How to display detailed information of an SSH connection

When troubleshooting or monitoring an SSH connection, you may need to display more detailed information about the connection process. This is known as increasing the verbosity. Verbose output provides step-by-step details of what is happening during the connection, including authentication and communication processes. This level of detail is crucial for diagnosing problems or understanding exactly how the connection is being established.

The SSH command allows you to control how much information is displayed during a connection by adjusting the verbosity. By increasing verbosity, you can see more detailed messages that can help you pinpoint issues or confirm that the connection is working as expected. This is particularly useful in complex network environments or when troubleshooting connectivity issues.

This guide will show you how to increase the verbosity of an SSH connection, making it easier to diagnose problems and monitor the connection process by displaying more detailed information.

1. Open the terminal on your local machine.
2. Add the -v option to the SSH command to see basic connection details.

   ssh -v user@remotehost

3. Use the -vv option to show more detailed debug information.

   ssh -vv user@remotehost

4. Apply the -vvv option to view the most comprehensive debugging messages.

   ssh -vvv user@remotehost

5. Add these options to your SSH configuration file to set them by default for specific hosts.

   Host remotehost
       HostName remotehost
       User your-username
       LogLevel DEBUG3

6. Test the connection to verify that the detailed information is displayed.
7. Adjust these options in scripts or commands when you need more or less detail.

   ssh -vvv user@remotehost "your-command"