[goku12]

How about mounting your dotfiles directory (~/.config) or even your entire home directory on the remote system using SSHFS or NFS? I'm sure somebody would have tried it or some project may already exist. Any idea why that isn't as prevalent as copying your dotfiles over?

[sigwinch]

I’m trying to imagine why sshfs mounting the less-capable remote onto the workstation would be blocked.

[cl3misch]

That requires the remote machine to be configured to SSH into your local machine. In the scenario where OP's project is useful (SSH to foreign machines) I might not want that.

On the other hand, if the remote machine is mine, it will have my config anyway.

[goku12]

There should be some way to mount a local directory onto a remote system without requiring the remote system to log in to the local system. SSH provides a secure bidirectional communication channel between the two systems. While we normally use sshfs to mount a remote directory to the local system, why should the reverse be impossible? Besides, you could also use NFS over SSH or TLS.

[vbernat]

This would enable a lot of attacks.

[goku12]

Could you elaborate?

[oasisaimlessly]

Now anybody with root/sudo/physical access to the remote machine has full R/W access to your entire home directory.

[goku12]

Well, what if it's a separate directory meant exclusively for remote systems alone? And what if the remote mount is read-only, perhaps with a writable layer on top using overlayfs that can be discarded on logout?

[vbernat]

This now looks very complex.

[goku12]

It's actually far less complex than what container runtimes do. I've even done parts of those, which is why I'm able to suggest it. I'm thinking about implementing it and was checking if anybody else wanted to do it or if they foresee any problems that I can't.