One Word to Connect: ~/.ssh/config

You've been typing ssh -p 2222 root@localhost like a tourist. Time to move in.

~/.ssh/config teaches your SSH CLIENT a per-host recipe, so user + host + port collapse into one word that every SSH tool understands — ssh, scp, sftp, rsync, all of them.

1. Create /root/.ssh/config describing the labbox:

Host labbox

HostName localhost

Port 2222

User root

(Your key auth is already set up, and a config file should be private: chmod 600 it.)

2. Check your work without connecting: ssh -G labbox prints the settings the client resolved — you should see hostname localhost, port 2222, user root in the output.

3. Use the alias for real: ssh labbox 'echo $SSH_CONNECTION > /root/proof/alias-landed.txt' — no -p, no user@, no host. One word.

4. And it works for scp too — no capital -P needed, the port lives in the config now: scp labbox:/srv/warehouse/secret-recipe.txt /root/inbox/