% man ssh-agent % man ssh-add Just put your public key into authorized_keys (or authorized_keys2, depending on the version of sshd the remote side is running), and you're all set: % ssh-agent % # paste the output to your shell % ssh-add .ssh/identity % # or ssh-add .ssh/id_dsa or whatever your private key is named % scp remote.host.with.public.key Andrew.