
SSH-ADD(1)		       SSH		       SSH-ADD(1)


NAME

       ssh-add - adds identities for the authentication agent
	   ssh-add - 


SYNOPSIS
       ssh-add [-p] [-l] [-d] [-D] [file...]


DESCRIPTION
       Ssh-add	adds identities to the authentication agent, ssh-
       agent.  When run  without  arguments,  it  adds	the  file
       $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.	If the -p
       option is given then the passphrase is  read  from  stdin,
       otherwise  if  the  user  is  using X11, the passphrase is
       requested using a small X11 program; otherwise it is  read
       from  the user's tty.  (Note: it may be necessary to redi-
       rect stdin from /dev/null to get the passphrase	requested
       using X11.)

       The  authentication  agent  must be running and must be an
       ancestor of the current process for ssh-add to work.


OPTIONS
       -p   Read passphrase from stdin (or pipe).

       -l   Lists 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.


RETURN STATUS
       Ssh-add returns one of the following exit statuses.  These
       may be useful in scripts.

       0      The requested operation was performed successfully.

       1      No connection could be made to  the  authentication
	      agent.  Presumably there is no authentication agent
	      active in the execution environment of ssh-add.

       2      The user did not supply a required passphrase.

       3      An identify file could not be found, was not  read-
	      able, or was in bad format.

       4      The agent does not have the requested identity.




SSH			 November 8, 1995			1





SSH-ADD(1)		       SSH		       SSH-ADD(1)


       5      An unspecified error has occurred; this is a catch-
	      all for errors not listed above.


FILES
       $HOME/.ssh/identity
	      Contains the RSA	authentication	identity  of  the
	      user.   This  file should not be readable by anyone
	      but  the	user.	It  is	possible  to  specify	a
	      passphrase when generating the key; that passphrase
	      will be used to encrypt the private  part  of  this
	      file.   This  is	the default file added by ssh-add
	      when no other files have been specified.

	      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 termi-
	      nal  associated with it but DISPLAY is set, it will
	      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.)


AUTHOR
       Tatu Ylonen <ylo@ssh.fi>


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


























SSH			 November 8, 1995			2


