SSH Config: The file you've been ignoring

Are you still typing full SSH commands like it’s 2005?

We’ve all been there: typing out the same SSH commands over and over:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/special_key.pem user@ec2-54-234-56-78.compute-1.amazonaws.com

The ~/.ssh/config file

# ~/.ssh/config
Host bastion
    HostName ec2-54-234-56-78.compute-1.amazonaws.com
    User ec2-user
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/special_key.pem

Host prod-db
    HostName 10.0.5.12
    User admin
    ProxyJump bastion

Now you can type:

ssh bastion
# or
ssh prod-db

You get readable aliases instead of raw IPs, key selection without the -i flag, and jump hosts that stay configured. Five minutes to set up, and you never type that garbage again.