How to make ssh log in as the right user?

You can create a config file in your home .ssh directory, which can specify a default user, identity file etc and assign it to an alias which you can use to connect.

For example, you could put this into the ~/.ssh/config file:

Host example
    HostName example.com
    User first_last
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/example_rsa
    Port 22
    RSAAuthentication yes
    PubkeyAuthentication yes

Host example2
    HostName example2.com
    User last_first
    # other parameters as needed

Then you can just type ssh example or ssh example2 on the command line to connect.

So you can set one up for each machine you want to connect to, with the relevant user. Then just use the aliases to connect without having to specify a user. You can also use a pattern to match multiple hosts.

There's more information, and details of what you can specify in a config file in the ssh_config man page.

Rich Adams

Posted 2009-11-03T13:47:26.407

Reputation: 542

i assume you can specify another user/host pair later in the file? Host example2/HostName example2.com/User last_first and such? – quack quixote – 2009-11-03T14:03:49.780

Of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – innaM – 2009-11-03T14:06:18.683

3Absolutely, you can specify as many as you want in the same .config file. I have over 20 in mine with no issues. I just leave a space between each distinct Host, which probably isn't required, but makes it more readable. – Rich Adams – 2009-11-03T14:06:40.057

1Shouldn't it be config file? Without dot at the beginning? – danadam – 2009-11-03T14:21:45.770

@danadam : Yes, you're correct. I've updated the answer accordingly. Thanks. – Rich Adams – 2009-11-03T14:24:19.790

1@rich was trying to get you to show another site in your example; hope you don't mind me going ahead and throwing it in. – quack quixote – 2009-11-03T14:57:40.003

4Indenting everything but lines that contain "Host foo" greatly helps the maintainability cause. – innaM – 2009-11-03T16:42:31.290

1@CristianCiupitu: Considering the is a Linux question, I'd hardly call the OpenBSD's man page the official one. There are options in Linux's ssh (e.g., GSSAPIKeyExchange) that aren't available in the BSD version. – Dennis – 2014-03-30T15:15:03.400

@Dennis, you're right about GSSAPIKeyExchange not being available in the OpenBSD version, but it seems to be provided by a patch, so it's not in the portable version either. For example FreeBSD 10 doesn't have it.

– Cristian Ciupitu – 2014-03-30T16:23:31.860

@CristianCiupitu: That's another BSD version. It only results in minor differences here (noneof them relevant to the question), but using BSD man pages for Linux distros (and vice versa) is generally a bad idea. For example, the syntaxes of the BSD and Linux flavors stat are completely different.

– Dennis – 2014-03-30T16:40:36.870

@Dennis, all the other BSDs use the portable version too. Heck, there's even a Linux man page that doesn't mention GSSAPIKeyExchange. I agree about being careful about mixing BSD man page with Linux ones.

– Cristian Ciupitu – 2014-03-30T16:47:57.517

How to make ssh log in as the right user?

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