Monday, August 17, 2009

ssh-agent(ssh-add) from X under Gnome and CentOS5

Ok you connect to multiple servers and want NOT to type your very secret passphrase every time you
connect to a server.
If you use any type of X window manager is very easy to use a the file

$HOME/.xinitrc in which you have the following

exec ssh-agent

Then after you login into GNOME/KDE etc open a xterm, kterm or any other xterminal and type
ssh-add - you will be prompted to input your secret passphrase.

Be aware that if you don't have any type of keys into your $HOME/.ssh then all the above won't work
because ssh-add needs to have some keys to work with.

In case you need to generate keys is simple:

open a shell

$ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 1024 -- will make you a rsa key 1024 bits
$ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024 -- will make you a dsa key 1024 bits

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