They meant that they’re leaving the text file on their own desktop. So they’re expecting the owner of the public key to log in, and have therefore added them to their .ssh/authorized_keys file
How to SSH:
I add your public key to my authorized_hosts file, now you can connect to me over SSH because your public key has been authorised. From the SSH session you can edit or read text files.
Bonus: SSH chatroom!
Ages ago I made a very short bash script to turn it into a chatroom for my own amusement. Top half of the screen is just running “watch cat chatlog”, watch is to run it repeatedly, cat chatlog just prints the content of the text file. Then the bottom half you use to add new lines to the text file.
You meant private key, right? … right?
They meant that they’re leaving the text file on their own desktop. So they’re expecting the owner of the public key to log in, and have therefore added them to their .ssh/authorized_keys file
No, you keep the private key. They are private.
How to SSH: I add your public key to my authorized_hosts file, now you can connect to me over SSH because your public key has been authorised. From the SSH session you can edit or read text files.
Bonus: SSH chatroom! Ages ago I made a very short bash script to turn it into a chatroom for my own amusement. Top half of the screen is just running “watch cat chatlog”, watch is to run it repeatedly, cat chatlog just prints the content of the text file. Then the bottom half you use to add new lines to the text file.