Basic SSH Commands

Common SSH Commands

Once you’ve set up SSH, here are some common commands for connecting to and managing remote servers.

Connecting to a Remote Server

To connect to a remote server via SSH:

ssh user@remote-server

Replace user with your username and remote-server with the IP address or domain name of the server.

Using SSH Config File for Convenience

You can configure the SSH client to simplify connections by using a ~/.ssh/config file.

Host myserver
    HostName remote-server.com
    User myusername
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Now, you can connect simply by typing:

ssh myserver

Running Remote Commands with SSH

You can execute commands directly on the remote server without starting an interactive session. For example:

ssh user@remote-server 'uptime'

This will run the uptime command on the remote server and return the result.

Secure Copying Files with SCP

The scp (Secure Copy Protocol) command allows you to copy files between local and remote machines securely:

# Copy a file from the local machine to the remote server:
scp localfile.txt user@remote-server:/remote/path

# Copy a file from the remote server to the local machine:
scp user@remote-server:/remote/path/file.txt /local/path