tramp-proxy

An Emacs minor mode that proxies download commands (git clone, wget, curl) from local eshell to a remote server via TRAMP, syncing results back automatically.

Why?

When your remote server has better bandwidth or network access than your local machine, tramp-proxy lets you leverage it for downloads while keeping your local directory structure intact.

Installation

Add this directory to your load-path and require the package:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/tramp-proxy")
(require 'tramp-proxy)

Configuration

(setq tramp-proxy-host "my-remote-server")

The host must be accessible via TRAMP (e.g., configured in ~/.ssh/config).

Optional Settings

(setq tramp-proxy-remote-root "/tmp/tramp-proxy")  ; Remote working directory
(setq tramp-proxy-cleanup-remote t)                 ; Clean up remote files after sync
(setq tramp-proxy-transfer-method 'tramp)           ; Or 'rsync for large files
(setq tramp-proxy-fallback-on-error t)              ; Fall back to local execution on error

Usage

Transparent Mode (Minor Mode)

Enable tramp-proxy-mode in an eshell buffer. Supported commands are automatically intercepted:

$ tramp-proxy-mode
$ git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
$ wget https://example.com/file.zip
$ curl -O https://example.com/file.zip

Explicit Commands

Use explicit proxy-* commands without enabling the minor mode:

$ proxy-git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
$ proxy-wget https://example.com/file.zip
$ proxy-curl -O https://example.com/file.zip

How It Works

1. Path Mapping: Your local directory (~/projects/) is mapped to a deterministic remote path (/tmp/tramp-proxy/home_user_projects/)
2. Pre-Sync: Local context (e.g., ~/.gitconfig) is pushed to the remote
3. Execution: The command runs on the remote via TRAMP with PTY allocation for progress bars
4. Monitoring: Output streams back to a local term-mode buffer in real time
5. Post-Sync: Results are copied from remote to local directory
6. Cleanup: Remote working files are removed (configurable)

Architecture

tramp-proxy.el          Core engine, minor mode, eshell integration
tramp-proxy-utils.el    Path encoding, sync helpers, configuration
tramp-proxy-git.el      Git clone handler
tramp-proxy-download.el Wget and curl handlers

Limitations

• Transfer cost: Results must be pulled back from the remote; large repos incur double network usage (remote download + sync back)
• SSH keys: git clone over SSH requires agent forwarding or deploy keys on the remote
• Progress bar rendering: git clone progress output uses \r (carriage return) to overwrite lines in place. The current term-mode + term-line-mode display does not fully clear old characters when the new progress text is shorter, so the log buffer may show overlapping fragments (e.g., ResolvResolving deltas: ...). This is a cosmetic issue in the display buffer — the download and sync work correctly

License

GPL-3.0+