SSH Pub/Priv Keys

General Information

Create public/private key pair to login to remote systems with no password prompt.

Checklist

• Distro(s): Any

ssh-keygen -t rsa
Enter file to save the key (Enter for default).
Enter password twice to encrypt key pair.

Two files are created:

• $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa = private key (do not share)
• $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub = public key (this will go on server)

ssh-copy-id -i $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub username@server

If ssh-copy-id is not installed, use scp instead

scp $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub username@server:~/tmp.pub
ssh username@server
cat $HOME/tmp.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys
rm tmp.pub

eval $(ssh-agent)
ssh-add

Enter private key passphrase to add private key to the ssh-agent.

ssh username@server