This script sets up a non-interactive SSH tunnel (-nNT, no shell, no TTY, no stdin) that forwards a remote Docker daemon’s Unix socket to a local socket, allowing local Docker commands to control the remote host without opening a remote shell.

dkr-shell-utils.bash

#!/usr/bin/env bash

dkr-env-clear() {
  export DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY=""
  export DOCKER_HOST=""
  export DOCKER_CERT_PATH=""
  export DOCKER_MACHINE_NAME=""
}

dkr-env() { dkr-env-remote $* }

dkr-env-remote() {
  if [[ -n "$1" ]] ; then
    local UNIXSOCK="$(mktemp)-docker.sock"
    export DOCKER_HOST="unix://${UNIXSOCK}"
    echo DOCKER_HOST=$DOCKER_HOST

    echo "ssh -i $1 -nNT -L $UNIXSOCK:/var/run/docker.sock $2 &"
    ssh -i $1 -nNT -L $UNIXSOCK:/var/run/docker.sock $2 &
  else
    echo
    echo "Usage: "
    echo
    echo "    dkr-env-remote ssh_key_path user@«destination»"
    echo
  fi
}

dkr-images-flat() {
  docker image ls --format "{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}"
}

export -f dkr-env-clear
export -f dkr-env
export -f dkr-env-remote
export -f dkr-images-flat