ssh, sftp, and public key authentication

[Shantanoo Mahajan]

+++ dave [freebsd] [18-02-05 09:10 -0500]:
| Hello,
|     I've got a machine i use public keys on to which i'm trying to ssh. When
| i created a key for this user i did not define a passphrase, yet i am being
| asked for one when i ssh in to the box. I use the command ssh -i
| <filename.pub> hostname however if i do sftp username at hostname i'm allowed
| in no questions asked.
|     Help needed!
| Thanks.
| Dave.

google for 'passworldless ssh login'

Process in short

On the Client machine:
> ssh-keygen -t dsa

~/.ssh/id_dsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub are created.

> scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub user at server:~/.ssh/authorized_keys2


>From client:

> ssh user at server

you will be logged in w/o any password.

Regards,
Shantanoo