How to view images on server in near real time

Question

Normally I do all work locally (data analysis, image generation, etc.). However, recently I've started using the server more. When working locally I'll write the analysis code (in Python), generate the image, open the image to see what needs updated, rerun the code and see how the image changes. When working on the server this is not possible (I have to scp or rsync the new image to my computer and then open): I would like to see these images updated without these additional steps.

I tried using tramp to ssh into the server. This allows me to open the image in an emacs buffer, but does not allow me to scroll through multiple images (apparently image-dired does not work on remote files). Another issue is that the image, when opened, is bigger than the buffer, making visualization difficult.

I also tried creating an org file on the server and linking the image(s), but this results in an emacs error "No images to display inline". I tried this with and without captions, to no avail.

Is there a way to view these images in closer to real time like I do locally, or to at least view them in an emacs buffer so they fit nicely and allow me to scroll between images?

Here is the example remote org-mode file I used for testing. This same file worked when I used it locally.

#+STARTUP: inlineimages

[[file:test0.png]]

Answer 1

Not quite a complete answer, but if you open an org file on a remote server:

C-x C-f /ssh:server:file

And put a link in that file:

Here is my image:

[[./iris.png]]

You will get an active link. Note that the link path is relative to the remote file. If you're editing a remote file, orgmode looks for links in that file on the remote machine.

This doesn't work as an inline-image, C-c C-x C-v won't do anything. But if you press enter on the link, it will open in an Emacs window for you. You can 'refresh' the file by pressing g while in that window. If you know when the file has changed, you can get 'near-realtime' updates this way. It won't update automatically on change though. I tried auto-revert-mode, which doesn't seem to work remotely (I only did a quick test).

You can use this approach to generate image files on the remote machine with orgmode code blocks, and view the resulting graphics from your local emacs.