The unix shell (bash) and remote login (ssh) are centerpieces of the server and app deployment process. While building Heroku, however, Orion and I became aware that these tools are pretty far out of step with modern, agile development practices.

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And now for one of my favorite bits of black magic from the unix poweruser’s toolkit: ssh tunnels.

Like most good tricks, this one is simple. It lets you bounce TCP traffic through an ssh connection. This is handy in a variety of situations, but the one I’ve used it most often for is to access a website which is available only inside of a corporate LAN. If you’ve got external ssh access, you can set up a tunnel that will let you point your browser at a local port to access that site.

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