Mac/Linux

Agent Forwarding in Mac and Linux Systems

Start the SSH-Agent

First, start your ssh-agent with the command below.

$ eval $(ssh-agent)

You should see an output similar to this:

Agent pid 48792

Add Key(s)

Next, add your ssh private keys to the running agent (using the ssh-add command on line 1). This step may be repeated for every key pair you use to connect to different git servers. For most, this file is called id_rsa and will live in ~/.ssh/id_rsa. If you set a password for your ssh keys, the agent will prompt you to enter them.

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Enter passphrase for ~/.ssh/id_rsa:
Identity added: ~/.ssh/id_rsa 

Confirm the ssh keys have been loaded into the agent with ssh-add -L:

$ ssh-add -L
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1y...CQ0jPj2VG3Mjx2NR user@computer

Connect to Oscar

Now ssh into Oscar with the -A option as shown on the first line below (replace username with your Oscar username). -A will forward your ssh-agent to Oscar, enabling you to use the ssh keys on your laptop while logged into Oscar.

$ ssh -A [e-mail]

If you have ssh keys setup on your local computer to connect to GitHub, you can confirm your ssh-agent was properly forwarded by checking GitHub . If the ssh command fails, your agent has not been properly forwarded.

$ ssh [e-mail]

Hi JaneDoe! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
Connection to github.com closed.

Always connecting with Agent Forwarding

To make these changes permanent, you can add the ForwardAgent yes option to your ssh configuration file. To learn more about configuring your ssh connections, visit

pageSSH Configuration File