sshag

"Socket to me, baby!"

This is a sourceable shell include file which provides a sshag function to conveniently hook up with an operating ssh-agent.

It will start a new agent session if it doesn't find an agent to connect with.

You might want to source it from within your ~/.bashrc file or other profile script.

It can also be run as an executable script, and its output stored in the relevant environment variable. This is particularly useful when it is desired to configure a non-shell environment, for example that of a text editor.

Messages are emitted on standard out; the output will always consist of just the socket location.

Usage:

Sourced:

$ ssh [email protected]
Enter passphrase for key '/home/austin/.ssh/id_dsa': ^C
$ source sshag.sh
$ sshag
Keys:
    2048 0d:db:a1:1a:cc:01:ad:ec:ab:00:d1:ed:eb:ac:1e:00 /home/austin/.ssh/id_dsa (DSA)
/tmp/ssh-5ock3tt0m3/agent.6969
$ ssh [email protected]
...

Invoked:

$ export SSH_AGENT_SOCK=`sshag.sh`
Output should be assigned to the environment variable $SSH_AUTH_SOCK.
Keys:
    2048 0d:db:a1:1a:cc:01:ad:ec:ab:00:d1:ed:eb:ac:1e:00 /home/austin/.ssh/id_dsa (DSA)

Appended to ~/.bashrc: source ~/lib/sshag/sshag.sh; sshag &>/dev/null

Licensing

This code was posted as a response to a question on superuser.com. As I understand it, code posted to that site is under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike License, so I'm attributing it to the superuser.com user Zed. SU currently links to version 2.5 of the license.

A copy of the full license is distributed herein in the file COPYING.

The basic gist of the license

You are free:

• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

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With the understanding that:

• Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.

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