iTerm – Create Secure Session in Terminal on MacOSX

command lineitermSecurity

I use iTerm for doing things such as creating passwords by selecting random words from /usr/dict. I prefix the commands with a space so they aren't saved in the shell history. I discovered to my horror that iTerm2 keeps recent paste, commands and other history. See Session > Open Paste / command / .... Its all there in plain text sqlite db file.

I found that these are saved to ~/Library/Application\ Support/iTerm2/ and I simply deleted these files. However this is not a very good solution since everything is deleted and has to be done every time.

My questions are – is this data saved anywhere else and is there a way to create secure sessions so this doesn't happen?

Best Answer

Ahhh, it seems that Terminal (MacOSX Default app) doesn't save such data anywhere (at least under ~/Library/Application\ Support/)? So my answer is how to have secure sessions (generally). But it doesn't answer if iTerm2 does this anywhere else nor how to create 'secure sessions' (one where the commands aren't saved) using it.

This is my answer though I welcome anything better.

Related Solutions

Switching terminal styles in iTerm 2

If you're serious about terminal work, I would suggest looking at tmux, especially as new builds of iTerm 2 come with it precompiled in (though I use the 'vanilla' version). In your case, if you were using tmux you could detach the current session from the window you're in, and then reattach in a new one (i.e., full screen), or just have multiple windows attached to the same session. There are some other advantages to using tmux, but I'm sure you'll discover them as you're using the program more.

Alternatively, have iTerm show the tab bar even if you only have one tab (make sure Appearance > Hide tab bar… is unchecked), and then you can 'pull' the tab out into its own window to continue using it.

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