Author and Founder of the project: Chris Cappuccio [email protected]
NSH is a CLI intended for OpenBSD-based network appliances. It replaces ifconfig, sysctl and route with its own simple command language, and encapsulates configuration for other daemons into one place, effectively replacing /etc/netstart and parts of /etc/rc for appliance-style usage.
bgpd, dhcpd, dhcpleased, dhcrelay, dvmrpd, eigrpd, ftp-proxy, ifstated, inetd, iked, ipsecctl, ldapd, ldpd, npppd, ntpd, ospfd, ospf6d, pf, rad, relayd, resolvd, ripd, sasyncd, slaacd, smtpd, snmpd, sshd, tftpd, tftp-proxy.
NSH is freely licensed, in the BSD style.
In conjunction with the OpenBSD kernel and the daemons you wish to control, you have a fully functioning network appliance type of system.
See https://github.com/yellowman/nsh/wiki/NSH-Manual-page or nsh.8 manual for detailed installation instructions and command set.
nsh manual is available on your system shell by simply typing the command:
man nshFor your convenience we have included handy manual page search for commonly used network functionality.
this feature is available in nsh by simply typing the command:
manual [searchterm]E.g. searching vlan functionality
manual vlanThe system also gives a list of searchable terms through double tab completion.
See the to-do list on https://github.com/users/yellowman/projects/1 for details on implementation status and future ideas.
See http://github.com/yellowman/nsh/ for current source code repository. See http://www.nmedia.net/nsh/ for example configurations and mailing list.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9-v5NLjXk for a BSDCAN 2024 Presentation on Supporting Business IT and network needs with OpenBSD and NSH By: Tom Smyth
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKxIHaWaG0 for an EurobsdCon 2022 Presentation on NSH for network administrators By: Tom Smyth
-
Install OpenBSD on your system by running the following commands in your system shell
-
Install the OpenBSD port of nsh on your system (this will install the latest nsh release version)
pkg_add nsh - Install git on your system to allow fetching more recent versions of nsh from github
pkg_add git- To download the latest development of nsh use git to download the latest nsh repository
git clone https://github.com/yellowman/nsh- Change directory to the downloaded nsh directory
cd nsh- Run make to build / compile the sources
make- Install the compiled nsh binaries and supporting files (you will need root privileges to do this).
make install-
To have nsh take over the configuration of a system a number of steps that need to be carried out such as
-
Backup configuration of system, daemons and network in /etc
-
Copy the configuration files to /var/run/example-configfilename.0 (the .0 file extension) implies running in the default rdomain / rtable (rdomain 0)
-
save the running config to /etc/nshrc
-
secure the /etc/nshrc file so that world cannot read, write or execute it .
-
configure the system to run nsh -i /etc/nshrc either adding a line to /etc/rc.local or using an rccctl script for nsh.
For the users convenience, the above steps (9-13) can be largely automated by running the rc.local-nsh-openbsd-integrate.sh script in your system shell and following on screen instructions.
- If you have downloaded nsh via git you can run the integration script as follows
cd nsh
cd scripts/shell
sh ./rc.local-nsh-openbsd-integrate.sh- If you have installed nsh via the OpenBSD ports package you can run the integration script as follows
cd /usr/local/share/exampes/nsh
cd scripts/shell
sh ./rc.local-nsh-openbsd-integrate.sh-
once configuration has been imported, restart the system and verify nsh config is running as expected.
-
Setting NSH as the default shell for a user
- Login as the user
- locate nsh binary, it is usually in /usr/local/bin/nsh
- at the command prompt run chsh -s command to set the shell to path to the nsh binary by running the following command in your system shell
chsh -s /usr/local/bin/nsh- please provide feedback , bug repots and suggestions to the developers on our mailing list [email protected] .