#identityfile

So going through with the whole server set up and SVN fiddling -- it got super tiresome to have to keep typing in [username]@[myhost.com] and then my password. And to top it off -- I had to do a -p [port] argument because I don't use the default port 22 (security reasons).

First to stay away from using a password -- set up public/private keys on your system and the server you are going to be logging into.

Oh and I'm a total noob -- so the following stuff isn't guaranteed.

Here's what I did:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

It's going to ask you to apply a name -- choose any name and save it. It'll generate two keys -- in my case mysvn_id_rsa and mysvn_id_rsa.pub. Then I moved both keys into my ~/.ssh/ directory:

mv mysvn_id_rsa* ~/.ssh/

After doing so I needed to set up the remote server to work with the public key (mysvn_id_rsa.pub). First I copied the public key using the scp command:

scp mysvn_id_rsa.pub [username]@[hostname.com]:~>

This will copy the file into the home directory of your ssh server. After that remote into the box:

ssh -p [port] [username]@[hostname.com]

Then when you are in the home directory, you are going to copy the contents of your public key (mysvn_id_rsa.pub) into the authorized_keys located under the ~/.ssh/ directory on the remote box.

If you don't have a file (or directory) already set up, just create the required files:

mkdir ~/.ssh touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

You are still going to be in the home directory -- so do the following to copy in the public key into the authorized_keys file:

cat mysvn_id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

With that copied in there, exit out of the remote box (you can also discard you .pub file).

Now being in your local box, if you ssh into the remote box, you have to use the -i flag with the identity file (~/.ssh/mysvn_id_rsa) in order to be able to ssh into the remote box without a password -- again its a hassle:

ssh -p [port] -i ~/.ssh/mysvn_id_rsa [username]@[hostname.com]

So how do we speed this up? Add the following to the file ~/.ssh/config -- if it doesnt exist, just create a blank file and start editing:

Host [remote host name.com] IdentityFile ~/.ssh/mysvn_id_rsa Port [port] User [username]

And then save it! So once that's saved just run the following command:

ssh [hostname.com]

and then BOOM! you're ssh'd into your remote box and never again do you have to type in a password, username or port!