On 16/01/2011, at 2:12 PM, bluethundr wrote: > Hello and thanks for your reply! > > Well I took your advice and removed that keychain scriptlet from > .bashrc and put it into .bash_profile. Not sure what the functional > difference between the two would be. Perhaps you would care to > elaborate? I know that rc stands for "resource configuration" but > other than that I don't know why this statement would be more > appropriate in the .bash_profile. However you do seem well versed in > this and I hope you don't mind answering this question. > .bash_profile is executed for login shells (followed by .bashrc). .bashrc is executed for non-login shells as well. .bash_profile should therefore be used for session setup tasks. > So this is what I put into my .bash_profile > > $(keychain --eval --agents ssh id_rsa) > > and here is an ssh session from after when I did this: > > [bluethundr at LCENT01:~]#bash > [bluethundr at LCENT01:~]#ssh-agent > SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-cBwwRR5466/agent.5466; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK; > SSH_AGENT_PID=5467; export SSH_AGENT_PID; Here you are not actually starting the ssh-agent in the background (which explains why it is outputting environment variables). You should give it a second parameter to tell it which program to launch. ssh-agent bash However, this will cause the parent shell to become redundant, so you want to instead replace it with the shell that ssh-agent starts (that shell has the environment variables set appropriately). exec ssh-agent bash Now when you use ssh-add, it should be able to see the agent. > echo Agent pid 5467; > [bluethundr at LCENT01:~]#ssh-add > Could not open a connection to your authentication agent. > [bluethundr at LCENT01:~]#exec ssh-agent bash > [bluethundr at LCENT01:~]#ssh-add > Enter passphrase for /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa: > Identity added: /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa (/home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa) > > So this behavior did not change. I still have to enter my passphrase > again after I put this into my .bash_profile > Of course. The passphrase is important because it encrypts the private key. This, presumably, is why you are using the 'keychain' program, which is typically used to have a key unlocked manually by a system administrator (eg. after boot), so that cron jobs, etc, can access it. > > [bluethundr at LCENT01:~]#ssh virt1 > Last login: Sat Jan 15 11:51:08 2011 from 192.168.1.42 > ######################################################### > # SUMMITNJHOME.COM # > # TITLE: LB1 BOX # > # HOST: VIRTCENT01 # > # LOCATION: SUMMIT BASEMENT # > ######################################################### > > * keychain 2.7.0 ~ http://www.funtoo.org > * Found existing ssh-agent: 27556 > * Adding 1 ssh key(s): /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa > Enter passphrase for /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa: > Bad passphrase, try again for /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa: > * ssh-add: Identities added: /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa > > This is new.. now I get prompted for the passphrase AGAIN once I reach > the server I am ssh'ing in to. This is why ssh-add (and presumably also 'keychain'), should NOT be included in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc (or similar). SSH Agent Forwarding is the correct way to approach this problem: it generally increases system security (keys become easier to manage) and reduces user support requirements.