How to make eclipse remember ssh key passphrase?

Question

I'm using Egit with Eclipse to use git and access github. Everything is working fine but one thing that I wish to omit to type id_rsa key passphrase everytime I push my commit to github.

I'm asked to enter passphrase each time I restart Eclipse and try to push.

How can I make eclipse remember passphrase so that I don't have to type manually?

Thanks

Grapher

You could generate a SSH key which does not have a passphrase if all else fails! – Penrose

Yes, it's a way but its not a secure option. is it? – Grapher

To be fair, if you are worried about security, you should be prepared to put up with the minor extra step of entering your password. – Penrose

Answer 1

Even if ssh-add -l lists your passphrase-protected key, EGit may not honour it and still ask for passphrase.

To integrate with OS keyring on Ubuntu or Mac OS X put

export GIT_SSH=/usr/bin/ssh

to your ~/.bash_aliases or whenever applicable for your OS.

Balch

Answer 2

Use the ssh agent.

Add your key to the agent with ssh-add. (This will ask you for your passphrase.)

Afterwards the agent should do all the authentication. (No passphrase needed anymore.)

Details:

• try to access your repository manually: cd $your_repository; git fetch -> it should ask for your passphrase
• enter ssh-add -l -> it should output "The agent has no identities."
• enter ssh-add -> it should ask you for your passphrase
• enter ssh-add -l -> it should list one identity (the key you just added)
• try to access your repository again: cd $your_repository; git fetch -> it should now work without asking for your passphrase
• try to access your repository from eclipse. -> again, no passphrase should be needed.

Macule

Thanks but still I can't figure out how to do it. Can you explain in little more detail? – Grapher

git fetch didn't ask for my passphrase may be because I've set up to remember passphrase when I'm logged into my ubuntu system. Also ssh-add -l shows the key that is added. The problem is only when pushing from Eclipse. – Grapher

In that case you should raise a bug against egit. (But check first for possible egit options in eclipse.) – Macule