Using a ssh key pair
Sometimes it's irritating that you are always asked for your password while using SVN. Therefore, it can be useful to use an encrypted key-pair (public key+private key) to do the job for you.
(1) Create the key pair by typing
ssh-keygen -t dsa
Now you are prompted for a password for the private key. You can choose an empty password, which means that you can use your private key without a password. However, if somebody steals your private key, then he can do this too...
If you decide to use a "real" password, then you also have to follow point (3) below. This must be done everytime you start a new bash!
(2) Copy the public key to the remote system and cat it into autorized_keys:
scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub user@remote-system:~/key.pub ssh user@remote-system cat ~/key.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys rm ~/key.pub
(3) If you have chosen a "real" password for your private key:
Type in your shell
exec ssh-agent bash
and
ssh-add
to start a ssh-key-agent. After doing this once, you can use the shell without password for the rest of its lifetime. When starting a new shell, you must repeat this procedure (exec ssh-agent bash;ssh-add)!
see also http://www.schlittermann.de/doc/ssh