Remote Shell

Platform: Linux only

Remote Shell lets you open a terminal on a remote Linux device through AnyDesk. The session behaves like a local terminal and supports standard shell commands, environment variables, and interactive prompts, e.g., sudo.

Requirements

• Install AnyDesk 8.0.0 for Linux or later on both devices.

• The remote device must run a display server. Headless environments are not supported.

Permissions

Remote Shell is disabled by default. You can enable or disable it either during a connection request or through permission profiles.

• Enable or disable Remote Shell in the Accept Window when a connection request appears or during an active session.
  

• To change the default behavior for specific connection types, navigate to Settings > Permissions. From there, you can adjust the Remote Shell setting for the relevant Permission Profile.

🚨 IMPORTANT

If the Remote Shell permission is revoked while a shell is open, the shell terminates immediately and an error message appears.

Start a Remote Shell session

You can start a Remote Shell session in several ways:

1. From the connection field.
   Enter the remote AnyDesk ID or Alias, then select the Remote Shell icon.
   

2. From a device tile.

   Right-click any device tile in Recent Sessions, Favorites, or another device list, then select Remote Shell.
   

3. From an active session.

   During a standard remote session, locate Session Toolbar, click the Actions icon and select Remote Shell.

   

Remote Shell behavior

• Sessions start in Bash by default. You can switch to another installed shell, such as zsh or fish, using standard shell commands.

• If a user is logged in on the remote device, commands run in that user’s context.

• If a user is logged out, commands run under the login manager (e.g., GDM or SDDM).

• Unscroll on Input - enabled by default. When enabled, the terminal view automatically returns to the active command prompt when you start typing. Right-click the terminal to toggle this setting.

• Supports interactive password prompts for sudo.

• You can open multiple terminal instances within a single connection.

• You can lock your keyboard input to prevent accidental commands.

• Commands executed through Remote Shell may be logged by the operating system. If shell history is enabled on the remote system, commands will be saved to the shell history file (e.g., .bash_history).

Shortcuts and navigation

Troubleshooting

Shell session closes unexpectedly.

Cause

The Remote Shell permission was disabled on the remote device.

Solution

Verify that Remote Shell remains enabled in the Accept Window and in the permission profiles.