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)!

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see also ​http://www.schlittermann.de/doc/ssh