Using ssh in a shell script

[weberm]

I am attempting to use ssh in a shell script but it requires someone to enter the password. Is there a way to set it up in a similar manner to

ftp -i < ftpscript

so that it gets the password without human intervention?

 

[columb]

Yes, you want to use key pairs

Un-attended login
When batch scripts require secure access to remote hosts, i.e. no user to type in the password, an un-attended-login is required. This is achieved by copying the requesting user's authentication key from the source host to the target host into a file called .ssh/authorized_keys. E.g. to set up an un-attended login for 'user' on host2 when connecting from host1: -

user@host1> cd; mkdir .ssh
user@host1> ssh-keygen -t rsa -N '' -f .ssh/id_rsa
user@host1> scp .ssh/id_rsa.pub user@host2:user_host1_key #requires password
user@host1> ssh -l user host2 'mkdir .ssh; cat user_host1_key >> .ssh/authorized_keys' #requires password
user@host1> ssh -l user host2 'ls -la' #Does NOT require password
…


The ssh-keygen command generates the user's key for host1. Thus, when added to the authorized-keys file on host2 allows user on host1 to login into user account on host2 without entering interactive mode to enter the password, i.e. un-attended login.

These keys allow connectiosn using ssh, scp and sftp as required.

Ceci n'est pas une signature
Columb Healy

 

[sbrews]

There is also an excellent doc here:

http://www.unixpeople.com/HOWTO/configuring.ssh.html

that covers how to set up ssh between open source and commercial and all the various combinations.

 

[weberm]

Thank you guys!