SSH-COPY-ID(1) General Commands Manual 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 and append the indicated identity file to that machine's ~/.ssh/autho-
rized_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 fin-
gerprints (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 manu-
ally, e.g. via
chmod go-w ~ ~/.ssh ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
on the remote machine.
SEE ALSO
ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), sshd(8)
OpenSSH 14 November 1999 SSH-COPY-ID(1)