ssh-agent Command Examples

Spawn an SSH Agent process. An SSH Agent holds SSH keys decrypted in memory until removed or the process is killed. See also ssh-add, which can add and manage keys held by an SSH Agent. More information: https://man.openbsd.org/ssh-agent.

• Start an SSH Agent for the current shell:

eval $(ssh-agent)

• Kill the currently running agent:

ssh-agent -k