1 .TH SSH-AGENT 1
2 .SH NAME
3 ssh-agent \- SSH authentication agent
4 .SH SYNOPSIS
5 .B ssh-agent
6 [
7 .B -l
8 ]
9 .I factotum-service
10 .SH DESCRIPTION
11 .I Ssh-agent
12 presents
13 .MR factotum (4)
14 using the interface that
15 .MR ssh (1)
16 requires.
17 .PP
18 Once
19 .I ssh-agent
20 and
21 .I factotum
22 are running, the standard Unix SSH client
23 can use
24 .I ssh-agent
25 (and, indirectly,
26 .IR factotum )
27 to authenticate to remote systems using RSA or DSA keys.
28 .PP
29 .I Ssh
30 accesses
31 .I ssh-agent
32 via a Unix socket named
33 .B ssh-agent.socket
34 in the name space directory
35 (see
36 .MR intro (4) ).
37 Note that although the socket is posted in the name space
38 directory, it is not for 9P conversations.
39 .I Ssh
40 expects the name of this socket to be in the environment as
41 .BR $SSH_AGENT_SOCK ,
42 and expects the agent to be running with process id
43 .BR $SSH_AGENT_PID .
44 .I Ssh-agent
45 prints shell commands to set these two variables
46 before forking itself into the background.
47 It is typically invoked inside a shell
48 .B eval
49 construct; see the examples below.
50 The 
51 .B -e
52 option causes
53 .I ssh-agent
54 to include
55 .B export
56 commands to put the variables into the environment of future programs.
57 .PP
58 If the
59 .B -l
60 option is given, 
61 .I ssh-agent
62 lists the usable
63 .I factotum
64 keys in the standard SSH format, suitable for creating an
65 .B authorized_keys
66 file.
67 .PP
68 .I Ssh-agent
69 connects to
70 .I factotum
71 by accessing
72 .I factotum-service
73 (default
74 .RB ` factotum ')
75 in the current name space.
76 .PP
77 There is a Unix program called
78 .I ssh-agent
79 that manages SSH keys itself.
80 Invoke this one with
81 .B 9
82 .BR ssh-agent ;
83 see
84 .MR 9 (1) .
85 .SH EXAMPLES
86 Assume
87 .MR factotum (4)
88 is already running and initialized with keys.
89 .PP
90 Start a new agent, copying the commands by hand:
91 .IP
92 .EX
93 $ 9 ssh-agent -e
94 SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-405795003d7ee27a/agent.4233;
95 export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;
96 SSH_AGENT_PID=4233;
97 export SSH_AGENT_PID;
98 $ SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-405795003d7ee27a/agent.4233;
99 $ export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;
100 $ SSH_AGENT_PID=4233;
101 $ export SSH_AGENT_PID;
102 $ 
103 .EE
104 .PP
105 Start the agent from
106 .MR sh (1) :
107 .IP
108 .EX
109 $ eval `9 ssh-agent -e`
110 $ 
111 .EE
112 .PP
113 Start the agent from
114 .MR rc (1) :
115 .IP
116 .EX
117 % eval `{9 ssh-agent}
118 % 
119 .EE
120 .PP
121 Use the agent to connect to a remote system:
122 .IP
123 .EX
124 % ssh tux
125 tux% ^D
126 % 
127 .EE
128 .SH SOURCE
129 .B \*9/src/cmd/auth/ssh-agent.c
130 .SH SEE ALSO
131 .MR ssh (1) ,
132 .MR rsa (1) ,
133 .MR factotum (4)
134 .SH BUGS
135 A surprise rather than a bug:
136 .I ssh-agent
137 connects to factotum on demand, so it can be
138 started before
139 .I factotum
140 is running and need not be restarted just because
141 .I factotum
142 is.