NAME

     ssh-add - adds identities for the authentication agent

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  redirect  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  readable,
          or was in bad format.

     4    The agent does not have the requested identity.
     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 gen-
          erating  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 terminal  asso-
          ciated  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  neces-
          sary  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)