Escape characters

When a pty has been requested, ssh supports a number of functions through the use of an escape character.

A single tilde character can be sent as "~~" or by following the tilde by a character other than those described later in this section. The escape character must always follow a newline to be interpreted as a special character. The escape character can be changed in configuration files using the EscapeChar configuration option or on the command line by the -e option.

The supported escape characters (assuming the default "~") are:
~.
Disconnect.
~^Z
Background ssh.
~&
Background ssh at logout when waiting for forwarded connections or X11 sessions to terminate.
Restriction: This option is not supported if running in FIPS mode, or Key Exchange algorithms are implemented using ICSF.
~#
List forwarded connections.
~?
Display a list of escape characters.
~B
Send a BREAK to the remote system.

The ~B escape character is useful only for protocol version 2 and if the peer supports it.

Start of change~CEnd of change
Start of changeOpen command line. Use this option to do the following tasks:
  • Add port forwardings using the -L, -D, and -R options (see -L option, -D option, and -R option).
  • Cancel existing port forwardings using the -KL[bind_address:]port for local, -KR[bind_address:]port for remote or -KD[bind_address:]port for dynamic port-forwardings.
  • Execute a local command if the ssh_config keyword PermitLocalCommand enables the feature (for example, !command).
  • Get basic help using the -h option.
End of change
~R
Request rekeying of the connection.
Restriction: The ~R escape character is useful only if the peer supports it.
~V
Decrease the verbosity (LogLevel) when errors are being written to stderr.
~v
Increase the verbosity (LogLevel) when errors are being written to stderr.