Using nnn preview-tui plugin on remote server sshed using kitty

[alexisthual]

Good evening,

I posted a similar question on kitty because I couldn't really figure out which config I should change.

I have the following use case to work:

• I have installed kitty on my local machine
• I have installed nnn on a remote machine a
• I am trying to use the preview-tui plugin on this remote machine but it fails with:

$KITTY_LISTEN_ON not set!
Please read Usage in '/root/.config/nnn/plugins/preview-tui'.

Here is how I proceeded:

1. In a local terminal, I ran kitty -o allow_remote_control=yes
2. In the new kitty terminal, I ran kitty +kitten ssh a
3. Using nnn's preview-tui yielded the previously reported error

Moreover, I am using nnn v4.8 and here is what I get when I run env | grep -E "(KITTY|NNN)" on my remote machine:

KITTY_PUBLIC_KEY=1:pWEjl`OTAC62kZGD?bZRQRNG=;9Dd#9_U}djB#-Z
KITTY_WINDOW_ID=1
NNN_PLUG=t:preview-tui
NNN_FIFO=/tmp/nnn.fifo

and on my local machine:

NNN_PLUG=i:imgview;j:autojump;p:preview-tabbed;t:preview-tui;z:fzcd
NNN_FIFO=/tmp/nnn.fifo
NNN_FCOLORS=0B0B04060006060009060B06
KITTY_WINDOW_ID=1
KITTY_PID=13811
KITTY_PUBLIC_KEY=1:pWEjl`OTAC62kZGD?bZRQRNG=;9Dd#9_U}djB#-Z
KITTY_LISTEN_ON=unix:/tmp/kitty-13811
KITTY_INSTALLATION_DIR=/home/alexis/.local/kitty.app/lib/kitty

Am I missing anything?
I see that $KITTY_LISTEN_ON is not defined on my remote machine, which makes nnn raise an error. Should I conclude that what I am trying to achieve is not doable?

Thank you in advance!

[luukvbaal]

Sounds like KITTY_PUBLIC_KEY may be used to control kitty from the remote. No idea how.

Why not just mount the remote filesystem and browse it with ur local nnn/preview-tui.

[luukvbaal]

PR welcome if that is feasible, the documentation seemed lacking... A quick skim left me with no idea how to use KITTY_PUBLIC_KEY.

[alexisthual]

This needs a bit of exploration, I might do this later if I have time.

My uneducated guess is that checking that when KITTY_LISTEN_ON is set, we should use the socket, and when KITTY_PUBLIC_KEY is set, we should use the tty.

[rock-tran]

@alexisthual I'm really interested in the preview-tui plugin. Also face the same issue.
Have you resolved it ? I really don't understand how the kitty works but on remote machine, I still can preview image by using "kitty +kitten icat image.png".

Hope you can fix it.

[alexisthual]

I did not investigate, but using sshfs is all I needed in the end :)

[rock-tran]

@alexisthual Yes, it could be a walkthrough. But I don't like it personally.
Thanks for your response. Hope that one day, it could be fixed.

[jarun]

I think you need support from kitty on this. nnn requires the env to operate.