Putty Authentication on Mac OS X?

On my Windows development machine, I use Pageant with a secret key to authenticate with an SVN server.

I want to know: what's the equivalent Mac process for doing this? Pageant isn't ported, how do I authenticate?

Joseph Weissman

Posted 2009-08-31T15:00:50.550

Reputation: 247

1If you want to import a key from your Windows machine with PuttyGen, then use Export -> OpenSSH to create a file in the correct format – Casebash – 2011-05-13T02:24:19.943

Answers

I use SSH Keychain on my Mac to manage my ssh key agent and attached keys. It runs ssh-agent, and ssh-add to manage the keys behind the scenes, but starts up when I login, stores the passphrase in OSX login keychain (you don't have to do this, though).

jtimberman

Posted 2009-08-31T15:00:50.550

Reputation: 20 109

Note that OSX 10.5+ has ssh-agent built-in, so no additional software install is needed (the first time I accessed the encrypted private key in OSX 10.6 I was asked for passphrase; this was then "by magic" added to keychain and no more prompts since then) – Milan Gardian – 2010-05-15T00:39:29.297

2blech, that link no longer leads anywhere useful :( – bacar – 2011-09-10T18:18:40.697

this is the correct link - http://sshkeychain.sourceforge.net/

– Aldekein – 2014-01-29T10:01:41.333

Pageant is a Windows workaround for not having OpenSSH installed. Since modern macs are UNIX, you don't have to install anything!

Here's a quick rundown on how to set it up

jweede

Posted 2009-08-31T15:00:50.550

Reputation: 6 325

Modern Macs are Unix ;). http://www.opengroup.org/comm/press/19-2-nov07.htm

– jtimberman – 2009-08-31T16:15:30.833

http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/brand3581.htm also http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/ – jtimberman – 2011-09-11T06:14:35.823

ssh-add and ssh-agent are the equivalent tools, which are built in. Best way is to read any tutorial for linux or os x in setting up auth with ssh, it will be the same.

Rich Bradshaw

Posted 2009-08-31T15:00:50.550

Reputation: 6 324

For me ~/.ssh/config file works best. Add to it groups of configs using this scheme:

host shortname
user my_username
hostname host.of.the.server.example.com
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/key.openssh

and then

ssh shortname

will connect using that settings, including the key. This lets you have lots of different keys for different hosts without having to add them all to ssh-agent.

Kornel

Posted 2009-08-31T15:00:50.550

Reputation: 1 225