.ssh directory not being created

Question

To generate the .ssh dir I use this command:

ssh-keygen

taken from this tutorial: http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/Tutorials/Hadoop/05%20-

Answer 1

Is there a step missing?

Yes. You need to create the directory:

mkdir ${HOME}/.ssh

Additionally, SSH requires you to set the permissions so that only you (the owner) can access anything in ~/.ssh:

% chmod 700 ~/.ssh

Should the .ssh dir be generated when I use the ssh-keygen command?

No. This command generates an SSH key pair but will fail if it cannot write to the required directory:

% ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/xxx/.ssh/id_rsa): /Users/tmp/does_not_exist
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
open /Users/tmp/does_not_exist failed: No such file or directory.
Saving the key failed: /Users/tmp/does_not_exist.

Once you've created your keys, you should also restrict who can read those key files to just yourself:

% chmod -R go-wrx ~/.ssh/*