Script Kitty has actually been around for a while, but after receiving its 2.0 update last week, it's now a serious contender for one of those must-have apps (at least for anyone with an ssh-enabled server). I downloaded and set it up in a matter of a few minutes (including generating an RSA key for key-based auth and adding said key to a few Linux servers), and now have a stupid easy way of doing certain things very quickly without having to even resort to ConnectBot.

What is Script Kitty?

Here's the gist: if you have repetitive tasks, such as checking available disk space or quickly restarting apache on all your servers, Script Kitty is the app for the job. You first set up your hosts with a choice of password or key-based authentication, set up some shell scripts (which you can export and import), and then execute them across the servers you set up with a flick of a finger.

Script Kitty was developed by Mobilwerx, the guys behind SAWS | The Puridium War and Petri.

An obligatory warning for the rightfully paranoid:

• If you generate a key (you can't import one yet), it will get created without a password, which makes it inherently less secure. So next time I see an argument against caring about the importance of securing your Android device ("oh noes, someone will steal your Angry Birdz scores"), I will point them to this article.
• If you use a password, it will get saved, and is therefore subject to the same warning as above.
• I put in a feature request for passwords in keys as well as importing our own keys, and it's currently under consideration by the developer.
• And finally, not that it will happen, but if it did and the app went rogue and phoned sensitive information home, know that your servers could be accessed with the saved credentials. Unless it goes open source, and we can verify it's built off that source, there can't be that 100% trust. Again, I'm not saying this will happen, just like it isn't likely to happen to ConnectBot, but I have to put this warning here to clear my conscience.

Version 2.0

V2.0 of the app was totally redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up, including adding support for public key auth. Here's the full changelog:

- 2.0 Launched

- NEW - Redesigned Tablet and Phone GUI

- NEW - Completely rebuilt SSH libraries for enhanced protocol support

- NEW - Enhanced OS support for OOB OSX and BSD support

- NEW - Public key authentication

- NEW - Experimental Support for local android scripts!

Hands-On

Let's have a look at the gorgeous, clean interface, shall we? Bonus points to those of you who can spot a pattern in my server names:

Brilliantly simple, isn't it? Who doesn't love this design and ease of use?

You can even break up the servers into groups and execute commands on all servers in a group with one click (it's a little confusing right now, but you have to select a server, then Run Group Script, which will run the script on all servers, but only show you the output of the current one - the UX of this will be improved in the future). It's also interesting to note that the history of command outputs for each server is saved across sessions until you clear it - a nice touch.

My wishlist

Here is my wishlist, which I've forwarded to Mobilworx, along with some responses from the dev:

• Import existing private keys.
  • Added to 2.1 feature requests.

• Password protected keys - the current implementation is a security risk because it doesn't support passwords.
  • Added to 2.x feature requests (have to see how tricky it is to maintain. A password would mean a popup every time you run the script. I think that might take away from the clicky nature of the app. it should be doable, but maybe as an option to create a password protected key).

• Re: passwords - the way ConnectBot deals with it is it lets you unlock the key in its own key manager and then use it while it's in memory. Not sure if it's too applicable in this case as the app is pretty short-lived, but if you want to execute a bunch of stuff, you'd still have to log in only once since the key would be unlocked then and stored in memory.
  • Thanks for the feedback as usual. I will add that to the notes. Maybe just caching that password in memory for a fixed amount of time.

• Change the input type of the script field to not offer suggestions, capitalization, auto-space and other annoying crap that doesn't belong to scripts.
  • Added to 2.1 feature requests.

• Any idea if it can get interactive to provide input on the fly?
  • Nope, but we could look into it. We may need to add some support for variables. Tricky, but I will run it by my dev.

• Scheduled runs?
  • Version 1.0 has support for Tasker and Locale for scheduled runs. We are going to add that support back in eventually. We considered a standalone scheduling engine, but we had nightmares of people with incorrect timezones rebooting servers and stuff stupid.

Download

Script Kitty is absolutely free with the following limitations:

• Limited to 3 Servers
• Limited to 2 Server Groups
• Limited to 5 Active Scripts
• No Backup/Restore Support

Script Kitty Pro unlocks the limitations and only costs $0.99 - a worthy investment, in my opinion. Check out Script Kitty in the Play Store by using the widgets below.