Displaying Graphical Programs on MacOS

XQuartz is an open source version of the X11.app application that used to come preinstalled on macOS.

For forwarding remote X sessions over ssh you can use either Terminal.app (also found in /Applications/Utilities) or xterm. If you are using the Mac OS X Terminal, you will need to set your DISPLAY variable. Enter this statement into the file ~/.bashrc:

if [ -z $DISPLAY ]; then export DISPLAY=:0.0; fi

and then start a new Terminal window. If you are using xterm, the variable should be set for you.

On the Mac you should also use the -X and -Y options:

ssh -X -Y [email protected]