How do I save a file to the ./ssh directory (I am using mac osx). What should I enter at the command line or how else can save a downloaded file to ./ssh?
(For more context, I am using Amazon MapReduce and wish to save the EMR.pem file to ssh.)
I think you mean ~/.ssh (a directory .ssh in your home directory). In the terminal, run
$ mkdir ~/.ssh
$ cp ~/Downloads/EMR.pem ~/.ssh/
where ~/Downloads/EMR.pem is the place where you have downloaded the file. The first command creates the .ssh directory (which you will probably need), the second one copies the file there. If you want to know more, find any tutorial on bash (OSX's default shell).
Alternatively, you can enable showing hidden files and folders in Finder (.ssh starts with a dot, which is a convention for hidden files), which will allow you to save any files to .ssh directly. In terminal, run
$ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
This is not recommended, since you rarely need to access hidden folders directly and they will obstruct your view in Finder.