Quickly and easily generate a key pair for passwordless connection. Also works perfect as git deploy keys!

Generate the keys

DO NOT DO THIS AS ROOT

Run the command to generate the keys

1

$ ssh-keygen -P "" -t rsa -b 4096 -m pem -f my-key-pair

• -b flag sets the bits, 4096 is recommended
• -m pem is needed to generate a file in RSA Private Key format, not in OpenSSH Private Key format
• -f specifies the output key pair
• replace my-key-pair with the name of your key pair (preferably deploy_key or access_key)

This will generate two files:

• my-key-pair - this is your PEM file, copy paste the contents
• my-key-pair.pub - this is the corresponding public key file

Note: You may want to rename the my-key-pair to my-key-pair.pem for convenience.

Set the key to allow login

In order to be able to log in using the generated PEM file, you should add the public key to the authorized_keys list. To do that, run

1
2
3
4

# Ignore this step if you have other public keys added
$ touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

$ cat my-key-pair.pem >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Read Next

I’m running an experiment for better content recommendations. These are the 3 posts that are most likely to be interesting for you:

• Using different Github accounts with different private keys on Linux
  After mastering the art of creating a secure 4096-bit RSA key, learning how to juggle multiple GitHub accounts with ease could be your next savvy move in streamlining your development workflow.

• The Ultimate Interactive JQ Guide
  Unlock the power of JSON manipulation with jq, enhancing your SSH key management and deployment strategies by diving into real-world data handling scenarios.

• Calculating The Number Of Digits In A Power Of 2
  Unlock the secrets of your data’s magnitude with a simple mathematical trick that complements your tech toolkit, just like mastering ssh-keygen enhanced your security practices.