Question: So I SSH into a Ubuntu server and try to open the file in a Mac program (Coda) and get an error:

```
Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

```

Using the command

```
open myfile.html

```

This works in a Mac terminal. I hope there are common Unix commands that provide a way to bridge this so I can open directly and edit/save in the editor of my choice on the Mac.

Answer: 
`open` is an OS X command. When SSHing you are running commands on Ubuntu, not OS X.

You want to open a file locally? I believe Coda has SFTP support built in (so you could eschew the terminal entirely). Failing that, `scp` the file to your local system and open locally.
The `open` command on Linux is unrelated; it is (on most distributions) another name for [`openvt`](http://linux.die.net/man/1/openvt), which starts a program in a new text console (a feature that isn't used much nowadays).

The command corresponding to OSX's `open`, on a modern Linux system, is [`xdg-open`](http://linux.die.net/man/1/xdg-open). However, that would open the file in a program running on the remote Linux machine, not locally on the Mac.

SSH provides a way to run remote commands from a remote prompt. It doesn't directly provide a way to access remote files. Most unices, including OSX, allow a remote directory to be mounted over [SSHFS](http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html). You can create a directory on the Mac, say `~/ubuntuserver`, and make the remote files accessible under this directory:

```
sshfs ubuntuserver.example.com: ~/ubuntuserver

```

There may be a Mac GUI for that (I wouldn't know).

To avoid authentication hassles, it is recommended to use a public key for authentication, and if your SSH is recent enough to support it, to [activate master/slave connections in `~/.ssh/config`](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/33557/using-an-already-established-ssh-channel/33581#33581).