customizing iterm: persisting directories between sessions

I use a lot of aliases to help navigate to common directories within my terminal.

When I’m creating a new session, however, most of the time, I want to remain in the same directory and simply run another process. (I could run processes in the background, but for the most part, I like seeing the output, or at least having the option so that I can keep an eye on things easily.)

Finding this setting always takes me a few minutes on a new machine, so hopefully this helps in the future.

In preferences (⌘+,), go to Profiles.

Select the profile you’re using.

Under the General tab, select which working directory you want to use for a new session. In my case, I prefer the “Reuse previous session’s directory” generally.

The advanced configuration is also quite convenient if you want to dictate behavior based on how you created the new session (new window vs tab vs split pane).