SSH Key Management Tool for Linux Command Line

Question

Is there a ssh key management tool, for the Linux command line, that makes a key available to various windows after one entry of the key's passphrase? I'm thinking of something similar to Putty's pageant, which requires the passphrase to load the key but then supplies the key to Putty whenever needed for a connection.

In Linux I use command lines in terminal windows, and even with agents each window seems to require a passphrase entry. If I want more than one window into a remote host I have to repeat the passphrase for each window.

I suppose I've overlooked some obvious functionality of ssh or the agents, but so far I can't find a way to do this.

Answer 1

In Linux I use command lines in terminal windows, and even with agents each window seems to require a passphrase entry.

The standard practice here is to start the ssh-agent before X11 or as part of your session, so the agent will be available to anything your run. The exact method you would use to this depend on how you start X11.

Links:

• Using ssh-agent globally for X session

Answer 2

I'm using keychain for this:

# SSH Agent for host bart
if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_dsa-bart ]; then
  keychain -q ~/.ssh/id_dsa-bart
  source ~/.keychain/${HOSTNAME}-sh
fi

First time I open an terminal, ssh-askpass-gnome comes up and is asking the password. Then this password is held the whole X session.

Answer 3

I've read very recently something similar, but using a functionality of the terminal, not ssh, here it is : urxvt + pwsafe