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

[Adam Funk]

On 2024-12-07, Adam Funk wrote:

> 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).

So, commenting out that line then logging out and back in has fixed
the problem (and now both terminals have the second SSH_AUTH_SOCK
value), but here's what I don't understand: all the other
customizations (environment variables) that I've added to ~/.profile
show up in both mate-terminal and terminator. Why is the `eval
$(ssh-agent)` line different?