NAME
ssh-copy-id - install your public key in a remote machine’s
authorized_keys
SYNOPSIS
ssh-copy-id [-i [identity_file]] [user@]machine
DESCRIPTION
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)
It also changes the permissions of the remote user’s home, ~/.ssh, and
~/.ssh/authorized_keys to remove group writability (which would
otherwise prevent you from logging in, if the remote sshd has
StrictModes set in its configuration).
If the -i option is given then the identity file (defaults to
~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) is used, regardless of whether there are any keys in
your ssh-agent. Otherwise, if this:
ssh-add -L
provides any output, it uses that in preference to the identity file.
If the -i option is used, or the 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
~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote machine (creating the file, and
directory, if necessary)
SEE ALSO
ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), sshd(8)