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Use SSH keys from CMD, PowerShell, etc. on Windows

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RaeesBhatti/ssh-agent-helper

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SSH Agent Helper

Use SSH keys from CMD, PowerShell, etc. on Windows

What does it fix?

If you want to use ssh with SSH keys (or git authenticated via SSH keys) from Command Prompt (cmd) or PowerShell, you either have to use startup scripts for the terminals or set the ssh-agent variables manually on each instance. This program just simply make ssh-agent universally available to programs launched from Windows environment. Which means that you can use do ssh-add to add keys that will be available in all terminals. And use your precious ssh and git right from Command Prompt, PowerShell, Bash or any other.

Usage

Download the binary from latest release.

  • ssh-agent-helper.exe: Invoking the program without any parameters will result in running ssh-agent and setting SSH_AUTH_SOCK and SSH_AGENT_PID as current user's environment variables. This will allow ssh-add, ssh or any other programs that consume ssh-agent to conect to it without any further configuration. But you must restart Command Prompt or PowerShell after this to take effect.
  • ssh-agent-helper.exe with --register-startup or -r parameter configures ssh-agent to run at the time of Windows startup.
  • ssh-agent-helper.exe with -r -a (path for (multiple) id_rsa here) configures ssh-agent to run at Windows startup and add specified SSH keys to the agent. E.g.ssh-agent-helper.exe -r -a %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_rsa
  • ssh-agent-helper.exe with --unregister-startup or -u will disable run at Windows startup functionality.

You can get the usage information by invoking the program with --help switch.

How can I contribute?

Try to use use and report bugs if you face any. Suggest any ideas you think can make this project better.

License

This project is covered by MIT License and the LICENSE file is included with the source code.