LINUX COMMANDS

10 basic and most useful 'ssh' client commands in Linux

- by LinuxTeck - Leave a Comment
ssh client command in linux

SSH is one of the main key services in Linux/Unix based systems. SSH represents Secure Socket Shell. SSH protocol is used to access the remote server/system with an encrypted method of login using the default TCP/IP port 22 or a custom based port number. This service is mainly used by System and Network Administrators to execute commands and manage servers/systems. We can also say SSH is a replacement for Telnet, rlogin, and rsh which is a completely insecure protocol to connect the system across the network.

This guide will help you on how to login to the remote server (let's say a Web Server) from your local system/host (client PC). All the below examples of ssh commands are tested on RHEL/CentOS 7.6. You can use the same guide for all the RHEL / CentOS / Fedora versions, but for other distros, there might be a small type of difference in using it. Therefore, it is highly recommended to read the guidelines.

This guide assumes that you already have some servers at a remote location which is running on Linux (CentOS / RHEL), it could be either a Web server or Mail Server or DNS Server. Our goal is to access the remote server using the 'ssh' command.

Global Syntax of ssh command:

ssh [OPTIONS] [USER@] :HOST

MY Lab:

Webserver:

 

Operating System : CentOS Linux 7 (core)
Hostname : web.linuxteck.com
IP Address : 192.168.1.100

Localhost/system (client pc)

 

Operating System : CentOS Linux 7 (core)
Hostname : r001.linuxteck.com
IP Address : 192.168.1.200
SSH client : An active ssh client like " Terminal for Linux/Mac and Putty for Windows"

Note:

Make sure that your client PC requires an openssh-client package in-order to access the SSH server. Use the first command from the following examples to verify the same for Linux Terminal.
Table of Contents show
1. How do you find the version of your ssh client?
# ssh -V

Output:

 

OpenSSH_7.4p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2k-fips 26 Jan 2017

Note:

The upper case '-V' option not only shows the version number but also confirms that your client PC has already installed the ssh client package.
2. How to access the remote server using the default ssh command?

Note:

The remote server can be accessed using an IP address or you can also use the hostname. For the 1st time when you access the server from your client pc, it will ask the user to verify the fingerprint before selecting the correct answer from the given option "yes/no". If you are not sure what to do, then check with your hosting provider/system admin or also if you have access to your server host key, then cross-check and make sure both keys are matched. Then enter "yes" to confirm the connection and you will notice a "Warning message" that the server has been added to the list of known hosts and it will prompt for the password to enter, once the password accepts you will get access to the remote server.
# ssh 192.168.1.100                    OR                       # ssh web.linuxteck.com
ssh default command in linux

Note:

The drawback of using the default ssh command in centos 7 will permit the root account directly to have remote access, which is quite dangerous. This means that this user account can do anything on the remote system. Hence, it is highly recommended to disable the root login and grant "sudo" privileges.

WARNING:

If there are any changes or mismatches on the host key of the SSH server, then it will be notified to the user, as it cannot proceed until the server's host key is deleted from '/root/.ssh/known_hosts' as similar to below output.
ssh known_hosts
3. How to verify the fingerprint using the ssh command in the terminal?

# ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub

Output:+

 

256 SHA256:4YNXabAuI4gYnC7ZIcTRbPlCMapOvrMwW4E/kKACb4s no comment (ECDSA)

Note:

Using the above command you can verify the fingerprint of your SSH server and the following command will verify the MD5 fingerprint key also.
# ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub -E md5

Output:

 

256 MD5:5f:39:21:43:92:6e:7e:f3:17:35:6b:30:85:44:ee:38 no comment (ECDSA)

4. How to specify a particular user to access the remote server?

# ssh -l linuxteck 192.168.1.100                OR                      ssh linuxteck@192.168.1.100

Output:

 

linuxteck@192.168.1.100's password: (Enter password)
Last login: Mon Apr 6 02:44:44 2020 from 192.168.1.100

Note:

You can use either one of the commands ( '-l' option or 'username@ipaddress' ) to login to the remote server with a particular user. Both of these commands serve the same output only.
5. How to access a remote server with a customized port number?

# ssh -l linuxteck 192.168.1.100 -p 18765           OR              # ssh linuxteck@192.168.1.100 -p 18765

Output:

 

linuxteck@192.168.1.100's password: (Enter password)
Last login: Mon Apr 6 02:54:44 2020 from 192.168.1.100

Note:

Using the '-p' option with either one of the above commands, you can access the remote server using a customized port number. Normally ssh comes with the default port number 22, but in production mostly the port number will be customized due to security reasons.
6. How to execute a command without logging into the remote server?

