ssh-copy-id

A Windows-friendly replication of the Linux ssh-copy-id CLI.

About

On Linux, ssh-copy-id is a convenient command for installing your public key on a remote machine. This tool fills that gap on Windows. It's not as extensive as the original Linux command, but it uses a very similar syntax and is sufficient for most basic use cases.

Prerequisites

• Windows (Windows 7/8/10/11) with:
  • Python 3.6+ installed
  • OpenSSH client (either installed via Windows Features on Windows 10+ or other methods like Git for Windows)
  • PowerShell (typically included on Windows 7+; if not, install it)

Installation

pip install sshcopyid

This installs the command-line tool ssh-copy-id into your Python scripts directory (often at C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\PythonXX\Scripts\ on Windows).

Usage

usage: ssh-copy-id [-h] [-p PORT] [-i PUB_KEY_PATH] target

Copy the current user's SSH public key to a remote machine.
(This CLI is intended for use under Windows only.)

positional arguments:
  target                username@host (The username and hostname/IP of the remote host)

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            Show help message and exit
  -p PORT, --port PORT  The SSH port number of the remote machine (default: 22)
  -i PUB_KEY_PATH, --identity-file PUB_KEY_PATH
                        Path to the public key file to copy (default: %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub)

Example

# Copy your default key to a remote host on port 22
ssh-copy-id myuser@192.168.1.100

# Specify a custom port (e.g., 2200)
ssh-copy-id -p 2200 myuser@192.168.1.100

# Specify a custom public key file
ssh-copy-id -i C:\Users\myuser\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub myuser@myserver.com

When it succeeds, you'll be able to SSH into the remote host without entering your password, just like the original ssh-copy-id.

Contributing

1. Fork the project and clone locally.
2. Create a new branch for your work.
3. Commit and push to your repository.
4. Create a pull request in GitHub.

Improvements and PRs are always welcome!

How to Build and Publish a New Version (for maintainers)

1. Update the version number in setup.py (e.g., version='0.0.7').
2. Ensure you have the necessary tools installed:

   pip install setuptools wheel twine
   

3. Build your distribution:

   # From the top-level project directory (where setup.py is located):
   python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
   

   This command creates a dist/ folder containing .tar.gz and .whl files.
4. (Optional) Test your package on TestPyPI:

   twine upload --repository-url https://test.pypi.org/legacy/ dist/*
   

   Then install from TestPyPI to verify everything works:

   pip install --index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple/ sshcopyid
   

5. Upload to the real PyPI:

   twine upload dist/*
   

6. Confirm installation from PyPI:

   pip install --upgrade sshcopyid
   

That’s it! The new version is now available on PyPI. Users can pip install sshcopyid and get your latest fixes and features.