the quick and dirty guide to ssh-agent on the X desktop


all questions, comments, corrections can be sent to the
author, sean finney (finney@cs.swarthmore.edu).

1]	do this first

ssh-keygen -t dsa

choose a long and unguessable passphrase, this is VERY important, and
accept the default location to store the key given by ssh-keygen.  if
you're super paranoid, save the private key on a piece of removable
media and lock it away in a safe, hire armed guards with attack dogs,
robots with laser eyes, et c. et c.  DO NOT GIVE A NULL PASSPHRASE!

2]	then,

cat .ssh/id_dsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys2

3]      then put this in your .xsession, before the call to 
	whatever window manager you use.  if you don't use .xsession,
	try .xinitrc.  if you don't use that, read up on your
	documentation or ask your sysadmin.

eval `ssh-agent`
ssh-add .ssh/id_dsa < /dev/null

4]      you're all set.  now if you want to hop from host to host this
	way (beyond the first connection), put this in .ssh/config:

Host *
	ForwardAgent yes


that's it!