# ssh -l linuxteck 192.168.1.100 uname -r         OR          # ssh linuxteck@192.168.1.100 uname -r

Output:

 

linuxteck@192.168.1.100's password:
3.10.0-862.14.4.el7.x86_64

Note:

The main advantage of using the above command will display the output in the local system itself without login to the server. For example: If you need to check the "Kernel version" of your remote server. Then execute one of the above commands into the client pc and get the output their itself and it will save your timings as well. This is also similar to the normal ssh command but an additional command is added at the end of the usual ssh command.
7. How do you execute multiple commands without logging into your remote server?

# ssh -l linuxteck 192.168.1.100 "uname -r; hostname"       OR       # ssh linuxteck@192.168.1.100 "uname -r; hostname"

Output:

linuxteck@192.168.1.100's password:
3.10.0-862.14.4.el7.x86_64
web.linuxteck.com

Note:

The only difference between using single and multi command is using a semicolon (;) between the commands. Nothing else.
8. How to transfer a file from your localhost to a remote server?

# scp dmo3c_test.sql linuxteck@192.168.1.100:/home/apps/production/sql/dump

Output:

 

linuxteck@192.168.1.100's password:
dmo3c_test.sql 100% 70KB 3.3MB/s 00:00

Note:

Using the above 'scp' command we can transfer a file from a local machine to a remote server with an encrypted connection. You can use the '-R' option to transfer an entire directory from local to remote.
9. How to access the remote server using the sftp command?
# sftp linuxteck@192.168.1.100

Output:

 

linuxteck@192.168.1.100's password:
Connected to 192.168.1.100.
sftp> ls            (# ls command is to list the files)
php
share
tandd
sftp> pwd       (#pwd command is to check the path of the current working directory)
Remote working directory: /home/apps
sftp>

Note:

Using the above 'sftp' command we can access the remote server with a secure encrypted connection. The sftp utility accepts the same commands as normal FTPs.
10. Some of the most used general shell commands in Linux :

$ cd

change directory:- It is used to change the working directory. It is also referred to as "chdir".

$ cp

copy:- It is used to copy files and directories from one place to another.

$ chmod

change permission:- It is used to change the read, write, or execution permission of a file or directory.

$ chown

change owner:- It is used to change the ownership of a file or directory

$ grep

search pattern of a file:- It is used to search for a given file pattern by specific users

$ wc

word count:- It is mainly used for counting, either words, characters, or lines.

$ mkdir

create directory: It is used to create a directory

$ rm

delete file:- It is used to delete files and directories

$ touch

Timestamps: It is used for timestamps of a file like "create, update, modify".It can also be used to create an empty file.

$ more

It is used to view the contents of a text file one full screen at a time, Using the spacebar key to help move to the next page.

$ yum

Package management tool:- It is used to install / update / erase rpm packages

$ wget

It is used to download files from the internet.

$ vi

It is used to edit all kinds of Unix files. The Unix 'vi' editor is a standard text editor.

$ vim

Vi Improved text editor. It is also used to edit any kind of Linux files.

$ ls

It is used to list all the files and directories. To learn more about the 'ls' command with various options, click here

$ cat

It is used to concatenate and display files. To learn more about the 'cat' command with various options, click here

$ du

Disk usage:- This is used to estimate filespace usage. To learn more about the 'df' command with various options, click here

$ df

Disk free: It is used to estimate the server/storage disk space. To learn more about the 'du' command with various options, click here

$ find

It is used to search all the files and directories. To learn more about finding commands with various options, click here

$ cron

It is used to schedule repetitive jobs/tasks at regular intervals. To learn more about cron commands with various options, click here

$ curl

It is used to transfer files with URLs between remotes to the local system. To learn more about curl commands with various options, click here

$ ps

It is used to monitor all the currently running activities like USER, PID, %CPU, etc, etc. To learn more about PS commands with various options, click here

Note:

All of the above-mentioned commands are commonly used in Linux directly or via ssh. This sample list may help for the beginners. You can use more and more commands in SSH, it's all based on your user privilege.

Thank you for taking the time to read! I hope this article will help you to understand 'ssh' client command with examples. Drop me your feedback/comments. If you like this article, kindly share it and it may help others as well.

A few ssh references are collected from this site

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About LinuxTeck

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4 replies on “10 basic and most useful 'ssh' client commands in Linux”

I used Linux during my graduation days. After seeing your article, I feel like using it again. Thanks for sharing 🙂

Regards,
Jainish

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