Ssh – Vim SCP parameter with private public key pair

amazon ec2private-keyscpsshvim

Currently, I am trying to edit a file on a remote server using Vim's built-in netrw plugin. I can SSH fine into my Amazon EC2 server using a command like this:

ssh -i <keyfile> bitname@<ec2-address>

However, I'd like to be able to use my own Vim configurations and have been trying to use scp like this:

:e scp://user@<ec2-address>//

But without a parameter to enter my keyfile, I get a permission denied (publickey) error.

Is there a parameter that I can use to enter my keyfile or another solution I am overlooking?

Thanks in advance,

Best Answer

I haven't got Vim's netrw plugin, but try the following.

Create an ssh client config file for your host. Put the following in $HOME/.ssh/config:

Host myserveralias
Hostname ec-address
User user
IdentityFile /path/to/keyfile
PasswordAuthentication no

Replace the values according to your host of course. Then login using an scp URL like this:

:e scp://myserveralias//

Most ssh cliets on Linux honour the client configuration file (also a sytem-wide one in /etc/ssh/ssh_config (not to be confused with sshd_config). I hope your plugin will do so too. For more configuration options see man ssh_config. Debugging using ssh -vvv usually helps you out.

Related Solutions

SSH – How to Change Private Key Passphrase

To change the passphrase on your default key:

$ ssh-keygen -p

If you need to specify a key, pass the -f option:

$ ssh-keygen -p -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa

then provide your old and new passphrase (twice) at the prompts. (Use ~/.ssh/id_rsa if you have an RSA key.)

More details from man ssh-keygen:

[...]
SYNOPSIS
    ssh-keygen [-q] [-b bits] -t type [-N new_passphrase] [-C comment]
               [-f output_keyfile]
    ssh-keygen -p [-P old_passphrase] [-N new_passphrase] [-f keyfile]
[...]
     -f filename
             Specifies the filename of the key file.
[...]
     -N new_passphrase
             Provides the new passphrase.

     -P passphrase
             Provides the (old) passphrase.

     -p      Requests changing the passphrase of a private key file instead of
             creating a new private key.  The program will prompt for the file
             containing the private key, for the old passphrase, and twice for
             the new passphrase.
[...]

SSH Key – How to Create a Public Key from a Private Key

Use the -y option to ssh-keygen:

ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -y > ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

From the 'man ssh-keygen'

 -y      This option will read a private OpenSSH format file and print an
         OpenSSH public key to stdout.

Specify the private key with the -f option, yours might be dsa instead of rsa. The name of your private key probably contains which you used. The newly generated public key should be the same as the one you generated before.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

SSH – How to Change Private Key Passphrase

SSH Key – How to Create a Public Key from a Private Key

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