Green

SSH Keys, SSH-Agent and Keychain

This is just another version of a host of other HowTo’s on this subject. It’s just this one is specific to me, so I’m really posting it for me. I posted the original version of this on the work wiki, so that might explain why it reads like it does. A bit. Maybe.

First create a DSA key on your primary development machine, in this case mars, 5 or more random words strung together, alphanumeric, you know the drill, (just to emphasise, this is a passphrase, not a password, it’s meant to be longer) :

ssh-keygen -t dsa

Then copy the generated public key to the machine you’re logging onto, in this case earth:

scp .ssh/id_dsa.pub USERNAME@earth:

SSH to earth:

ssh stephen@earth

On earth, add the public key to the list of authorized keys:

cat id_dsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys

Exit earth, return to mars.

In your home dir on /mars/ edit ~/.bash_profile

# on this next line, we start keychain and point
# it to the private keys that we'd like it to
# cache

/usr/bin/keychain --clear id_dsa
. ~/.keychain/$HOSTNAME-sh

Exit mars and log in again. Now Keychain should start an ssh-agent session which, once you’ve typed in the passphrase, will cache your DSA keys meaning for the duration of this session you don’t have to enter a password/passphrase when connecting to earth. You can do the same thing for all of the machines you connect to as well, which is groovy, as someone might say.

«0 CommentsApril 25, MMVI»

Comment Form

Name:

Email:

URL (optional):

What colour is an orange?:

Comment (comments use Textile formatting):

About This

You've arrived at the homepage of Stephen Stewart. The archive is available here for those who want it. This site is happily hosted by Dreamhost. Click for more?

Recent Comments

• Cybez on One's too many an' a hundred's not enough
• Nelly on One's too many an' a hundred's not enough
• adele on And the sky was made black with unescaped entities
• adele on And the sky was made black with unescaped entities
• sharon on Fifteens
• Nelly on Mother is it just a waste of time?
• Stephen on Mother is it just a waste of time?

links to other people's sites

Recommended Viewing

• 300†
  Does exactly what it says on the (comic book) tin. Loved it.
• Little Miss Sunshine†
  Very funny, disturbing (the beauty pageant) and completely messed up -- but in a good way.
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky†
  Story great, characterization a little on the weak side -- though the big robots are cool.
• Porco Rosso†
  Stylish, funny, exciting.
• Grave of the Fireflies†
  Very sad, which was a little unexpected since I didn't know much about it before watching it. Can be a little too slow in places though, otherwise it's very good.
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind†
  The story can get a little dense at times what with the various factions, but still really enjoyable, inventive and engaging.
• X-Men: The Last Stand†
  Opportunity, talent, money - all blown. Over 3 films X-Men has hinted of something great that could have been, this last one says "No, sorry - not going to happen". Bah.

flickr.com