Is it possible to open a second shell session that will remember the user, machine, and directory I am in?

Question

I'm ssh'ed into a machine and logged in as a different user. Is it possible to open a few new windows that will still be ssh'ed into that same machine, still logged in as that user?

Answer 1

Please note, this answer assumes your local machine is OS X, which you didn't specify...

You could set up a Terminal command to do this. From the Terminal menu, choose Preferences.... On the "Settings" tab, either create a new settingh group using the + button, or duplicate one of the setting groups you like. On the "Shell" group of your new settings, enter as the command: ssh user@host, where user and host are real values. Check the "Run inside shell" box.

Now, you can open new windows or tabs by choosing the menu options Shell > New Window > Your setting name or Shell > New Tab > Your setting name.

EDIT: I see you're interested in screen. This is a great program, and I use in all the time. In fact the screenshot above is outdated. What I now have is the one above it, called "Resume Screen". The command for that one is:

ssh -t user@host screen -RR -DD

This will connect to host as user and resume the last screen you were using (detaching it if you're still attached elsewhere). Similar means of setting up a terminal exist on linux. For gnome-terminal, check Edit > Profiles.

Answer 2

The easiest way would be to have a local x-server and enable^(*) ssh X forwarding. That way you could start any app (including a terminal) remotely and have it displayed locally.

(*) I believe it's turned on by default on most command line ssh clients