[PLUG] exchanging files on LAN

[Paul Heinlein]

On Fri, 19 Jul 2019, Rich Shepard wrote:

> As I transition from the old server/workstation I frequently copy 
> files and directories using scp. Each time I need to enter my pass 
> phrase and I thought that ssh-agent eliminated that need. Apparently 
> not. Since all transfers are in the LAN and not exposed to the 
> outside world, which tool allows internal scp and ssh transfers 
> without entering the pass phrase each time? I no longer remember 
> what it is and missed finding it looking at ssh web pages.

Your local ssh-agent should do the trick. Going out on a limb, I'm 
going to suggest that the fix should be easy.

I'll assume you have two systems, source and destination. Those 
designations refer to ssh ops, not file ops. That is, the source 
system is where you run scp (regardless of whether you're copying 
files to or from that system).

On source, run

   ssh-add -l

You should see a list of one or more keys loaded into the agent, e.g.,

[heinlein at ORPB095 ~]$ ssh-add -l
2048 SHA256:FI8x908kRGmuA4jh4DowO2iSoNot9pAkeyqGamRt6gRgMk0 /Users/heinlein/.ssh/id_rsa (RSA)

If you don't see a key listed, run

   ssh-add

The public version of the key you added (typically, but not always, 
located in ~/ssh/id_rsa.pub) should be present in the 
~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the destination host.

I suggest running "chmod -R go-rwx ~/.ssh" on both hosts to ensure the 
strict file permissions SSH demands.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W