Simplifying SSH connections with a config file
Before we leave the topic of SSH, there's another trick that benefits convenience, and that is the creation of a local configuration file for SSH. This file must be stored in the .ssh
directory of your home directory, and be named config
. The full path would look something like this:
/home/jay/.ssh/config
This file doesn't exist by default, but if it's found, SSH will parse it and you'll be able to benefit from it. Go ahead and open this file in your text editor, such as nano
:
nano /home/your_username/.ssh/config
This config
file allows you to type configuration for servers that you connect to often, which can simplify the SSH
command automatically. The following are example contents from such a file that will help me illustrate what it does:
host myserver Hostname 192.168.1.23 Port 22 User jdoe Host nagios Hostname nagios.local.lan Port 2222 User nagiosuser
In the example contents, I have two hosts outlined, myserver...