I. Install iTerm2 on Mac OS

iTerm2 is a powerful terminal emulator on Mac OS. Install it via homebrew:

brew cask install iterm2

After install iTerm2, I would recommand to use oh-my-zsh to replace bash

II. Add Server Profile

Generally, we connect to a remote server via SSH. If you have many servers to connect, it’s better to configure some server profiles to manage them in iTerm2.

1. Write a profile file on local disk

  • Create a file on disk, for example, in the folder ~/Workspace
touch ~/Workspace/remote_server_1
  • Then edit this file, need password each time when connect to the server
#!/usr/bin/expect -f

set user userName
set host remote_host_or_ip
set timeout -1

spawn ssh $user@$host
interact
expect eof
  • Or set the password as well
#!/usr/bin/expect -f

set user userName
set host remote_host_or_ip
set password passWord
set timeout -1

spawn ssh $user@$host
expect {  
        "(yes/no)?"  
        {send "yes\n";exp_continue}  
        "password:"  
        {send "$password\n"}  
}  
interact
expect eof
  • Give execution privilege to profile
chmod +x ~/Workspace/remote_server_1

2. Add profile to iTerm2

Open iTerm2, choose Profiles in taskbar, then click Open Profiles, it will show a Profiles window, then click Edit Profiles

click + button is the left-bottom corner:

  • Edit Name in Basics to set Profile name, for example server_1
  • Edit Tags in Basics to set tag of this profile, for example remote_cluster
  • Edit Command in Command: expect ~/Workspace/remote_server_1

III. Use profile to open a SSH session

After configured as above, open iTerm2, click Profiles in the task bar, you will see there is remote_cluster, and there is server_1 inside it. iTerm2 will open a SSH session when you click it.

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