SSH config: host specific identity

Introduction

• connecting to a specific host using a different identity file and user
  
  $> cat ~/.ssh/config

     Host private.host.com
        User myname
        Hostname host.com
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/private-identity
     Host public.host.com
        User anotherName
        Hostname host.com
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/public-identity
     Host git.host.com
        User git
        Hostname host.com
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/git-identity
       

• allows to replace:
  • ssh host.com -l myname -i ~/.ssh/private-identity
    by
    ssh host.com
  • commands which internally use ssh but do not allow to pass ssh options, e.g. git
    git clone git.host.com