SSH-COPY-ID(1) SSH-COPY-ID(1)
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 (presumably using a login password, so
password authentication should be enabled, unless you’ve done some clever use of multiple identities) It also
changes the permissions of the remote user’s home, ~/.ssh, and ~/.ssh/authorized_keys to remove group
writability (which would otherwise prevent you from logging in, if the remote sshd has StrictModes set in its
configuration). 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 pro-
duced 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)
SEE ALSO
ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), sshd(8)
