SSH-COPY-ID

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 14 November 1999
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NAME

ssh-copy-id - install your public key in a remote machine's authorized_keys

SYNOPSIS

ssh-copy-id [-i [identity_file]] [user@]machine

DESCRIPTION

ssh-copy-id is a script that uses ssh to log into a remote machine and append the indicated identity file to that machine's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

If the -i option is given then the identity file (defaults to ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) is used, regardless of whether there are any keys in your ssh-agent. Otherwise, if this:

ssh-add -L

provides any output, it uses that in preference to the identity file.

If the -i option is used, or the ssh-add produced no output, then it uses the contents of the identity file. Once it has one or more fingerprints (by whatever means) it uses ssh to append them to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote machine (creating the file, and directory, if necessary.)

NOTES

This program does not modify the permissions of any pre-existing files or directories. Therefore, if the remote sshd has StrictModes set in its configuration, then the user's home, ~/.ssh folder, and ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file may need to have group writability disabled manually, e.g. via

chmod go-w ~ ~/.ssh ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

on the remote machine.

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