another ssh question

[mike h]

I don't think it's possible to initialize ssh-agent with a private key and
a passphrase already enabled (and I don't think it would be a good idea).
In my experience you always need to separately add your key(s) after
starting the agent.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "with each new xterm I launch". Do
you mean that you're connecting to the same remote host using the local
'xterm' program or that you're using 'xterm' to log in to a different host
when it asks for your passphrase again?

After you've started the agent, any local 'xterm' you run should be able
to talk to the agent.  In each 'xterm' window, if you type `ssh-add -l`
your key that you initially added should be listed among the registered
keys.  If it is, you should be able to use that key without having to
re-authenticate using your passphrase.

-----------------------------------------------
Michael Hornung		foobar at u.washington.edu

On Sun, 6 Feb 2000, Michael Kale wrote:

|One more ssh question: (this is about three steps below the level of the
|previous ssh discussions)
|
|How do I use ssh-agent?  Word on the street is that I can run
|ssh-keygen locally, then copy my local .ssh/identity.pub to the remote
|.ssh/authorized_keys, then run ssh-add on the local machine once, then in
|my .xsession when I'm exec'ing my .xinitrc file if I change it to:
|
|	exec ssh-agent ~/.xinitrc
|
|then anyimte after startx'ing I can type:
|
|	ssh <remote ip>
|
|and it will authenticate me without needing to type either a password or
|the passphrase.
|
|problem is that it always seems to ask me for a passphrase (which works,
|btw)  I've gotten it to not ask for a passphrase by running ssh-add 
|locally with each new xterm I launch, but I've heard that that's
|not necessary.
|
|(reason is that I'm trying to set up a remote cvs repository, and rsh
|seems to be not so secure in general)
|
|it's not really that much of a pain to have to run ssh-add each time, but
|I was just wondering if I need to do it.
|
|Thanks for your help,
|
|Michael
|
|