How do I open specific directories when I start iTerm2?

[Fischer, Daniel]

Let's say I open up iTerm 2.

I'd like several tabs to open with several directories premarked with tab titles in place.

How would I do this?

[George Nachman]

Set up various profiles, each with a different directory. Open a window with those profiles. Save the arrangement. Then you can restore that arrangement and recover the directories.

[Fischer, Daniel]

How do I set a default directory in a profile? I see I can execute a command but not sure what to put there?

Thank you.

[Aaron Meurer]

cd directory?

Aaron Meurer

[George Nachman]

It's in prefs->profiles->general. Set working directory to "Directory:" and enter the path you want there.

[lobatt]

I am setting up my default profile as below, but it always open home directory instead of the directory set in the Directory field, am I missing anything?

[Paolo Giarrusso]

On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 at 4:05:17 PM UTC+1, lobatt wrote:

I am setting up my default profile as below, but it always open home directory instead of the directory set in the Directory field, am I missing anything?

I had the same problem. I fixed it by selecting, in the same preference pane you show, "login shell" instead of "Command: login -fp $MYUSERNAME" (in the screenshot, $MYUSERNAME is lobatt). Which seems a bug, since that command is a setting I got by default, somehow (like you, I guess), for whatever reason*. Hence, the "Working Directory" setting (henceforth WD) is broken out of the box. Moreover, it's *silently* broken: I don't see how WD should work if I have an arbitrary command (heck, who said it should be a shell), but then iTerm2 should *tell me* that the settings aren't compatible. iTerm2 could:

- give a validation error *telling* me that those two settings are incompatible. But that's not standard (except on web forms)

- disable WD when using custom commands. That's bad though, because how do I *discover* how to re-enable WD? Maybe WD should be moved to *under* the Login shell. Here's a mockup of the dialog in text form:

Command:

( ) Command: [........]
(x) Login shell
    Working Directory:
      ( ) Home directory
      ( ) ... /* Other WD options */

*I'm not on a fresh installation and I used iTerm before iTerm2, but that does not make the bug invalid.

Cheers,