Password-less login

Sick of always typing in your password (and having to remember it?) … this is the tip for you! Setting up ssh keys allows you to do this (and is theoretically more secure). The following process works for linux and mac (and there is probably probably similar capabilities for windoze, maybe)

Firstly, you need to create an RSA key pair on your computer (if you don’t already have one). To do this, type the following into the command line whilst you aren’t logged into marble or any other remote servers:

~$: ssh-keygen -t rsa

You might need to enter a location to save it. Probably use the default path: on linux it will be somewhere like /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa and for mac somewhere like /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
You will also be asked if you want to use a passphrase. If you leave the passphrase blank, no password will be required.

Then copy the key to marble (note that the ‘ssh-copy-id’ command isn’t installed on mac by default so you will need to install it yourself before you can use it):

ssh-copy-id user@marble.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au

And you will need to enter your password (for the last time!). You will need to do this for every computer that you wish to access marble from, without using a password.
This is also very useful for other servers (for example if you are using github as a remote repository for your scripts).