openssh-portable/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 (presumably
using a login password, so password authentication should be enabled,
unless you've done some clever use of multiple identities)
.PP
It also changes the permissions of the remote user's home,
.BR ~/.ssh ,
and
.B ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
to remove group writability (which would otherwise prevent you from logging in, if the remote
.B sshd
has
.B StrictModes
set in its configuration).
.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 "SEE ALSO"
.BR ssh (1),
.BR ssh-agent (1),
.BR sshd (8)