How to create a short name for tramp multihop path?

Question

I connect to various locations, for example:

/ssh:hostname|sudo:hostname:/
/ssh:hostname|sudo:hostname|docker:container:/

and want to have some kind of short aliases for these long paths. Something like this:

/su-hn:/
/dk-hn:/

How can I get it?

Answer 1

Just use environment variables for the tramp paths.

For an example you could add the following line to your init file (with the right substitution for hostname):

(setenv "suHn" "/ssh:hostname|sudo:hostname:")

Those variables are resolved if you use them like $suHn/ at the prompt of find-file.

Note however that I am not sure about the pipe-character | in your tramp path. I never used such syntax for tramp and it is also not mentioned in tramp's file name conventions.

Answer 2

Read the Tramp Manual, chapter Frequently Asked Questions (https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/#Frequently-Asked-Questions). It explains in length several approaches to shorten remote file names. These approaches are valid also for multi-hop file names.