SSH Escape Sequences - shawfdong/hyades GitHub Wiki
When a pseudo-terminal has been requested by the OpenSSH SSH client, ssh supports a number of functions through the use of an escape character. The escape character must always follow a newline to be interpreted as special. The default escape character is ~(tilde); but it can be can be changed in configuration files using the EscapeChar configuration directive or on the command line by the -e option.
$ ~? Supported escape sequences: ~. - terminate connection (and any multiplexed sessions) ~B - send a BREAK to the remote system ~C - open a command line ~R - request rekey ~V/v - decrease/increase verbosity (LogLevel) ~^Z - suspend ssh ~# - list forwarded connections ~& - background ssh (when waiting for connections to terminate) ~? - this message ~~ - send the escape character by typing it twice (Note that escapes are only recognized immediately after newline.)
We can use tilde-period (~.) to close an unresponsive session.
BREAK is useful for various things, usually getting back to a terminal server console or getting the attention of network equipment[1].
The command line is used to request or cancel port forwarding on the fly, which can be very handy in a lot of scenarios, including VNC.
$ ~C
ssh> ?
Commands:
-L[bind_address:]port:host:hostport Request local forward
-R[bind_address:]port:host:hostport Request remote forward
-D[bind_address:]port Request dynamic forward
-KL[bind_address:]port Cancel local forward
-KR[bind_address:]port Cancel remote forward
-KD[bind_address:]port Cancel dynamic forward
One may never have to rekey a SSH session, as SSH protocol version 2 does it automatically after a certain amount of data has been transferred.
Suspending SSH via tilde-Ctrl-Z is handy from time to time, especially when you’re on the console of a machine that doesn’t have screen or some other multiplexor on it (or you forgot to start one). No matter how many SSH hops you are using to reach a particular remote machine, tilde-Ctrl-Z (~^Z ) will suspend the SSH session from the local machine to the first remotely connected machine.
user@local:~$ ssh example.com [user@example ~]$ ~^Z [suspend ssh] [1]+ Stopped ssh example.com user@local:~$ fg ssh example.com [user@example ~]$
If you, however, want to suspend the second connection in a chain of more than one SSH session, enter ~~^Z instead; and so forth.