IntelliJ IDEA 2023.3 Help

Run SSH terminal

You can launch an SSH Session right from IntelliJ IDEA. By running commands in a dedicated SSH terminal, you can access data on a remote Web server or a Vagrant instance (virtual machine) via an SSH tunnel, mainly upload and download files.

Enable the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin

This functionality relies on the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin, which is bundled and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA by default. If the relevant features aren't available, make sure that you didn't disable the plugin.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and then select Plugins.

  2. Open the Installed tab, find the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin, and select the checkbox next to the plugin name.

Prepare to work in the SSH Terminal

  1. Make sure an SSH server is available in the destination environment: a remote Web server or a Vagrant instance (virtual machine).

  2. Register an account on the SSH server in the destination environment and generate a pair of SSH keys or a password, depending on the server policy.

  3. Appoint the destination environment and specify the settings to establish connection with it:

    1. In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , go to Tools | SSH Terminal.

    2. In the Connection settings area, appoint the destination environment:

      • Current Vagrant: select this option to have the commands in the SSH Terminal executed on the currently running Vagrant virtual machine.

      • SSH configuration: select this option to have the commands in the SSH Terminal executed on the local or remote Web server accessible through one of the SSH configurations.

        • Select SSH configuration on every run: if this option is selected, you will have to choose the desired configuration from the popup, every time you choose Tools | Start SSH Session from the main menu.

        • If the desired SSH configuration does not appear in the list, click the Set up configurations link, and define one in the SSH Configurations page.

    3. From the Default encoding list, select the desired encoding to be used in the SSH terminal.

Launch the SSH Terminal

  1. In the main menu, go to Tools | Start SSH Session. Alternatively, invoke the Help | Find Action Ctrl+Shift+A dialog, search for start ssh.., and select Start SSH Session.

  2. Depending on the connection settings, defined in on the Tools | SSH Terminal page of the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , the following types of behavior are possible:

    • If the Current Vagrant option has been selected, the SSH Terminal will provide access to the currently running Vagrant virtual machine.

      For more information, refer to Vagrant.

    • If the SSH configuration option has been selected, the SSH Terminal will provide control over the data on the server accessible through the SSH configuration selected from the list. For more information, refer to Create SSH configurations.

    • If the Select SSH configuration on every run option has been selected, IntelliJ IDEA will show a list to choose the desired SSH configuration from.

Last modified: 19 March 2024