8.2.10 ‘Public key for pasting into authorized_keys file’

All SSH-1 servers require your public key to be given to it in a one-line format before it will accept authentication with your private key. The OpenSSH server also requires this for SSH-2.

The ‘Public key for pasting into authorized_keys file’ gives the public-key data in the correct one-line format. Typically you will want to select the entire contents of the box using the mouse, press Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard, and then paste the data into a PuTTY session which is already connected to the server.

See section 8.3 for general instructions on configuring public-key authentication once you have generated a key.