How to Log In With No Password With the ssh-agent Command

If you want to omit passphrase and password entry when you are using Solaris Secure Shell, you can use the agent daemon. Use the ssh-agent command at the beginning of the session. Then, store your private keys with the agent by using the ssh-add command. If you have different accounts on different hosts, add those keys that you intend to use in the session.

You can start the agent manually when needed as described in the following procedure. Or, you can set the agent to run automatically at the start of every session as described in How to Set Up the ssh-agent Command to Run Automatically.

1. Start the agent daemon.

   The ssh-agent command starts the agent daemon and displays its process ID.

   myLocalHost% eval `ssh-agent` Agent pid 9892 myLocalHost%

2. Add your private key to the agent daemon.

   The ssh-add command adds your private key to the agent daemon so that subsequent Secure Shell activity does not prompt you for the passphrase.

   myLocalHost% ssh-add Enter passphrase for /home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa: Identity added: /home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa(/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa) myLocalHost%

3. Start a Solaris Secure Shell session.

   myLocalHost% ssh myRemoteHost

Example—Using ssh-add Options

You can use ssh-add to add other keys to the daemon as well. For example, you might concurrently have DSA v2, RSA v2, and RSA v1 keys. To list all keys that are stored in the daemon, use the -l option. To delete a single key from the daemon, use the -d option. To delete all keys, use the -D option.

myLocalHost% eval `ssh-agent`
Agent pid 3347
myLocalHost% ssh-add
Enter passphrase for /home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa:
Identity added: /home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa(/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa)
myLocalHost% ssh-add /home/johndoe/.ssh/id_dsa
Enter passphrase for /home/johndoe/.ssh/id_dsa: <type passphrase>
Identity added:
/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_dsa(/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_dsa)
myLocalHost% ssh-add -l
md5 1024 0e:fb:3d:53:71:77:bf:57:b8:eb:f7:a7:aa:df:e0:d1
/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa(RSA)
md5 1024 c1:d3:21:5e:40:60:c5:73:d8:87:09:3a:fa:5f:32:53
/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_dsa(DSA)
myLocalHost% ssh-add -d
Identity removed:
/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa(/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)
/home/johndoe/.ssh/id_dsa(DSA)