To generate the .ssh dir I use this command:
ssh-keygen
taken from this tutorial: http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/Tutorials/Hadoop/05%20-%20Setup%20SSHD.html
But the .ssh directory is not created so when I use cd ~/.ssh I get this error:
"no such file or directory"
Is there a step missing ? Should the .ssh dir be created when I use the ssh-keygen command?
I am assuming that you have enough permissions to create this directory.
To fix your problem, you can either ssh to some other location:
ssh [email protected]
and accept new key - it will create directory ~/.ssh and known_hosts underneath, or simply create it manually using
mkdir ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
Note that chmod 700 is an important step!
After that, ssh-keygen should work without complaints.
Is there a step missing?
Yes. You need to create the directory:
mkdir ${HOME}/.ssh
Additionally, SSH requires you to set the permissions so that only you (the owner) can access anything in ~/.ssh:
% chmod 700 ~/.ssh
Should the
.sshdir be generated when I use thessh-keygencommand?
No. This command generates an SSH key pair but will fail if it cannot write to the required directory:
% ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa): /Users/tmp/does_not_exist
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
open /Users/tmp/does_not_exist failed: No such file or directory.
Saving the key failed: /Users/tmp/does_not_exist.
Once you've created your keys, you should also restrict who can read those key files to just yourself:
% chmod -R go-wrx ~/.ssh/*
As a slight improvement over the other answers, you can do the mkdir and chmod as a single operation using mkdir's -m switch.
$ mkdir -m 700 ${HOME}/.ssh
From a Linux system
$ mkdir --help
Usage: mkdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-m, --mode=MODE set file mode (as in chmod), not a=rwx - umask
...
...
Source: Stackoverflow.com