ssh-copy-id specifying which key and without password

Question

I have a public key in a server(host) that I want to transfer to another server(target).

The host server has a bunch of keys in .ssh/ folder, i want to copy just one of them to the target server (it's not id_rsa.pub, so lets call mykey.rsa.pub).

Also, the target server has the host server key (lets call hostkey.rsa.pub) in .ssh/authorized_keys, for passwordless ssh.

Is it possible to do something like this?

ssh-copy-id mykey.rsa.pub -i hostkey.rsa.pub user@target

score 48 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '17 at 09:15

48

You can pass ssh options with -o:

ssh-copy-id -i mykey.rsa.pub -o "IdentityFile hostkey.rsa" user@target

answered Sep 25 '17 at 09:15

olivier

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Worked for me but I had to add `-f` before `-i`. – baptx Mar 21 '20 at 14:40
it really makes no sense that it tries to copy every single key by default. – Goddard Jul 01 '21 at 13:40

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 12 '16 at 21:17

16

Yes, it is possible something like

ssh-copy-id -f -i hostkey.rsa.pub user@target

with latest version of ssh-copy-id. If you have some older, it might or might not work (with RHEL7 and older Fedora with SSH_COPY_ID_LEGACY=1 environment variable)

answered Jul 12 '16 at 21:17

Jakuje

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Also make sure the -i option is BEFORE user@target. -f might not be needed. – Jerther Sep 22 '17 at 13:05
I think the OP wants to copy mykey.rsa.pub. They want to use hostkey.rsa.pub for the underlying ssh connection during the copy.... – Andrew Sep 13 '22 at 11:31

ssh-copy-id specifying which key and without password

2 Answers2