Just a tip for using ssh-agent(1) effectively in BASH(1).  If you take
advantage of functions, you can reduce the number of ssh-agent's you
have running on any one system to one per host.  An added advantage is
that if you can refresh/set the ssh-agent environment with any open
shell on that host.

    # sagent -- Update current environment w/ssh-agent
    #  * Checks for presense of stamp file, sources it
    #  * Checks for presense of ssh-agent process
    #  * Starts ssh-agent if not already running, saving stamp file
    sagent(){
        if [ -e $HOME/.ssh-agent.$HOSTNAME ]
        then
            source $HOME/.ssh-agent.$HOSTNAME

            if (ps -ef|grep $USER|grep -v grep|grep $SSH_AGENT_PID > \
                    /dev/null)
            then
                return 0
            else
                rm $HOME/.ssh-agent.$HOSTNAME
            fi  
        fi
        
        eval $(ssh-agent -s|tee $HOME/.ssh-agent.$HOSTNAME)
    }

Quick summary of ssh-agent: allows you to type in a password once for
any private key you add.

    bash$ ssh-add <file>

A good alias to include with the above function is 'addids'.

    # addids -- Add known SSH keys
    alias addids="ssh-add ~/.ssh/id{entity,_dsa,_rsa}"

-- 
Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net>                 | a.k.a. ^chewie
http://www.wookimus.net/                            | s.k.a. gunnarr
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