Using ssh and scp

["Stefanovski, Sasko" <sstefano@richmond.edu>]

Dr. Gilfoyle,

As I have promised, here is how you can use ssh and scp without the need to
retype your password often.

On your client machine:
1. Generate ssh-key with
        ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024 -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa
   This will generate 2 files in your ~/.ssh directory:
      - id_dsa
      - id_dsa.pub
   I've decided to create key-pair just for ssh v2 protocol.
   There is no need for this step if you already have your keys generated.
See in ~/.ssh directory.

2. Copy the id_dsa.pub file in the ~/.ssh directory on the pscm1 machine and
append it to the authorized_keys2 file
       cd  ~/.ssh
       scp id_dsa.pub gilfoyle@pscm1.richmond.edu:.ssh
       ssh pscm1.richmond.edu
       <type your password>
       cd .ssh
       cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys2

3. Try to login from your client machine using ssh
         ssh pscm1.richmond.edu
    You will get something like:
         Enter passphrase for key '<path_to_your_home>/.ssh/id_dsa' :
    Here enter the password you chose while generating the ssh-keys.
    Successful login says the setup is o.k.

4. Now, in order not to have your password entered on every ssh connection
or for every scp file transfer,
    do the following on your client machine once you have logged in (on the
client machine).

    Execute (in xterm, or whatever terminal window you are using): 
         ssh-agent /bin/ksh
    Note: Replace /bin/ksh with whatever you are using for your login shell.
    Then, authenticate yourself to the agent with:
         ssh-add
    Enter here your password you were using for generating the ssh-keys
    From now on, you can login with ssh or do an scp to your cluster account
without providing password. Please be notified that you can do that only
from the terminal window  ssh-agent was executed in, and from its child
processes (You can open another xterm from that window, and you can initiate
ssh connections without password from that window too).
   If you want  to delete your identity from the agent you can use
        ssh-add -d
   or if you decide to remove the agent do 
        ssh-agent -k 
   in the same xterm you have used to start it.

Hope you'll have no problems using ssh/scp.

Cheers,
Sasko