Login with SSH key

Puting your password every time when you login into a server via SSH can be tiresome, especially if your password is long. One way to make life easier and also safer is to use SSH keys.

  1. In the terminal of your local machine, type in ssh-keygen. By default, the keys will be exported to ~/.ssh/id_rsa, using the default is okay in most cases, but if you have multiple keys want to avoid conflicts, you can change the destination. When it prompts you to enter a passphrase, you can just click Enter (empty passphrase) so that when you login to a server use this key pair, you don't need to input anything. But for better security, a passphrase is suggested.
  2. Copy your SSH public key into the server by ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [email protected]_address (change the path to the public key if you've saved it somewhere else). You'll be prompted to enter your password at the server.
  3. Log into the server by ssh [email protected]_address. You should be able to login without having to enter your password! If it doesn't work, check the permission of the ~/.ssh folder on your server. Only you should have write access to it. You can change its permission from your home folder by chmod 700 .ssh.