KDE ssh-agent

[Todd Zullinger]

Mike -- EMAIL IGNORED wrote:
> On my FC7, it appears that KDE creates an ssh-agent when it starts.

It's not specific to KDE.  It's done as part of the general X startup
scripts.

> Is this a surprise?

It was a pleasant one, for whatever version it was finally added to
(it's been a while, and I'd been adding it manually for a long while
before that).

> What is it for?

It manages ssh keys.  If you use ssh to login to various boxes it is
very convenient to use key based authentication instead of using
passwords.  Using ssh-agent you can add your key to the agent and only
enter the key's passphrase once for your entire X session.  Then you
can ssh into other boxes without any prompting -- securely.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insignificant
premises
    -- Samuel Butler

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