How to Use a Custom .bashrc File on SSH Login

bashbashrcconfigurationssh

I've found that with the new company I'm working with I often have to access linux servers with relatively short lifetimes. On each of these servers I have an account, but whenever a new one is created, I have to go through the hassle of transferring over my .bashrc. It's possible however that in about a months time that server won't be around anymore. I also have to access many other servers for short periods of times (minutes) where it's just not worth it to transfer over my .bashrc but since I'm working on a lot of servers, this adds up to a lot of wasted time.

I don't want to change anything on the servers, but I was wondering if there was a way to have a "per-connection" .bashrc, so whenever I would SSH to a server my settings would be used for that session.

If this is possible, it would be nice if I could do the same thing with other configuration files, like gitconfig files.

Best Answer

I think what you want is (in your .ssh/config on the machine you connect from):

PermitLocalCommand yes
LocalCommand scp yourname@someserver:/dir/dotbash /local/home/dir/.bashrc

then you can lead out with:

source .bashrc

and be on your merry way. LocalCommand executes the command on the server you are connecting to when it gets there, right before your actual session.

I would also make sure sshds on the servers are configured with the PermitLocalCommand yes

There are a lot of ways you can tweak that LocalCommand to make it work in your specific environment -- you could curl from an internal web server, or pull from an nfs mount for example.

Related Solutions

SSH Tunnel – How to Configure a Shortcut for SSH Connection

As a more concrete version of Kyle's answer, what you want to put in your ~/.ssh/config file is:

host foo
  User webby
  ProxyCommand ssh a nc -w 3 %h %p

host a
  User johndoe

Then, when you run "ssh foo", SSH will attempt to SSH to johndoe@a, run netcat (nc), then perform an SSH to webby@foo through this tunnel. Magic!

Of course, in order to do this, netcat needs to be installed on the gateway server; this package is available for every major distribution and OS.

SSH – Login Without Running bash_profile or bashrc

I think your only options are:

ssh in as another user and su to your account;
use something like ftp or smbclient, if the relevant services are enabled on the host;
find an open vulnerability in an open network service and exploit it :).
get an admin to fix the problem.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

SSH Tunnel – How to Configure a Shortcut for SSH Connection

SSH – Login Without Running bash_profile or bashrc

Related Topic