[TriLUG] help with scp

[Michael Thompson]

Here is my cheat-sheet for RSA keys and ssh authentication, hope this
helps!  (If anyone sees a problem, please let me know...)

--mwt

<start>
How to use ssh with rsa keys to authenticate without passwords. 
(For running scripts as cron jobs) 

This assumes that ssh is installed and configured on both clients and
servers.

On the client machine: 
Use ssh-keygen -t rsa to create a private and public key pair, DO NOT
INSERT A PASSWORD. If you use the default settings, use will end up with
two files: $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa and $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. (Note: $HOME =
your home directory.) The id_rsa file should be chmod 600, the
id_rsa.pub can be 644. Also note that the $HOME/.ssh directory should be
chmod 600 on both clients and servers otherwise rsa authentication will
not work.(See below *)

On the server machine:
Copy the id_rsa.pub file to the $HOME/.ssh directory and insert it into
a file called $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys. You can use 'cat id_rsa.pub >>
authorized_keys' to do this. The authorized_keys file should be chmod
644.

If you created your rsa key without a pass phrase this should allow you
to ssh to the server without a password. 

* NOTE: chmod 600 on $HOME/.ssh directory will only work for the root
user. For regular users, use chmod 700 $HOME/.ssh.

<end>

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 09:51, Daniel Monjar wrote:
> I have a several systems I routinely move files and ssh 'login' between.  I 
> know that by taking my public key and placing it somewhere on the target 
> system, like in known hosts or some other file, I can do all of this 
> without having to enter my password.  I know this because I did it once a 
> couple of years ago... but age has taken its toll and I can't get the 
> incantation quite right.
> 
> so, the question is:
> 
> Assume I have system 1 and 2, what do I put where to be able to scp from 1 
> to 2 without having to type in my password?
> 
> 
> --
> Daniel Monjar
> Manager, Technical Services
> bioMérieux, Inc.
> Durham, NC US
-- 
Michael Thompson <thompson at easternrad.com>