Using a variable's value as password for scp, ssh etc. instead of prompting for user input every time

Question

AFAIK, the commands ssh or scp do not have/take a password parameter. Otherwise I could keep the password in a shell variable and probably get rid

Answer 1

For password authentication, as you mentioned in you description, you can use "sshpass". On Ubuntu, you can install as "sudo apt-get install sshpass".

For public/private key-pair base authentication,

• First generate keys using, "ssh-keygen"
• Then copy your key to the remote machine, using "ssh-copy-id username@remote-machine"

Once copied, the subsequent logins should not ask for password.