ssh-agent seems to be "split" in different terminal programs (Ubuntu-MATE 24.04 LTS)

[Adam Funk]

On 2024-12-04, Adam Funk wrote:

> I did a fresh installation of Ubuntu-MATE 24.04 LTS on a laptop last
> week and copied most of my home directory over from another one
> (including some but not all of the dot-files and dot-directories).
>
> I'm using the mate-terminal and terminator for different things but
> the ssh-agent is not being shared between them; i.e., if I use ssh-add
> in either one, the keys are not unlocked in the other one, so I have
> to ssh-add in an instance of each terminal for everything to work. (If
> I close all the open terminals of either kind, the keys are still
> available when I launch a new one.)
>
> I think it is probably caused by this discrepancy:
>
> * in mate-terminal:
>
> $ env |grep -i ssh
> SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-H1CUqkimJczJ/agent.1284792
> SSH_AGENT_PID=1284793
>
> * in terminator:
>
> $ env |grep -i ssh
> SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh
> SSH_AGENT_PID=1284793
...
> I noticed these two lines in my ~/.profile
>
> # TEST 2021-08-25
> eval "$(ssh-agent)"
>
> but they were in it on my previous laptop and I don't recall ever
> having this problem.

It turns out they were causing the problem but I hadn't noticed. I
changed mate-terminal to light mode on the new setup so I started
using terminator to ssh into a server where dark mode is more useful
(because of the color configuration for some things I use on it).

Oops!