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I just switched from PC to Mac. I had been connecting to a server via SSH using a key on the PC. I thought all I'd have to do to connect on the Mac would be copy the .ssh directory into my home directory and then run the ssh command in the terminal with the right credentials, but it doesn't seem to be working.

When I run this command;

ssh [user]@[hostname] -p 2222

I get this result;

Permission denied (publickey).

In my .ssh directory, there are three .pub files and three key files with no extension. There's also a known_hosts file and a key_backup directory with some keys in it.

Jo Sprague
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  • Use "man ssh" and check the information for the "-i" option. If your key file names do not match the expected defaults, you may have to use the "-i" option or rename the files. – Ned Jan 06 '14 at 02:59

2 Answers2

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Supposing you did copy the correct keys, you need to add your identities to ssh-agent. Try the following:

ssh-add /Users/<username>/.ssh/id_rsa

Where <username> is your username and id_rsa is a private key. It's important to use the absolute path. Upon success, you'll see something like:

Identity added: /Users/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa (/Users/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa)

Repeat for every key you want.

jweyrich
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  • Thank you. I did not realize that I had to manually add identities to ssh-agent. In the process I also found that the permissions on my keys were wrong, and I had to correct them following this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9270734/ssh-permisssions-are-too-open-error – Jo Sprague Jan 06 '14 at 15:26
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As long as you get the proper private key that matches the public key that is stored on the remote platform what you described is correct.

You can add in up to three -v on the ssh command to get more debug information. This can confirm it is using the proper keys. Other things to verify is that the owenership and permissions of the keys on both the Mac and the remote boxes are restricted to the user, and none other.

Krazick
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