Python's Fabric: Connect to a host listed .ssh/config

Question

I'm having trouble with Fabric not recognizing hosts that I have in .ssh/config.

My fabfile.py is as follows:

from fabric.api import *

env.hosts = ['lulu']

def whoami():
    run('whoami')

Running $ fab whoami gives:

[lulu] run: whoami

Fatal error: Name lookup failed for lulu

The name lulu is in my ~/.ssh/config, like this:

Host lulu
     hostname 192.168.100.100
     port 2100
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/lulu-key

My first thought to solving this is adding something like lulu.lulu to /etc/hosts (I'm on a Mac), but then I have to also pass in the identity file to Fabric - and I'd rather keep my authentication (i.e. ~/.ssh/config) separate from my deployment (i.e. fabfile.py).

As well, incidentally, if you try to connect to a host in the hosts file, fabric.contrib.projects.rsync_project doesn't seem to acknowledge 'ports' in the hosts.env (i.e. if you use hosts.env = [lulu:2100] a call to rsync_project seems to try connecting to lulu:21).

Is there a reason Fabric doesn't recognize this lulu name? I'd be much obliged for any input on how to resolve this.

Thank you for reading.

Brian

Answer 1

Fabric doesn't have support currently for the .ssh/config file. You can set these up in a function to then call on the cli, eg: fab production task; where production sets the username, hostname, port, and ssh identity.

As for rsync project, that should now have port setting ability, if not, you can always run local("rsync ...") as that is essentially what that contributed function does.