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Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

Terminal - Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@machine "mkdir ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
2009-02-05 19:37:56
User: DEinspanjer
Functions: cat ssh
36
Up
Down
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

If you use Mac OS X or some other *nix variant that doesn't come with ssh-copy-id, this one-liner will allow you to add your public key to a remote machine so you can subsequently ssh to that machine without a password.

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Alternatives

There is 1 alternative - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh <REMOTE> "(cat > tmp.pubkey ; mkdir -p .ssh ; touch .ssh/authorized_keys ; sed -i.bak -e '/$(awk '{print $NF}' ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)/d' .ssh/authorized_keys; cat tmp.pubkey >> .ssh/authorized_keys; rm tmp.pubkey)"
2011-09-30 07:39:24
User: tamouse
Functions: cat ssh
Tags: ssh awk
5
Up
Down
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

This one is a bit more robust -- the remote machine may not have an .ssh directory, and it may not have an authorized_keys file, but if it does already, and you want to replace your ssh public key for some reason, this will work in that case as well, without duplicating the entry.

Comments (2) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@host 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
2012-12-08 17:00:47
User: eneko
Functions: cat ssh
Tags: ssh key copy server rsa
1
Up
Down
Copy ssh keys to user@host to enable password-less ssh logins.

Alternative for machines without ssh-copy-id

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cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh tester@10.2.6.10 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
2012-07-18 04:41:54
User: unixmonkey37839
Functions: cat ssh
0
Up
Down
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

chmod authorized_keys so you don't get "Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for file /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys"

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cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh tester@10.2.6.10 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
2012-07-18 04:41:55
User: unixmonkey37839
Functions: cat ssh
0
Up
Down
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

chmod authorized_keys so you don't get "Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for file /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys"

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ssh <user>@<host> 'mkdir -m 700 ~/.ssh; echo ' $(< ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) ' >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys ; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
2011-10-03 15:59:43
User: Halki
Functions: chmod echo ssh
Tags: ssh ksh
-1
Up
Down
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

Creates the .ssh directory on the remote host with proper permissions, if it doesnt exist. Appends your public key to authorized_keys, and verifies it has proper permissions. (if it didnt exist it may have been created with undesireable permissions).

*Korn shell syntax, may or may not work with bash

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Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

This can also be done with ssh-copy-id.

Comment by Burn 227 weeks and 5 days ago

modded down because it absolutely duplicates ssh-copy-id

ssh-copy-id user@host
Comment by markdrago 227 weeks and 5 days ago

I would use:

scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@machine:.ssh/authorized_keys

Comment by pixel 227 weeks and 5 days ago

Yep, what's wrong with scp?

Comment by fzero 227 weeks and 5 days ago

pixel ... have you now not just overwritten the destination servers authorized_keys?

ssh-copy-id does it all for you and as safely as possible... give it a whirl

What have you got to loose? (apart from sanity, health, job, etc)

Comment by finkployd 227 weeks and 5 days ago

it's still good for a case when your host doesn't have ssh-copy-id program, like freebsd or macosX do

Comment by codesnik 227 weeks and 5 days ago

if you forget about ssh-copy-id, I like this version better which works even on a new machine:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh machine 'mkdir .ssh ; cat >>.ssh/authorized_keys'

to test:

ssh machine id

If it asks for a password, it's not working. Sometimes a server will disable passwordless logins.

Comment by shavenwarthog 227 weeks and 5 days ago

ssh-copy-id fails if you have running sshd in other port than 22. This method work for this situation.

Comment by starchox 222 weeks ago

a temp solution for the workaround with ssh-copy-id for sshd in other port

ssh-copy-id '-p 12345 user@machine'
Comment by starchox 222 weeks ago

@pixel, @fzero scp would completely replace the authorized_keys file; cat >> appends.

Comment by mfisher911 218 weeks and 6 days ago

What about rsync?

Comment by hced 78 weeks and 4 days ago

For those of you asking why not just use scp or rsync, this is a solution to replace ssh-copy-id for OS's that don't have it natively (i.e. OS X). To use scp or setup rsync wouldn't be an issue if you only had a few servers. However, I have over 300 servers I needed to setup my public key on and scp or rsync would have been time prohibitive.

I did however find someone who built a shell script that you can use as ssh-copy-id command that helped me immensely. It can be found at http://phildawson.tumblr.com/post/484798267/ssh-copy-id-in-mac-os-x

I then just created a list of all my hosts from my SecureCRT .ini files and dumped them into a file called HOSTS.

I then just ran this command:

for i in $(cat HOSTS); do ssh-copy-id user@$i; done

Did over 300 servers in less than 10 mins!

Comment by boogybren 68 weeks and 1 day ago

Your point of view

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