How to copy SSH public key to remote server

Adding your public key to an SSH server's authorized_keys file would allow you to log in to the server using the public key authentication method.

This among other thing would allow you to log in to the server without entering your username and password combination. If your key pair is generated without a passphrase it could be used you to easily perform some automation tasks including via shell script.

authorized_keys file is normally located in the server's ~/.ssh/ directory for the specific user that you want to connect to.

There are various ways that you can copy your public SSH key to the to the server, but the easiest one is by using the ssh-copy-id command at the terminal.

1. Launch terminal.
2. Locate your public SSH key.

    $ ls ~/.ssh/id*
   /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa           /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

   The public key is normally the one with the .pub extension.

3. Add your SSH public key to remote server user's authorized_keys file using ssh-copy-id command.

   $ ssh-copy-id [email protected]
   The authenticity of host 'remote-host (192.168.111.135)' can't be established.
   ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:hXGpY0ALjXvDUDF1cDs2N8WRO9SuJZ/lfq+9q99BPV0.
   Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
   /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
   /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 2 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
   [email protected]'s password:
   
   Number of key(s) added: 2
   
   Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh '[email protected]'"
   and check to make sure that only the key(s) you wanted were added.

   If you want to use other public key rather that then one in the default location, use the -i option as the following

   $ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/other_key.pub [email protected]

4. Try to log in using key to test.

   $ ssh -i .ssh/id_rsa [email protected]
   Welcome to Ubuntu 19.04 (GNU/Linux 5.0.0-20-generic x86_64)
   
    * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
    * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
    * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage
   
     System information as of Sat Jun 29 11:31:23 UTC 2019
   
     System load:  0.16               Processes:            211
     Usage of /:   25.8% of 19.56GB   Users logged in:      1
     Memory usage: 13%                IP address for ens33: 192.168.111.135
     Swap usage:   0%
   
    * MicroK8s 1.15 is out! It has already been installed on more
      than 14 different distros. Guess which ones?
   
        https://snapcraft.io/microk8s
   
   0 updates can be installed immediately.
   0 of these updates are security updates.
   
   
   Last login: Sat Jun 29 11:08:20 2019 from 192.168.111.1