SSH Keys HOWTO (extremely basic) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Generate a key pair: $ ssh-keygen -t dsa (or -t rsa) This will generate ~/.ssh/id_dsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub Copy the public key to the server: $ scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub username@hostname:.ssh/authorized_keys Make ssh-agent start on login: I use zsh and have this in ~/.zlogin: SSHAGENT=/usr/bin/ssh-agent SSHAGENTARGS="-s" if [ -z "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" -a -x "$SSHAGENT" ]; then eval `$SSHAGENT $SSHAGENTARGS` eval `ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_dsa` trap "kill $SSH_AGENT_PID" 0 fi -------------- For an extensive HOWTO, including special scenerios, you should see: http://pkeck.myweb.uga.edu/ssh/