2009/5/12 Etaoin Shrdlu <shr...@unlimitedmail.org>: > On Tuesday 12 May 2009, 11:17, Etaoin Shrdlu wrote: > >> > Does ssh-agent really ask you for a passphrase when starting a >> > shell? >> >> Not if you don't invoke it :) > > Sorry, that is a bit unclear. Ssh-agent will never ask for a password. > It's ssh-add that does (if you run it after the agent), assuming the key > you're adding is password-protected.
Ssh-agent most certainly asks for a passphrase (although it may be ssh-add that does the actual asking). As soon as I get to my first login screen (I don't start from a GUI login), and I have logged in, ssh-agent (or ssh-add, whatever) asks me for a passphrase for the DSA key it finds. But it consistently ignores the RSA key. Really, everything is (or at least seems to be) working wonderfully *for DSA*. As you also indicated, it *should* work for both DSA and RSA ... except that on my box it doesn't. :-(
