Manage SSH connections with a SSH config file

Using an SSH config file is another way that UNIX can simplify your workflow.

July 19, 2016
Updated October 2, 2023

SSH Connections ¶

If you are making anything on the web before long you will find yourself using SSH. SSH allows you to connect to and work on remote servers.

ssh -p 8675 hercules@foo.com

Using a SSH Config File ¶

If you find yourself frequently running SSH commands you may get the urge to create an alias for the command. In fact there is a better way to manage SSH options using an SSH config file. This file can be located in your home directory at ~/.ssh/config or be made available system wide at /etc/ssh/ssh_config. If the file does not exist you can create it and set the correct permissions.

touch ~/.ssh/config
chmod 644 ~/.ssh/config.

For the simple example above we can create an entry in this file.

Host foo.com
  HostName foo.com
  Port 8675
  User hercules

This allows the following to be run and for the options to be automatically set.

ssh foo.com

Setting an identity key ¶

If you are using shared keys to login to SSH without having to use a password you can declare the key in your SSH config. This can be useful if you are connecting to different servers that have different shared keys.

Host foobar.com
    User horatio
    HostName foobar.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/foobar.key

Setting defaults ¶

You can set defaults for all SSH connections by declaring an entry at the bottom of your config file.

Host *
     ForwardAgent no
     ForwardX11 no
     ForwardX11Trusted yes
     User shapeshed
     Port 22
     Protocol 2

Debugging ¶

To debug your setup run SSH in verbose mode to see the settings that are applied

ssh -v foobar.com

This will show which configuration settings are applied.

ssh -v foobar.com
OpenSSH_6.9p1, LibreSSL 2.1.8
debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/shapeshed/.ssh/config
debug1: /Users/shapeshed/.ssh/config line 5: Applying options for foobar.com
debug1: /Users/shapeshed/.ssh/config line 9: Applying options for *
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 20: Applying options for *
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 102: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to foobar.com [123.456.789.000] port 8675.

Security ¶

Personally I do not store my SSH config file in source control or in my dotfiles. Effectively an SSH config file declares route into servers and how to get into them so I recommend not making this information public.

Conclusion ¶

Using an SSH config file is another way that using UNIX can simplify your workflow. For more I recommend reading the man page.