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Comment by __david__ | Hacker News Reader

I liked the article but I thought he spent too much time on getting the hostname short. Just install bash_completion and then all ssh/network stuff starts completing based on your known_hosts. His "annoying.hostname.example.com" becomes "ssh ann<tab>" which is still shorter than anything he had there.

I'm glad he did mention my favorite config file option for setting the username:

    Host example.com
      User = someweirduser

That way I don't have to remember to "ssh someweirduser@example.com" because some client set up a weird user for me--I just "ssh example.com" instead.

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Small point: the syntax of .ssh/config doesn't use equal signs; the actual format of that stanza would be

  Host example.com
  User someweirduser

Another subtle point about SSH config -- only the first matching entry (in top-to-bottom order) for a given parameter is taken from .ssh/config. If you have multiple Host entries that match for a given hostname, the first matching User, Port, etc, entry will be the one that ssh uses.

Yeah, the example is more for hyperbolic illustration than anything else. My actual use case is that I've got a lot of IP addresses, different usernames and non-standard ports across various servers, so it's incredibly convenient to have my .ssh/config all set up.

With aliases (and zsh completion support for aliases), I can do "ann<tab>" which saves me even more time.

It won't be long before all I have to type is tab :)

Modern versions of ssh support the "HashKnownHosts" file which prevents people from discovering what hosts you have ssh'd to in the past - and, as a side effect, prevents tab-completion from discovering what hosts you have ssh'd to as well. ssh_config(5) says the option is disabled by default, but Ubuntu at least enables it in /etc/ssh/ssh_config.

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