Need help?

Here are some common questions on using this platform that we would like to answer.

# I get a permission denied when trying to SSH

Unfortunately SHA-2 RSA keys are not currently supported.

Unfortunately, due to a shortcoming in Go’s x/crypto/ssh package, we do not currently support access via new SSH RSA keys: only the old SHA-1 ones will work. Until we sort this out you’ll either need an SHA-1 RSA key or a key with another algorithm, e.g. Ed25519. Not sure what type of keys you have? You can check with the following: 

$ find ~/.ssh/id_*.pub -exec ssh-keygen -l -f {} \;

If you’re curious about the inner workings of this problem have a look at:

# Generating a new SSH key

Github reference 

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
  1. When you're prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key," press Enter. This accepts the default file location.
  2. At the prompt, type a secure passphrase.

# How do I update a paste?

Updating a paste requires that you update the source document and then run the scp command again. If the filename remains the same, then the paste will be updated.

# How do I delete a paste?

Because scp does not natively support deleting files, I didn't want to bake that behavior into my ssh server.

However, if a user wants to delete a paste they can delete the contents of the file and then upload it to our server. If the file contains 0 bytes, we will remove the post. For example, if you want to delete delete.txt you could: 

cp /dev/null delete.txt
scp ./delete.txt pastes.sh:/

Alternatively, you can go to ssh pastes.sh and select "Manage posts." Then you can highlight the paste you want to delete and then press "X." It will ask for confirmation before actually removing the paste.

# Can I create multiple accounts?

Yes! You can either a) create a new keypair and use that for authentication or b) use the same keypair and ssh into our CMS using our special username ssh new@pastes.sh.

Please note that if you use the same keypair for multiple accounts, you will need to always specify the user when logging into our CMS.

# Can I pipe my paste?

Yes! 

echo "foobar" | ssh pastes.sh
echo "foobar" | ssh pastes.sh FILENAME
# if the tty warning annoys you
echo "foobar" | ssh -T pastes.sh

# Can I set the expiration date to a paste?

Yes. The default expiration date for a paste is 90 days. We do allow the user to set the paste to never expire. We also allow custom duration or timestamp. 

echo "foobar" | ssh pastes.sh FILENAME expires=false
echo "foobar" | ssh pastes.sh FILENAME expires=2023-12-12
echo "foobar" | ssh pastes.sh FILENAME expires=1h

# Can I hide pastes from my landing page?

Yes. Unlisted in this context means it does not show up on your user landing page where we show all of your pastes. In this case, yes, you can "hide" it using a pipe command. 

echo "foobar" | ssh pastes.sh FILENAME hidden=true