Macos – change the filename of the ssh public/private key pair

macosopensshpublic-key-encryptionsshxen

I created a public/private key pair:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "me@example.com"

I gave a different key file name than id_rsa since I wanted to create a new separate key from my normal identity.

I gave this key to my hosting provider so that I can login to my server using public key authentication.

I was able to initially login using the key and everything worked.

ssh -i /path/to/key/file user@server.com

I realized I made a spelling error in the key file name and renamed both the public and private key files. Does this affect anything on the server side if the key file has a different name on my client machine?

Best Answer

The filename has no meaning at all, as long as ssh is told where to find it.

(However, if you have the public key extracted to a separate file, then it should have the same filename + .pub as the main file; e.g. mykey & mykey.pub.)

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