SSH configuration: override the default username

ssh, ssh-config, unix

Solution

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.

Problem

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.

Original source