Operating a server

Terminal and Live Monitor

Terminal

Choose Terminal in the sidebar, or Open terminal on the Overview. Every plan has it, in either mode. Under the tabs, Native VM spells out the connection you're on, such as SSH · deploy@web-1 · 18 ms · 3 channels on one connection.

• Resizing works. When you resize the window, the server is told the new size, so full-screen programs such as vim, less and htop reflow. A tab opened behind another starts at the visible tab's size, so nothing wraps.
• 10,000 lines of scrollback per tab.
• Copying and pasting. Selecting text copies it. The shortcuts are Cmd+C and Cmd+V on macOS, and Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V elsewhere, so a plain Ctrl+C still interrupts the program. Pasting into a program that asked for bracketed paste is wrapped for it.
• Works offline. Everything the terminal needs ships inside the app; nothing is loaded from the internet.

When the connection drops

The tab shows a banner with Reconnect. Its scrollback stays on screen, and reconnecting opens a new shell. Native VM reconnects the server itself automatically when you next do something, waiting a little longer between each try.

Live Monitor

Live Monitor, in the sidebar, is the real htop, running on the server on one channel of the window's connection.

• It runs only while the page is showing. Leave the page and the channel closes, so htop stops and its redraws stop crossing the network. Coming back starts a fresh one.
• A missing htop is installed for you, with apt, like any other tool Native VM needs.
• It runs as the user you signed in as, not as root. It still sees every process, but it can't signal processes owned by someone else.