.TH SSH-ADD 1 "January 21 2019 " ""
.SH NAME
\fBssh-add\fP
\- adds private key identities to the authentication agent
.SH SYNOPSIS
.br
\fBssh-add\fP
[\fB\-cDdkLlqvXx\fP]
[\fB\-E\fP \fIfingerprint_hash\fP]
[\fB\-t\fP \fIlife\fP]
[\fIfile ...\fP]
.br
\fBssh-add\fP
\fB\-s\fP \fIpkcs11\fP
.br
\fBssh-add\fP
\fB\-e\fP \fIpkcs11\fP
.br
\fBssh-add\fP
\fB\-T\fP
\fIpubkey\fP...
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBssh-add\fP
adds private key identities to the authentication agent,
\fBssh-agent\fP(1).
When run without arguments, it adds the files
\fI~/.ssh/id_rsa\fP,
\fI~/.ssh/id_dsa\fP,
\fI~/.ssh/id_ecdsa\fP,
and
\fI~/.ssh/id_ed25519\fP.
After loading a private key,
\fBssh-add\fP
will try to load corresponding certificate information from the
filename obtained by appending
\fI-cert.pub\fP
to the name of the private key file.
Alternative file names can be given on the command line.

If any file requires a passphrase,
\fBssh-add\fP
asks for the passphrase from the user.
The passphrase is read from the user's tty.
\fBssh-add\fP
retries the last passphrase if multiple identity files are given.

The authentication agent must be running and the
.IR SSH_AUTH_SOCK
environment variable must contain the name of its socket for
\fBssh-add\fP
to work.

The options are as follows:
.TP
\fB\-c\fP
Indicates that added identities should be subject to confirmation before
being used for authentication.
Confirmation is performed by
\fBssh-askpass\fP(1).
Successful confirmation is signaled by a zero exit status from
\fBssh-askpass\fP(1),
rather than text entered into the requester.
.TP
\fB\-D\fP
Deletes all identities from the agent.
.TP
\fB\-d\fP
Instead of adding identities, removes identities from the agent.
If
\fBssh-add\fP
has been run without arguments, the keys for the default identities and
their corresponding certificates will be removed.
Otherwise, the argument list will be interpreted as a list of paths to
public key files to specify keys and certificates to be removed from the agent.
If no public key is found at a given path,
\fBssh-add\fP
will append
\fI\&.pub\fP
and retry.
.TP
\fB\-E\fP \fIfingerprint_hash\fP
Specifies the hash algorithm used when displaying key fingerprints.
Valid options are:
``md5''
and
``sha256''.
The default is
``sha256''.
.TP
\fB\-e\fP \fIpkcs11\fP
Remove keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library
\fIpkcs11\fP.
.TP
\fB\-k\fP
When loading keys into or deleting keys from the agent, process plain private
keys only and skip certificates.
.TP
\fB\-L\fP
Lists public key parameters of all identities currently represented
by the agent.
.TP
\fB\-l\fP
Lists fingerprints of all identities currently represented by the agent.
.TP
\fB\-q\fP
Be quiet after a successful operation.
.TP
\fB\-s\fP \fIpkcs11\fP
Add keys provided by the PKCS#11 shared library
\fIpkcs11\fP.
.TP
\fB\-T\fP \fIpubkey\fP...
Tests whether the private keys that correspond to the specified
\fIpubkey\fP
files are usable by performing sign and verify operations on each.
.TP
\fB\-t\fP \fIlife\fP
Set a maximum lifetime when adding identities to an agent.
The lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format
specified in
\fBsshd_config\fP(5).
.TP
\fB\-v\fP
Verbose mode.
Causes
\fBssh-add\fP
to print debugging messages about its progress.
This is helpful in debugging problems.
Multiple
\fB\-v\fP
options increase the verbosity.
The maximum is 3.
.TP
\fB\-X\fP
Unlock the agent.
.TP
\fB\-x\fP
Lock the agent with a password.
.PP
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.B "DISPLAY" and "SSH_ASKPASS"
If
\fBssh-add\fP
needs a passphrase, it will read the passphrase from the current
terminal if it was run from a terminal.
If
\fBssh-add\fP
does not have a terminal associated with it but
.IR DISPLAY
and
.IR SSH_ASKPASS
are set, it will execute the program specified by
.IR SSH_ASKPASS
(by default
``ssh-askpass )''
and open an X11 window to read the passphrase.
This is particularly useful when calling
\fBssh-add\fP
from a
\fI\&.xsession\fP
or related script.
(Note that on some machines it
may be necessary to redirect the input from
\fI/dev/null\fP
to make this work.)
.TP
.B SSH_AUTH_SOCK
Identifies the path of a
UNIX-domain
socket used to communicate with the agent.
.PP
.SH FILES
.TP
.B ~/.ssh/id_dsa
Contains the DSA authentication identity of the user.
.TP
.B ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
Contains the ECDSA authentication identity of the user.
.TP
.B ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
Contains the Ed25519 authentication identity of the user.
.TP
.B ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Contains the RSA authentication identity of the user.
.PP

Identity files should not be readable by anyone but the user.
Note that
\fBssh-add\fP
ignores identity files if they are accessible by others.
.SH EXIT STATUS
Exit status is 0 on success, 1 if the specified command fails,
and 2 if
\fBssh-add\fP
is unable to contact the authentication agent.
.SH SEE ALSO
\fBssh\fP(1),
\fBssh-agent\fP(1),
\fBssh-askpass\fP(1),
\fBssh-keygen\fP(1),
\fBsshd\fP(8)
.SH AUTHORS
OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
created OpenSSH.
Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.