)
• Linux Client: edit-client (Shell script for Linux SSH servers)
• Legacy Windows Client: editclient.js (WSH script for older Windows versions, e.g., Windows 98, where PowerShell is unavailable)

Networking & Security Recommendations

Important

No Authentication: pytextfilter involves NO permission checks or access control. Anyone who can connect to the port can read/write files through your editor.

Listening Interface

It is strongly recommended to configure pytextfilter to listen only on 127.0.0.1 (localhost). Do not configure it to listen on 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) unless you completely trust the network.

Connecting from Remote Linux (SSH)

Since the server listens on 127.0.0.1, you need to forward the port so the remote client can reach your local machine.

• SSH Remote Forwarding: Use the -R option (or RemoteForward in ~/.ssh/config) to map the remote's port 31416 back to your local port 31416.
  • Command: ssh -R 31416:127.0.0.1:31416 user@hostname
  • Config: Add RemoteForward 31416 127.0.0.1:31416 to your host configuration.

Connecting from Windows VMs (QEMU)

If you are using QEMU with User Mode Networking to run Windows (e.g., Windows 98), the guest OS shares the host's network stack. You usually do not need special port forwarding; the guest can often access the host IP directly, or if using hostfwd, configuration varies.

• However, if the guest sees the host as a gateway (often 10.0.2.2 in QEMU user networking), editclient.js should point to that IP.
• Note: editclient.js in the repo has var edit_server = "http://10.0.2.2:31416";, which matches the QEMU default gateway address.

Usage

1. Start Server: Run ./pytextfilter.py on your local machine.
2. Connect: SSH to your remote server or open your Windows VM.
3. Edit:
   • Linux: edit-client filename.txt
   • Windows: cscript //nologo editclient.js filename.txt

Windows Context Menu Integration

To make it easier to launch the editor from Windows Explorer, you can add a context menu item. Save the following content as a .reg file (e.g., install_context_menu.reg) and double-click to import it.

This adds an "Open with Edit Client" option to right-clicking any file.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\editclient]
@="Open with Edit &Client"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\editclient\command]
@="wscript C:\\Windows\\editclient.js \"%1\""

Note

This registry script assumes you have placed editclient.js inside C:\Windows\. If you place it elsewhere, update the path in the script accordingly.