Re: ssh and stuff

[Adam Shand <larry@alaska.net>]

> as your first command.  Logins will now be invisible and automatic, like
> rsh, so scripts ought to work.  

if it's for scripting you are typically better to use a ~/.shosts file on
the remote host instead of relying on the ssh-agent stuff.  you don't always
have the option of running 'eval `ssh-agent`' and 'ssh-add' before a script
runs from cron etc.

> There is an X version of the agent, too,
> but I've never gotten it working for me.

the trick is to make sure the debian package ssh-askpass as installed and
then to get the x version to pop up you need to run:

# /usr/bin/ssh-add < /dev/null

the way i setup passwordless ssh for my laptop so it works for all X
sessions is like this:

(before i start x)

# eval `ssh-agent`; startx & clear; logout  
  (this only works if you use bash as your shell)

and then in my ~/.xinitrc file i have this line:

/usr/bin/ssh-add < /dev/null &

as x starts up you get a window pop up asking for your ssh rsa
password.  because you ran ssh-agent before starting x the needed
environment variables are available to all subshells.

if you want to remove the ability to passwordless ssh you can do so by
running 'ssh-add -D' in any xterm.

i hope that helps,

adam.