passwordless SSH Rsync [Was : DiskLayout/PartitioningPractices]

[Stephen Walton]

On Thu, 2004-01-29 at 04:16, Ow Mun Heng wrote:

> rob at caligula:~$ ssh homer
> rob at homer:~$ ssh bart
> rob at bart:~$ ssh lisa
> rob at lisa:~$
> ==============
> 
> That's what I want to achieve..
> 
> Yes.. No..?? Or is only DSA supported?? (I have no idea 
> what's the diff betw RSA and DSA.)

I just downloaded the script posted here by Bob Marcan and it really
works nicely.  On bart, do

ssh_user_setup.sh --configure

which creates a public/private key pair for bart.   Use a passphrase! 
Then

scp .ssh/*SSH*pub lisa:.ssh
scp ssh_user_setup.ssh lisa:
ssh lisa
# you'll have to give your password one last time
# on lisa execute the command
ssh_user_setup --add

Now you can ssh from bart to lisa using your passphrase.  If you log out
of lisa and, on bart, do

eval `ssh-agent`
ssh-add

and enter your passphrase, you can now ssh from bart to lisa without
typing the passphrase again.

A couple of other hints. Gnome (at least) starts an ssh-agent for you
when you log in, so don't run another one.  Just run ssh-add in a
terminal window and you're good for the whole Gnome session.  Second, if
you start ssh-agent manually as above, be sure to kill it again with
"ssh-agent -k".

-- 
Stephen Walton <stephen.walton at csun.edu>
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Cal State Northridge