Created a key using SSH keygen, can't see the folder using filezilla

Question

I created a ssh key using:

ssh-keygen -t dsa

But when I use FileZilla (FTP) to my server, I can't see the .ssh folder or files. I even tried moving the id_dsa file to another folder but I still cant' see the file.

Is it hidden?

Answer 1

According to your post your server is a *nix machine. Therefore .ssh is a hidden folder. You need to enable your FTP-Client (here Filezilla) to show hidden directories/files. Afterwards the .ssh directory will show up.

Answer 2

If you're using the same account, it should show up. Unless you're on a windows machine. There may be an options to show hidden files & directories (in unix, the .ssh is a hidden directory).

Otherwise, you can try using scp to copy your file

scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa remoteserver.com:~/.ssh/

Answer 3

IF you are able to login to the remote server but public-key authentication does not work,
it could be because the .ssh files are not in the home area that you see after you login.

Have you tried looking at the log files on the server?

/var/log/messages
# Any, other server specific logging? maybe you need to enable it?

I have not used FileZilla first-hand, don't have details.
There must be some way to go verbose and check what is failing on the auth path.

Answer 4

SSH pair key authentication is very picky about permissions. I wouldn't try to set up the folders and keys with an FTP application. There are many thorough tutorials about setting up key pairs , for example here.