Re: SSH Key authentication

["Mikkel L. Ellertson" <mikkel Infinity-ltd com>]

On Thu, 1 Mar 2001 dschaible@obiwan.balmar.com wrote:

> Is it essential to use ssh-agent at login?  The man page says:
> 
> ssh-agent2  is  a  program  to hold authentication private
>        keys.  The idea is  that  ssh-agent2  is  started  in  the
>        beginning  of  an  X-session  or  a login session, and all
>        other windows or programs are started as children  of  the
>        ssh-agent2  program  (the  command normally starts X or is
>        the user shell).  Programs started under the agent inherit
>        a  connection to the agent, and the agent is automatically
>        used for public key authentication when logging  to  other
>        machines using ssh.
> 
> Is this a must for key based authentication?  And if so, how would I use
> it to startx or at login? (preferably at login, as I don't run X on my
> servers, just my desktop - and even then, net always) Simply running
> 'ssh-agent -c' from a console dosen't seem to work:
> 
You only need ssh-agent running if these both apply.
==================================================
You have passwords on you keys
You want to connect to onther machines without using a password.

What you do is start ssh-agent, and then use ssh-add to add the keys you
want to use.  It will ask for the password for the key when you add it,
and you will be able to use the key for the srest of the secession
without giving the password.  You only need it running on the machine
you are running the ssh client on, (The machine you are connecting
from.), not the machine running the sshd server.  (the machine you are
connecting to.)

Mikkel
 -- 

    Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
 for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.