Linux-Noob Forums

How many times have I seen people using SSH aliases to shorthand the long statements they need to type to login:

Code:
alias ssh-home="ssh -p 12345 znx@somelong.hostname.com"

Now whilst this eases the pain, you are missing some real magic that SSH and BASH can provide you! So lets get started:

Edit/Make the ~/.ssh/config

Code:
Host some

  HostKeyAlias somelong.hostname.com

  HostName somelong.hostname.com

  User znx

  Port 12345

Now what's that all about you say, well now the original long top line can be replaced with:

Code:
ssh some

MAGIC!

But that's not all, you can infact setup BASH to provide you with a tab completion on those new short hostnames!

Edit/Add to your ~/.bashrc

Code:
HOSTFILE=~/.hosts

function _ssh() {

 local cur

 cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}

 if [ "${cur:0:1}" != "-" ]; then

COMPREPLY=( $(awk '/^Host '$2'/{print $2}' $HOME/.ssh/config) )

 fi        

 return 0

}

complete -F _ssh ssh sftp scp

complete -A hostname ssh sftp scp

Edit/Add to a ~/.hosts

Code:
192.168.1.2  some.long.host hostname

192.168.1.3 other.long.host host

To update the current shell you are running do:

Code:
source ~/.bashrc

Now here is the magic:

Code:
ssh s<TAB BUTTON>

At which point you will be given the option of "some" or "some.long.host". Better than all that is this, when you edit your ~/.ssh/config or your ~/.hosts to update or add a new host, it is INSTANTLY in your tab complete.

Weeeeee!

Code:
ssh home

ssh work

ssh somefriend

ssh here

ssh there

;) Love Linux ;)

Nice tip/trick :)

znx

xDamox