Script vmup

vmup is built so a shell script can drive it: flags beat env, env beats config.toml. Spinner and human text go to stderr. Machine output with --json goes to stdout.

Non-interactive init

VMUP_HOST=192.168.1.10 \
VMUP_USER=ubuntu \
VMUP_KEY=~/.ssh/id_ed25519 \
VMUP_PORT=22 \
VMUP_REMOTE_DIR=~/vmup \
VMUP_TTL_MINUTES=5 \
VMUP_PROFILE=default \
vmup init -y --no-sweeper

-y without VMUP_HOST exits 1:

Non-interactive init requires VMUP_HOST (and usually VMUP_USER / VMUP_KEY)

--no-sweeper skips remote cron. Omit it to install the sweeper after a successful SSH test.

Upload in a script

vmup shot.png notes.pdf --json
echo $?

Exit 0 and a JSON object with "ok": true means the remote folder exists. Parse remotePath and prompt. --json does not copy to the clipboard. Full schema: JSON output.

vmup --json shot.png | jq -r '.prompt'

The spinner still runs on stderr if stderr is a TTY. Redirect stderr if you need a quiet log:

vmup shot.png --json 2>/dev/null

Check from CI

vmup check --json

{
  "ok": true,
  "profile": "default",
  "remoteDir": "~/vmup",
  "sweeper": true
}

Non-zero exit: "ok": false and "error" on stdout when you passed --json.

Overlay a host without editing the file

VMUP_HOST=10.0.0.8 VMUP_USER=ubuntu vmup check

Useful on a laptop that already has a profile, when a job should hit a different IP. Environment variables lists every key, including VMUP_CLIPBOARD_COPY (prompt, path, or none).

Disable the update notice

export VMUP_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1

That skips both the stderr banner and the background npm fetch. CI=true or CI=1 does the same.

--json, non-TTY stdout/stderr (pipes), and -V / --version never print the notice. The banner is printed from ~/.cache/vmup/update-check.json at most once per day while the install is behind; the command does not wait on npm.

Colors

NO_COLOR (any value), FORCE_COLOR=0, or TERM=dumb turn off ANSI. Color is off when stdout is not a TTY.

Wipe remote batches

vmup prune --all

Deletes every remote agents-* directory, including ones still inside TTL. --id deletes one batch. Default vmup prune still honors TTL. Recipes: Clean up batches.

prune --json

vmup prune accepts --json (including with --all), but it does not print a JSON result body. The flag only suppresses the update notice. Human lines (Pruned N remote batch(es)) still go to stderr. Prefer vmup check --json and vmup … --json for parsers.