ssh-add adds RSA or DSA identities to the authentication agent,
ssh-agent(1). When run without arguments, it adds the files
~/.ssh/id_rsa,
~/.ssh/id_dsa and
~/.ssh/identity. Alternative file names can be given on the command line. If any file requires a passphrase,
ssh-add asks for the passphrase from the user. The passphrase is read from the user's tty.
ssh-add retries the last passphrase if multiple identity files are given.
The authentication agent must be running and the
SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable must contain the name of its socket for
ssh-add to work.
The options are as follows:
-c
Indicates that added identities should be subject to confirmation before being used for authentication. Confirmation is performed by the SSH_ASKPASS program mentioned below. Successful confirmation is signaled by a zero exit status from the SSH_ASKPASS program, rather than text entered into the requester.
-D
Deletes all identities from the agent.
-d
Instead of adding identities, removes identities from the agent. If ssh-add has been run without arguments, the keys for the default identities will be removed. Otherwise, the argument list will be interpreted as a list of paths to public key files and matching keys will be removed from the agent. If no public key is found at a given path, ssh-add will append .pub and retry.
-e reader
Remove key in smartcard reader.
-L
Lists public key parameters of all identities currently represented by the agent.
-l
Lists fingerprints of all identities currently represented by the agent.
-s reader
Add key in smartcard reader.
-t life
Set a maximum lifetime when adding identities to an agent. The lifetime may be specified in seconds or in a time format specified in
sshd_config(5).
-x
Lock the agent with a password.