Add a kitten to easily ssh into servers that automatically copies the terminfo files over

README.asciidoc

@@ -560,8 +560,15 @@ for why kitty does not support background color erase.
 === I get errors about the terminal being unknown or opening the terminal failing when SSHing into a different computer?
 
 This happens because the kitty terminfo files are not available on the server.
-Either install kitty on the server, or simply copy over the terminfo files,
-using:
+If you have python installed on the server, you can ssh in using the following
+command which will automatically copy the terminfo files over.
+
+....
+kitty +kitten ssh server_name
+....
+
+Alternatively, you can use the following one-liner which does not require python
+on the server, but is slower, as it has to ssh into the server twice:
 
 ....
 infocmp xterm-kitty | ssh myserver tic -x -o \~/.terminfo /dev/stdin
@@ -582,7 +589,6 @@ infocmp xterm-kitty | ssh $1 tic -x -o \~/.terminfo /dev/stdin && ssh $1
 Then you can use `myssh server` to log in to `server` with the terminfo file
 being automatically available.
 
-
 === How do I change the colors in a running kitty instance?
 
 You can either use the

kittens/ssh/main.py

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
+# License: GPL v3 Copyright: 2018, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+SHELL_SCRIPT = '''\
+#!/bin/sh
+
+tmp=$(mktemp /tmp/terminfo.XXXXXX)
+cat >$tmp << 'TERMEOF'
+TERMINFO
+TERMEOF
+
+tic_out=$(tic -x -o ~/.terminfo $tmp 2>&1)
+rc=$?
+rm $tmp
+if [ "$rc" != "0" ]; then echo "$tic_out"; exit 1; fi
+if [ -z "$USER" ]; then USER=$(whoami); fi
+search_for_python() {
+    # We have to search for python as Ubuntu, in its infinite wisdom decided
+    # to release 18.04 with no python symlink, making it impossible to run polyglot
+    # python scripts.
+
+    # We cannot use command -v as it is not implemented in the posh shell shipped with
+    # Ubuntu/Debian. Similarly, there is no guarantee that which is installed.
+    # Shell scripting is a horrible joke, thank heavens for python.
+    local IFS=:
+    if [ $ZSH_VERSION ]; then
+        # zsh does not split by default
+        setopt sh_word_split
+    fi
+    local candidate_path
+    local candidate_python
+    local pythons=python3:python2
+    # disable pathname expansion (globbing)
+    set -f
+    for candidate_path in $PATH
+    do
+        if [ ! -z $candidate_path ]
+        then
+            for candidate_python in $pythons
+            do
+                if [ ! -z "$candidate_path" ]
+                then
+                    if [ -x "$candidate_path/$candidate_python" ]
+                    then
+                        printf "$candidate_path/$candidate_python"
+                        return
+                    fi
+                fi
+            done
+        fi
+    done
+    set +f
+    printf "python"
+}
+PYTHON=$(search_for_python)
+exec $PYTHON -c "import os, pwd; shell = pwd.getpwuid(os.geteuid()).pw_shell or 'sh'; os.execlp(shell, '-' + os.path.basename(shell))"
+'''
+
+
+def main(args):
+    server = args[1]
+    terminfo = subprocess.check_output(['infocmp']).decode('utf-8')
+    sh_script = SHELL_SCRIPT.replace('TERMINFO', terminfo, 1)
+    cmd = ['ssh', '-t', server, sh_script]
+    p = subprocess.Popen(cmd)
+    raise SystemExit(p.wait())
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main(sys.argv)