SSH configuration: override the default username

unix ssh ssh-config
bukzor picture bukzor · Apr 17, 2012 · Viewed 161.8k times · Source

Is it possible to configure ssh to know what my username should be?

By default it uses the current username, which is not correct in my case.

I'm on a loaner laptop, and my username is loaner, but I want to tell ssh that my username is buck.

Bonus points: my username at home is bgolemon. If I could configure the username per-host that would be even better.

Answer

Learath2 picture Learath2 · Apr 17, 2012

Create a file called config inside ~/.ssh. Inside the file you can add:

Host *
    User buck

Or add

Host example
    HostName example.net
    User buck

The second example will set a username and is hostname specific, while the first example sets a username only. And when you use the second one you don't need to use ssh example.net; ssh example will be enough.

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