Ssh – How to use openssh sftp command with a RSA/DSA key specified from the command line

dsarsasftpssh

The Openssh ssh and scp command provied an -i command line option to specify the path to the RSA/DSA key to be used for authentication.

Looking at the sftp man pages I was not able to find a way to specify the RSA/DSA key.

I am looking for a way to do initiate an sftp session that will use a specified RSA/DSA key, and not the ~/.ssh/id_{dsa,rsa} keys.

I tried OpenSSH sftp client on Linux…but it should have the same options on other platforms.

Best Answer

One potential option is to use sftp -oIdentityFile=/path/to/private/keyfile. Need more info to say whether that will work for you. Seems to work under Mac/Linux.

Related Solutions

Ssh – Ubuntu 9.10 RSA authentication: ssh fails, filezilla runs fine

Your first trace looks somewhat strange. As jneves points out ssh assumes that the file contains your public and private keys. The documentation says that the "identity" is the private key.

 -i identity_file
         Selects a file from which the identity (private key) for RSA or DSA authentication is
         read.

If you do indeed have two keys in one file (had no idea it is possible) you should probably separate them. In any case it seems like you are not conforming to the documentation.

Windows – How to tell Git for Windows where to find the private RSA key

For Git Bash

If you are running msysgit (I am assuming you are) and are looking to run Git Bash (I recommend it over TortoiseGit, but I lean to the CLI more than GUI now), you need to figure out what your home directory is for Git Bash by starting it then type pwd (On Windows 7, it will be something like C:\Users\phsr I think). While you're in Git Bash, you should mkdir .ssh.

After you have the home directory, and a .ssh folder under that, you want to open PuTTYgen and open the key (.ppk file) you have previously created. Once your key is open, you want to select Conversions -> Export OpenSSH key and save it to HOME\.ssh\id_rsa. After you have the key at that location, Git Bash will recognize the key and use it.

Note: Comments indicate that this doesn't work in all cases. You may need to copy the OpenSSH key to Program Files\Git\.ssh\id_rsa (or Program Files (x86)\Git\.ssh\id_rsa).

For TortoiseGit

When using TortoiseGit, you need to set the SSH key via pacey's directions. You need to do that for every repository you are using TortoiseGit with.