How to Save SSH Profiles on Ubuntu, macOS, and Windows (Git Bash)

SSH profiles let you store connection details such as:

• Host name or IP address
• Username
• Port number
• SSH key path

This makes managing multiple servers (production, staging, development, etc.) much easier and more organized.

The SSH configuration file is stored in your home directory under .ssh/config.

If the folder does not exist, create it:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh

Open the file in a terminal text editor such as Nano:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Add your SSH profile configuration:

Host myserver
    HostName your.server.ip
    User username
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/private_key_file

Each Host block represents a profile. You can name it anything you like.

On Ubuntu or macOS, run the following commands to set correct permissions:

chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/*

On Windows, Git Bash may ignore these permissions, but it is still good practice to keep them consistent.

After saving the file, connect using your profile name:

ssh myserver

SSH will automatically use the settings from your configuration file.

You can store multiple profiles in the same config file:

Host staging
    HostName staging.server.ip
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/staging.pem

Host production
    HostName production.server.ip
    User ec2-user
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/production.pem

Now you can connect easily:

ssh staging
ssh production

If you prefer not to use an SSH config file, you can define a simple alias.

For Ubuntu/macOS:

Add this line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file:

alias myssh='ssh -i ~/.ssh/private_key_file user@your.server.ip -p 22'

Reload your shell:

source ~/.bashrc

For Windows (Git Bash):

Add the same line to your ~/.bashrc file and reload it.

Setting up SSH profiles once saves time and reduces mistakes. Whether managing cloud servers, staging environments, or local VMs, this method provides a clean and professional way to handle SSH connections.

Once configured, you can simply run:

ssh myserver

and connect instantly on any operating system.