ssh-keygen to create generic key pairs without user infoSometimes a generic SSH key pair is needed for testing or other purposes where using a user’s specific key is less desirable. In such cases, simply overwrite the comment and force the key pair to be written someplace else. This key can then be used with ssh -i <path> just like any other. This has the advantage of not giving up user-specific information in examples and such.
ssh-keygen -C mycomment -f /tmp/somekey -t ed25519
Generating public/private ed25519 key pair.
ssh_askpass: exec(/usr/bin/ssh-askpass): No such file or directory
ssh_askpass: exec(/usr/bin/ssh-askpass): No such file or directory
Your identification has been saved in /tmp/somekey
Your public key has been saved in /tmp/somekey.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:ARai5uV1hy1PVQuS1N31XtCAf6Ia7v5cNhOwmb3ORAc mycomment
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ED25519 256]--+
| . +. .ooo+++o|
| . o . o.oo..o+|
| o . . = + ..E o|
| o o . . * *ooo|
| . . S . +.+oo|
| . .. + |
| . o B |
| o. * o |
| oo.o o |
+----[SHA256]-----+
Now when this is added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys it will have generic comment information (as opposed to your own).
ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIHDfdSyeUQBvYvV2aeseg13SMLql0chedsl80kd9BKgc mycomment