Shortcuts to SSH clients

You can do a lot using .ssh/config file. It would allow you to replace this:

ssh [email protected] -p 22000

with:

ssh dev

to do so you have to add the following lines at the end of the .ssh/config (create it if does not exist)

Host dev
    HostName dev.example.com
    Port 22000
    User fooey

Concerning the storage of your credentials, I strongly advise you to use key authentification instead of password based. You can create them either with a GUI or with your terminal.

GUI

open Seahorse, select File > New, then Secure Shell Key and let the interface guide you

Terminal Create you RSA key pair:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Store the Keys and Passphrase:

Enter file in which to save the key (/home/demo/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

Copy the Public Key

ssh-copy-id [email protected]

Sources:

• http://nerderati.com/2011/03/17/simplify-your-life-with-an-ssh-config-file
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-ssh-keys--2

If you wanted to, you could make short shell scripts to launch your ssh sessions, then execute them either as s executable ( chmod o+x), or using the dot . command

Like make a file ~/ssh2hostA.sh

#!/bin/sh
sshpass -p 'yourpassword' ssh user@hostA

then start it with

. ~/ssh2hostA.sh

Which is not a good thing to do because not only do you have passwords in cleartext scattered in your files, but people will probably be able to see the password in the w command. ( and top, and /proc)

Really, you should be using ssh host keys for this.

Really.