Configure SSH Host

A GitHub Action to create a new ssh/config entry for given host

Usage

- uses: cdqag/action-configure-ssh-host@v1
  with:
    name: my-server
    host: example.com
    port: 22
    user: deploy
    private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

Inputs

• name Required

  A unique name for the server config entry.

• host Required

  The host address.

• port Default: '22'

  SSH port.

• user Required

  An user.

• private-key Required

  Private SSH key for the user.

• fail-if-entry-already-exists Default: 'true'

  If set to true, the action will fail if the SSH config entry already exists. If set to false, it will skip the rest of the steps.

Outputs

• server-name

  The name for the server in the config (sanitized version of the input name).

Examples

Basic SSH configuration

This example will:

• create an SSH config entry named production-server
• configure connection to prod.example.com on port 22
• use the deploy user for authentication
• use the private key from secrets

- uses: cdqag/action-configure-ssh-host@v1
  with:
    name: production-server
    host: prod.example.com
    user: deploy
    private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

SSH configuration with custom port

This example will:

• create an SSH config entry named staging-server
• configure connection to staging.example.com on port 2222
• use the ubuntu user for authentication
• use the private key from secrets

- uses: cdqag/action-configure-ssh-host@v1
  with:
    name: staging-server
    host: staging.example.com
    port: 2222
    user: ubuntu
    private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

How it works

This action:

1. Sanitizes the server name - converts the provided name to a safe format for SSH config
2. Creates SSH directory - ensures ~/.ssh exists with proper permissions (700)
3. Checks for duplicates - verifies the host entry doesn't already exist in SSH config
4. Creates private key file - saves the private key to ~/.ssh/{server-name}.key with secure permissions (600)
5. Scans host keys - adds the server's public keys to ~/.ssh/known_hosts
6. Creates SSH config entry - adds a new Host entry to ~/.ssh/config

After running this action, you can connect to your server using:

ssh {server-name}

Resources

• This action is based on invi5H/ssh-action, but it seems abandoned and not maintained anymore.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.