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.
Typically on a Linux shell you would use `cat`, `more`, or `view` to view a text file. But since you are looking at html you could also use `links` to see a nicer view of it. These are are "terminal applications", that work in a text interface.