contrib/ssh-copy-id.1

.ig \"  -*- nroff -*-
Copyright (c) 1999 Philip Hands Computing <http://www.hands.com/>

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..
.TH SSH-COPY-ID 1 "14 November 1999" "OpenSSH"
.SH NAME
ssh-copy-id \- install your public key in a remote machine's authorized_keys
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ssh-copy-id [-i [identity_file]]
.I "[user@]machine"
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR 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
.B ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
file.
.PP
If the
.B -i
option is given then the identity file (defaults to
.BR ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub )
is used, regardless of whether there are any keys in your
.BR ssh-agent .
Otherwise, if this:
.PP
.B "      ssh-add -L"
.PP
provides any output, it uses that in preference to the identity file.
.PP
If the
.B -i
option is used, or the
.B 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
.B ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
on the remote machine (creating the file, and directory, if necessary.)

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

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

on the remote machine.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR ssh (1),
.BR ssh-agent (1),
.BR sshd (8)