Sharing SSH agent between multiple shells


If you're logged in with multiple shells on a machine and want to reuse the SSH agent between them, there's an easy way that doesn't involve anything but a line of BASH.

In your first shell, run ssh-add as normal to add the keys you need:

$ ssh login.example.com
$ ssh-add

Then, in the other shell(s), re-use the SSH agent from the first shell with:

$ ssh login.example.com
$ export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$(find /tmp/ssh-* -name "agent.*" -user "$(whoami)" | tail -n 1)

Nice, secure and simple.


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