Ubuntu – What does %h mean in SSHD configuration

configurationsshd

I'm setting up OpenSSH on a server and I've created my keys on my client, but I don't know where I'm supposed to put the public key on the host. I understand it needs to be added to the authorized_keys file, but where is the authorized keys file? In sshd_config it has it at

%h/.ssh/authorized-keys

I look around a bit and I've seen people refer to %h as being a shortcut for the home directory, but is it home directory as in /home/.ssh or is it /home/user/.ssh?

Forgive my ignorance and thank you in advance!

The .ssh directory is at neither locations, I already looked.

Best Answer

According to man 5 sshd_config:

%h is replaced by the home directory of the user being authenticated

This means the file will be /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys. If the .ssh directory is missing (which seems normal if not previously configured) you can create it and also the authorized_keys file within and then populate the file's contents with your public key.

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Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04 LTS sshd restart problem

Mar 11 12:17:42 node2 sshd[3535]: error: Bind to port 22 on 0.0.0.0 failed: Address already in use.
Mar 11 12:17:42 node2 sshd[3535]: fatal: Cannot bind any address.
Mar 11 12:17:42 node2 systemd[1]: ssh.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a

The sshd process is running, you can connect to the server, but systemd does not know about that (he does not know what process to kill before starting a new sshd process). Assuming this happened by starting sshd by hand or systemd lost a trace of the sshd process somehow, you should be able to resolve it with the following steps:

Locate the main sshd process and kill it. Do not kill the children (also called sshd) otherwise you will cut yourself from the server!

$ ps axf | grep sshd
 2208 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
18812 ?        Ss     0:00  \_ sshd: pi [priv]  
18891 ?        S      0:01      \_ sshd: pi@pts/0   
19123 pts/0    S+     0:00              \_ grep --color=auto sshd
# kill -9 2208

Start the sshd service:
```
systemctl start sshd
```

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04 LTS sshd restart problem

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