what is ssh-sgent?

[Chris G]

On Sun, May 04, 2008 at 03:29:16PM +0200, John L Fjellstad wrote:
> John K Masters <johnmasters at oxtedonline.net> writes:
> 
> > Should be fine. As I said ssh-agent gets installed when you install ssh.
> > However, if you are not using a service whether ssh or whatever then it
> > is probably best to turn it off.
> 
> ssh client and server is different packages.  ssh client, AFAIK, gets
> installed in the standard installation.  Server is not. ssh-agent is
> part of the client (the client uses it to cache the password).  i'm not
> sure turning off ssh-agent is a good idea if you are using the ssh client
> 
I don't understand this bit about whether it's "a good idea" to turn
off ssh agent.  Unless you know about it and explicitly set things up
to use it up ssh-agent does nothing for you. 

If ssh-agent isn't there ssh is no less secure, in fact it's rather more
secure because you're forced to enter your passphrase every time you do
an ssh login.

-- 
Chris Green