-.\" $OpenBSD: ssh-agent.1,v 1.37 2003/03/28 10:11:43 jmc Exp $
+.\" $OpenBSD: ssh-agent.1,v 1.28 2001/09/05 06:23:07 deraadt Exp $
.\"
.\" Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
.\" Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
.Nd authentication agent
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm ssh-agent
-.Op Fl a Ar bind_address
.Op Fl c Li | Fl s
-.Op Fl t Ar life
.Op Fl d
.Op Ar command Op Ar args ...
.Nm ssh-agent
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
-.It Fl a Ar bind_address
-Bind the agent to the unix-domain socket
-.Ar bind_address .
-The default is
-.Pa /tmp/ssh-XXXXXXXX/agent.<ppid> .
.It Fl c
Generate C-shell commands on
.Dv stdout .
Kill the current agent (given by the
.Ev SSH_AGENT_PID
environment variable).
-.It Fl t Ar life
-Set a default value for the maximum lifetime of identities added to the agent.
-The lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format specified in
-.Xr sshd 8 .
-A lifetime specified for an identity with
-.Xr ssh-add 1
-overrides this value.
-Without this option the default maximum lifetime is forever.
.It Fl d
-Debug mode.
-When this option is specified
+Debug mode. When this option is specified
.Nm
will not fork.
.El
.Xr ssh-add 1 .
When executed without arguments,
.Xr ssh-add 1
-adds the files
-.Pa $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa ,
-.Pa $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa
-and
-.Pa $HOME/.ssh/identity .
+adds the
+.Pa $HOME/.ssh/identity
+file.
If the identity has a passphrase,
.Xr ssh-add 1
asks for the passphrase (using a small X11 application if running
.Xr ssh 1
looks at these variables and uses them to establish a connection to the agent.
.Pp
-The agent will never send a private key over its request channel.
-Instead, operations that require a private key will be performed
-by the agent, and the result will be returned to the requester.
-This way, private keys are not exposed to clients using the agent.
-.Pp
A unix-domain socket is created
+.Pq Pa /tmp/ssh-XXXXXXXX/agent.<pid> ,
and the name of this socket is stored in the
.Ev SSH_AUTH_SOCK
environment
.Pp
The
.Ev SSH_AGENT_PID
-environment variable holds the agent's process ID.
+environment variable holds the agent's PID.
.Pp
The agent exits automatically when the command given on the command
line terminates.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Pa $HOME/.ssh/identity
Contains the protocol version 1 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 file is not used by
+.Nm
+but is normally added to the agent using
+.Xr ssh-add 1
+at login time.
.It Pa $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa
Contains the protocol version 2 DSA authentication identity of the user.
.It Pa $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa
Contains the protocol version 2 RSA authentication identity of the user.
-.It Pa /tmp/ssh-XXXXXXXX/agent.<ppid>
+.It Pa /tmp/ssh-XXXXXXXX/agent.<pid>
Unix-domain sockets used to contain the connection to the
authentication agent.
These sockets should only be readable by the owner.