Create a passwordless ssh key

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2012-10-03

If you get tired of typing in a password when you connect to a remote machine with ssh, you can create an ssh key without a password to ease the process. Although this is not as secure as a key with a password, it is quicker. To create the key, type

ssh-keygen

This will create two keys, a private and a public key. Next you should copy the public key on the remote machine.

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub remotehost.com

Now you will be able to connect passwordlessly(!) to the machine by issuing this command:

ssh youruser@remotehost.com

where youruser is your username at the remote host.

Just remember that this does remove a security barrier (the entering of a password) for anyone that can gain access to your local machine.