ssh-add.0 revision 239849 
1SSH-ADD(1)                 OpenBSD Reference Manual                 SSH-ADD(1)
2
3NAME
4     ssh-add - adds private key identities to the authentication agent
5
6SYNOPSIS
7     ssh-add [-cDdkLlXx] [-t life] [file ...]
8     ssh-add -s pkcs11
9     ssh-add -e pkcs11
10
11DESCRIPTION
12     ssh-add adds private key identities to the authentication agent,
13     ssh-agent(1).  When run without arguments, it adds the files
14     ~/.ssh/id_rsa, ~/.ssh/id_dsa, ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa and ~/.ssh/identity.  After
15     loading a private key, ssh-add will try to load corresponding certificate
16     information from the filename obtained by appending -cert.pub to the name
17     of the private key file.  Alternative file names can be given on the
18     command line.
19
20     If any file requires a passphrase, ssh-add asks for the passphrase from
21     the user.  The passphrase is read from the user's tty.  ssh-add retries
22     the last passphrase if multiple identity files are given.
23
24     The authentication agent must be running and the SSH_AUTH_SOCK
25     environment variable must contain the name of its socket for ssh-add to
26     work.
27
28     The options are as follows:
29
30     -c      Indicates that added identities should be subject to confirmation
31             before being used for authentication.  Confirmation is performed
32             by the SSH_ASKPASS program mentioned below.  Successful
33             confirmation is signaled by a zero exit status from the
34             SSH_ASKPASS program, rather than text entered into the requester.
35
36     -D      Deletes all identities from the agent.
37
38     -d      Instead of adding identities, removes identities from the agent.
39             If ssh-add has been run without arguments, the keys for the
40             default identities will be removed.  Otherwise, the argument list
41             will be interpreted as a list of paths to public key files and
42             matching keys will be removed from the agent.  If no public key
43             is found at a given path, ssh-add will append .pub and retry.
44
45     -e pkcs11
46             Remove keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library pkcs11.
47
48     -k      When loading keys into the agent, load plain private keys only
49             and skip certificates.
50
51     -L      Lists public key parameters of all identities currently
52             represented by the agent.
53
54     -l      Lists fingerprints of all identities currently represented by the
55             agent.
56
57     -s pkcs11
58             Add keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library pkcs11.
59
60     -t life
61             Set a maximum lifetime when adding identities to an agent.  The
62             lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format
63             specified in sshd_config(5).
64
65     -X      Unlock the agent.
66
67     -x      Lock the agent with a password.
68
69ENVIRONMENT
70     DISPLAY and SSH_ASKPASS
71             If ssh-add needs a passphrase, it will read the passphrase from
72             the current terminal if it was run from a terminal.  If ssh-add
73             does not have a terminal associated with it but DISPLAY and
74             SSH_ASKPASS are set, it will execute the program specified by
75             SSH_ASKPASS and open an X11 window to read the passphrase.  This
76             is particularly useful when calling ssh-add from a .xsession or
77             related script.  (Note that on some machines it may be necessary
78             to redirect the input from /dev/null to make this work.)
79
80     SSH_AUTH_SOCK
81             Identifies the path of a UNIX-domain socket used to communicate
82             with the agent.
83
84FILES
85     ~/.ssh/identity
86             Contains the protocol version 1 RSA authentication identity of
87             the user.
88
89     ~/.ssh/id_dsa
90             Contains the protocol version 2 DSA authentication identity of
91             the user.
92
93     ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
94             Contains the protocol version 2 ECDSA authentication identity of
95             the user.
96
97     ~/.ssh/id_rsa
98             Contains the protocol version 2 RSA authentication identity of
99             the user.
100
101     Identity files should not be readable by anyone but the user.  Note that
102     ssh-add ignores identity files if they are accessible by others.
103
104EXIT STATUS
105     Exit status is 0 on success, 1 if the specified command fails, and 2 if
106     ssh-add is unable to contact the authentication agent.
107
108SEE ALSO
109     ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), sshd(8)
110
111AUTHORS
112     OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free ssh 1.2.12 release by
113     Tatu Ylonen.  Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos, Theo
114     de Raadt and Dug Song removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
115     created OpenSSH.  Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH protocol
116     versions 1.5 and 2.0.
117
118OpenBSD 5.2                    October 18, 2011                    OpenBSD 5.2
119