If a username has a space in it, ssh-copy-id cannot handle it, unless it's in a non-obvious way. ssh itself has no problem with spaces. $ ssh-copy-id "User name"@server ssh: Could not resolve hostname User: Name or service not known $ ssh-copy-id "User\ name"@server ssh: Could not resolve hostname User\\: Name or service not known $ ssh-copy-id User\ name@server ssh: Could not resolve hostname User: Name or service not known From https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/+bug/1074798/comments/2 "It looks like there is some quoting missing from the ssh-copy-id script" Possibly related: https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1164 https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1980 Apologies if this is logged against the incorrect component. ssh-copy-id seems to call ssh-add but it's more than likely a problem with the script rather than ssh-add.
retarget to openssh-6.3
Updated ssh-copy-id script committed for openssh-6.2
mark bugs closed by openssh-6.2 release as CLOSED