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Migrating from Windows Vista to Ubuntu 8.04 and have been using it all the way to 9.10, I am now a complete Linux convert. As a web developer, I am frequently required to edit files on remote servers. Without some kind of mechanism to automate the upload process, it becomes laborious as number of files grows. On Windows system I use Notepad++ and its FTP plugin to edit remote files, which work pretty well.

Now I am using Ubuntu, I have to find a similar editor to accomplish this. After some investigation, I found that the bundled text editor gedit is capable of doing remote file editing -- but not without some tricks. In the rest of the article I am going to show you how to do this.

Step 1: Connect to a Remote Server

• Go to Places->Connect to Server and connect to a remote server. Make sure that you check "Add bookmark" check box.
• Enter a name for this connection as you will use this to refer to the remote server in gedit.
• Click "Connect" to proceed.

If you are promoted to enter a password, enter it and choose a password option that fits your need. They are self-explanatory.

Step 2: Editing Remote File

• Once you are successfully connected to a server, fire up gedit.
• Go to view and check "Side Panel" or press F9.
• At bottom of side panel, click "File Browser" tab.
• On top of the side panel drop down menu, select "Bookmarks".
• Expand the server you are connecting to.
• You now can edit remote files as they are local files.

Gedit is a very powerful text editor. In my option it is as feature-rich as Notepad++. Syntax highlighting, bracket matching, automatic indentation are the features I find the most useful to me. I use the following preferences to make gedit the programmer's perfect text editor:

Another tip is that you can narrow the file list in the side panel by applying filter. For example at bottom of the side panel, if you enter "*.php" in the "Match Filename" text box, the side panel now will only show PHP files.

Once again thanks for reading.

1. 
   if April 21, 2010 8:12 am
   but lots of file edit must in sudo.
   so this aticle won't fit most situation
2. 
   Cuong April 29, 2010 12:43 pm
   I use this mostly to edit websites which do not require super user privilege. If I need to edit system files remotely, I would just SSH and use vi for the job. So as a web developer, I use this method 99% of the time.
3. Gadget Newz May 3, 2010 4:49 am
   [...] Use Gedit as Remote File Editor via FTP and SSH (Ubuntu) [...]
4. 
   maxzec May 18, 2010 6:30 am
   Thanks a lot. That's what I was looking for. And really Gedit can be trasformed in a complete IDE with its plugins.
   If you're interested, you can read this post (in italian):
   http://www.tuxjournal.net/?p=1967
5. 
   Enno November 27, 2010 4:10 am
   Straightforward and helpful. Thanks
6. 
   thedoctorzeus January 5, 2011 2:26 pm
   Thank you! I use Coda on my Mac and was trying to find something simple and similar for Ubuntu
7. engin’in ubuntu rehberi - yazilan.org February 3, 2011 2:59 am
   [...] http://thecodecentral.com/2010/04/02/use-gedit-as-remote-file-editor-via-ftp-and-ssh-ubuntu [...]
8. 
   Dave February 3, 2011 3:56 pm
   How can I do this when using gedit on a Mac? I can use gedit and the file browser plugin just fine. But I don't see how to add add a bookmark when I connect to the server.
9. 
   Evgeni Petrov April 23, 2011 8:39 am
   Hello,
   
   I am working like that but if I do not have activity on the ftp server, Nautilus seems to drop the connection and gedit hangs when I try to save a file. Do you know how I can prevent this? (by automatically closing the file in gedit or by keeping the ftp session alive in Nautilus).
10. 
    claw April 25, 2011 12:20 am
    Thanks that helped me a lot
11. 
    Remesh June 2, 2011 2:14 am
    Nice post, very informative & to the mark.
    Thanks, keep up the good work!
12. 
    Hamdi June 23, 2011 2:10 pm
    Thanks a lot!! This is awesome! I was looking some ways to edit files remotely using my favorite editor and IDE with this method I can not just use gedit but any IDE or editor to edit files! Thanks a lot for sharing:)
13. 
    Jaime Orjuela July 1, 2011 5:27 am
    it was astonishing ... Thanks a lot!!!
14. Connect to Amazon EC2 Instance from Nautilus without Using Password File | Code Central February 1, 2012 12:20 am
    [...] based on Amazon Linux. I am so used to the "Ubuntu" way of remote editing, which I have described here. With EC2 instances, however, this method seems to be impossible -- as I need to supply the key [...]
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    [...] This is just what researchers on the EU-funded POPEYE project have been doing. Read more . . . [caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] When people ...0-880.jpg" alt="Picture of the EO Communicator (source: the Un..." width="202" height="198" [...]
16. » Peer-to-peer Networking Takes Internet Out Of The Equation April 15, 2012 10:19 am
    [...] This is just what researchers on the EU-funded POPEYE project have been doing. Read more . . . [caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] When people ...0-880.jpg" alt="Picture of the EO Communicator (source: the Un..." width="202" height="198" [...]
17. 
    Lauren April 21, 2012 9:17 pm
    Thank you so much. I've been trying to do something like this for a long time. I didn't know it was so simple.

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