Using ssh-agent

If the key you created had an empty passphrase (shame on you!) then you can use it now to login to xenon without a password. Simply type: ssh xenon.truman.edu.

If you created a key with a passphrase, then you need a mechanism to load the key and keep it ready for you. The program that does this is ssh-agent. To load it, type eval `ssh-agent`. Once the agent is loaded, you can use ssh-add to load your keys. You should be prompted for the passphrase for each (secret) key you load. From that point on, your secret keys will be available for use in that window, without a password.

$ eval `ssh-agent`
Agent pid 1884
$ ssh-add
Enter passphrase for /home/2002/username/.ssh/id_dsa: passphrase
$ ssh xenon.truman.edu