[CentOS] does ssh-copy-id not use "id_rsa.pub" file by default?

Thu Oct 7 11:04:14 UTC 2010
Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca>

  yesterday, i was demoing how to use ssh-copy-id on centos 5.5 to
copy one's public key to another machine and account so you don't need
to type the password anymore.  i used "ssh-keygen" to create the
standard RSA-format files, then checked the man page for ssh-copy-id,
which reads:

  ssh-copy-id [-i [identity_file]] [user@]machine
  ...
  If  the  -i  option  is  given   then   the   identity   file
  (defaults   to  ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)  is  used

the above seems to suggest that, as long as i'm happy copying over the
default id_rsa.pub file, all i need type is:

  $ ssh-copy-id -i barney at 192.168.2.19
  /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: ERROR: No identities found
  $

  clearly, that doesn't work.  but if i simply add in the name of the
file, it's fine:

  $ ssh-copy-id -i .ssh/id_rsa.pub barney at 192.168.2.19
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
any reason for that?  the man page clearly states that that file is
the default, but it's obvious i still need to type its name.  am i
missing something?  is the man page wrong?

rday

-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
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