[tlug] Accessing a program running on a different computer

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Dave M G writes:

 > So, as mentioned at the top I don't want an Amarok specific solution
 > because I'd like to do this more generally. Is there a way to open a
 > program on one machine, but then access the interface for it from other
 > machines?

That depends on how it is coded.  GTK apps (you're a GNOME user,
right?) used to be quite deficient in this respect, but that was a
long time ago (and a main reason why I've avoided GTK and GNOME ever
since, as a matter of fact).

Xt apps will all accept the -display argument, like so: on
there.example.com, run

    xterm -display here.example.com:0.0

This probably will not work out of the box because it's a pretty
serious security risk; most X servers (ie, the mac hine you want to
see the interface on) will not allow the connection from "there".

The more likely approach is to use SSH's port forwarding capability:

    ssh -X you@example.com xterm

This requires you have an active ssh session, but that usually isn't a
problem.  If having a terminal window open on the ssh session really
bothers you I know it's possible to background ssh with "&", but you
need to give ssh an "-n" option to detach from your terminal.  See
also the "-Y" option.