GNU/Linux |
Debian 6.0.3(Squeeze) |
|
![]() |
ssh-add(1) |
![]() |
SSH-ADD(1) BSD General Commands Manual 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 pkcs11
ssh-add −e pkcs11
DESCRIPTION
ssh-add adds RSA or DSA identities to the authentication agent, ssh-agent(1). When run without arguments, it adds the files ~/.ssh/id_rsa, ~/.ssh/id_dsa and ~/.ssh/identity. After loading a private key, ssh-add will try to load corresponding certificate information from the filename obtained by appending -cert.pub to the name of the private key file. Alternative 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 environment variable must contain the name of its socket for ssh-add to work.
Any keys recorded in the blacklist of known-compromised keys (see ssh-vulnkey(1)) will be refused.
The options are as follows:
−c
Indicates that added identities should be subject to confirmation before being used for authentication. Confirmation is performed 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 identities, removes identities from the agent. If ssh-add has been run without arguments, the keys for the default identities will be removed. Otherwise, the argument list will be interpreted as a list of paths to public key files and matching keys will be removed from the agent. If no public key is found at a given path, ssh-add will append .pub and retry.
−e pkcs11
Remove keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library pkcs11.
−L
Lists public key parameters of all identities currently represented by the agent.
−l
Lists fingerprints of all identities currently represented by the agent.
−s pkcs11
Add keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library pkcs11.
−t life
Set a maximum lifetime when adding identities to an agent. The lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format specified 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
~/.ssh/identity
Contains the protocol version 1 RSA authentication identity of the user.
~/.ssh/id_dsa
Contains the protocol version 2 DSA authentication identity of the user.
~/.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), ssh-vulnkey(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.
BSD September 9, 2015 BSD
![]() |
ssh-add(1) | ![]() |