ssh-add(1)

NAME

       ssh-add - adds RSA or DSA identities to the authentication agent

SYNOPSIS

       ssh-add [-cDdLlXx] [-t life] [file ...]
       ssh-add -s reader
       ssh-add -e reader

DESCRIPTION

       ssh-add  adds  RSA  or DSA identities to the authentication agent, ssh-
       agent(1).   When   run   without   arguments,   it   adds   the   files
       $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa, $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa and $HOME/.ssh/identity.  Alterna-
       tive file names can be given on the command line.  If any file requires
       a  passphrase,  ssh-add  asks  for  the  passphrase from the user.  The
       passphrase is read from the  user's  tty.   ssh-add  retries  the  last
       passphrase if multiple identity files are given.

       The authentication agent must be running and the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environ-
       ment variable must contain the name of its socket for ssh-add to  work.

       The options are as follows:

       -c     Indicates  that  added identities should be subject to confirma-
              tion before being used for authentication.  Confirmation is per-
              formed  by  the SSH_ASKPASS program mentioned below.  Successful
              confirmation  is  signaled  by  a  zero  exit  status  from  the
              SSH_ASKPASS   program,   rather   than  text  entered  into  the
              requester.

       -D     Deletes all identities from the agent.

       -d     Instead of adding the identity, removes the  identity  from  the
              agent.

       -e reader
              Remove key in smartcard reader.

       -L     Lists  public  key parameters of all identities currently repre-
              sented by the agent.

       -l     Lists fingerprints of all identities  currently  represented  by
              the agent.

       -s reader
              Add key in smartcard reader.

       -t life
              Set  a maximum lifetime when adding identities to an agent.  The
              lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format  speci-
              fied in sshd_config(5).

       -X     Unlock the agent.

       -x     Lock the agent with a password.

ENVIRONMENT

       DISPLAY and SSH_ASKPASS
              If  ssh-add needs a passphrase, it will read the passphrase from
              the current terminal if it was run from a terminal.  If  ssh-add
              does  not  have  a  terminal  associated with it but DISPLAY and
              SSH_ASKPASS are set, it will execute the  program  specified  by
              SSH_ASKPASS and open an X11 window to read the passphrase.  This
              is particularly useful when calling ssh-add from a .xsession  or
              related script.  (Note that on some machines it may be necessary
              to redirect the input from /dev/null to make this work.)

       SSH_AUTH_SOCK
              Identifies the path of a unix-domain socket used to  communicate
              with the agent.

FILES

       $HOME/.ssh/identity
              Contains  the  protocol version 1 RSA authentication identity of
              the user.

       $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa
              Contains the protocol version 2 DSA authentication  identity  of
              the user.

       $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa
              Contains  the  protocol version 2 RSA authentication identity of
              the user.

              Identity files should not be readable by anyone  but  the  user.
              Note  that ssh-add ignores identity files if they are accessible
              by others.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Exit status is 0 on success, 1 if the specified command fails, and 2 if
       ssh-add is unable to contact the authentication agent.

SEE ALSO

       ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), sshd(8)

AUTHORS

       OpenSSH  is a derivative of the original and free ssh 1.2.12 release by
       Tatu Ylonen.  Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus  Friedl,  Niels  Provos,
       Theo  de  Raadt and Dug Song removed many bugs, re-added newer features
       and created OpenSSH.  Markus Friedl contributed  the  support  for  SSH
       protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.

                              September 25, 1999                    SSH-ADD(1)