SSH-ADD(1) UNIX System V (September 25, 1999) SSH-ADD(1)
NAME
ssh-add - adds RSA or DSA identities to the authentication
agent
SYNOPSIS
ssh-add [-lLdDxXc] [-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. 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.
The options are as follows:
-l Lists fingerprints of all identities currently
represented by the agent.
-L Lists public key parameters of all identities currently
represented by the agent.
-d Instead of adding the identity, removes the identity
from the agent.
-D Deletes all identities from the agent.
-x Lock the agent with a password.
-X Unlock the agent.
-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).
-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.
Page 1 (printed 10/26/05)
SSH-ADD(1) UNIX System V (September 25, 1999) SSH-ADD(1)-s reader
Add key in smartcard reader.
-e reader
Remove key in smartcard reader.
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
Page 2 (printed 10/26/05)
SSH-ADD(1) UNIX System V (September 25, 1999) SSH-ADD(1)
many bugs, re-added newer features and created OpenSSH.
Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH protocol
versions 1.5 and 2.0.
Page 3 (printed 10/26/05)
