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15 December 2008
ssh-keygen creates the public and private keys. ssh-copy-id copies the local-host’s public key
to the remote-host’s authorized_keys file. ssh-copy-id also assigns proper permission to the
remote-host’s home, ~/.ssh, and ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.
This article also explains 3 minor annoyances of using ssh-copy-id and how to use ssh-copy-id
along with ssh-agent.
Step 1: Create public and private keys using
ssh-key-gen on local-host :
jsmith@local-host$ [Note: You are on local-host here] pirat9@local-host$ ssh-keygen Generating public/private
rsa key pair. Enter file in which to save the key (/home/jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa):[Enter key] Enter passphrase
(empty for no passphrase):
[Press enter key] Enter same passphrase again: [Pess enter key] Your identification has been saved in /home/jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. The key fingerprint is:
33:b3:fe:af:95:95:18:11:31:d5:de:96:2f:f2:35:f9 jsmith@local-host
Step 2: Copy the public key to remote-host
using ssh-copy-id :
jsmith@local-host$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub remote-host jsmith@remote-host’s password:
Now try logging into the machine, with “ssh ‘remote-host’”, and check in:
.ssh/authorized_keys to make sure we haven’t added extra keys that you weren’t expecting.
Note: ssh-copy-id appends the keys to the remote-host’s .ssh/authorized_key.
Step 3: Login to remote-host without
entering the password
pirat9@local-host$ ssh remote-host Last login: Sun Nov 30 17:22:33 2008 from 192.168.1.200
[Note: SSH did not ask for password.] pirat9@remote-host$ [Note: You are on remote-host here]
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