How to Configure Mac OS X Terminal for Secure SSH

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The following information applies only to Mac OS X 10.2 to Mac OS X 10.4.

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Terminal Secure SSH .term Files

Terminal SSH is used from the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) command line. Before using SSH, you may need to change the following Terminal Preference. Open the Terminal application Select Terminal -> Preferences... Change the following: Declare terminal type ($TERM) as:  vt102  Close the "Terminal Preferences" window. Select Terminal -> Window Settings... to make other window setting changes (Click the Use Settings as Defaults button to use the current window settings in all new Terminal windows).

Secure SSH Open the Terminal application and type following ssh command: ssh fqdn where fqdn is the domain name of the machine that you are SSH'ing too.

.term Files The Terminal application can save current Window Settings to a .term file. .term files are actually .plist files, but with a .term file extention instead. Later, when you double-click on the .term file, the Terminal application will start and the Window Settings in the .term file will be used. You can also cause the Terminal application to execute commands when you double-click on a .term file. For example, by adding the following text: <key>ExecutionString</key> <string>ssh example.ait.iastate.edu;exit;</string> you can cause the Terminal application to automatically ssh to example.ait.iastate.edu when you double-click on the saved .term file. (example.ait.iastate.edu is just an example, it does not actually exist).

Last updated August 31, 2009