Class: Net::SSH::UserAuth::UserKeyManager

Class | Net::SSH::UserAuth::UserKeyManager
In: | lib/net/ssh/userauth/userkeys.rb
Parent: | Object

This class encapsulates all operations done by clients on a user‘s private keys. In practice, the client should never need a reference to a private key; instead, they grab a list of "identities" (public keys) that are available from the UserKeyManager, and then use the UserKeyManager to do various private key operations using those identities.

The UserKeyManager also uses the Agent class to encapsulate the ssh-agent. Thus, from a client‘s perspective it is completely hidden whether an identity comes from the ssh-agent or from a file on disk.

### Methods

<< add add_host_key clear! clear_host! finish host_identities identities new sign use_agent= use_agent?

### Attributes

agent_factory | [W] | The agent factory to use when a new agent instance is needed.
buffers | [W] | The buffer manager to use for providing new buffer instances.
host_key_files | [R] | The list of host key files that will be examined
key_existence_tester | [W] | The object that will be used to test whether a given key file is readable. This object must only respond to "readable?" with one parameter, the file to test the readability of.
key_files | [R] | The list of user key files that will be examined
keys | [W] | The key manager instance to use for managing keys
log | [W] | The logger instance to use for logging messages

### Public Class methods

new()

Create a new UserKeyManager. By default, the manager will use the ssh-agent (if it is running).

### Public Instance methods

<<( key_file )

Alias for add

add( key_file )

Add the given key_file to the list of key files that will be used.

add_host_key( key_file )

Add the given key_file to the list of host key files that will be used.

clear!()

Clear all knowledge of any loaded user keys. This also clears the list of default identity files that are to be loaded, thus making it appropriate to use if a client wishes to NOT use the default identity files.

clear_host!()

Clear all knowledge of any loaded host keys. This also clears the list of default identity files that are to be loaded, thus making it appropriate to use if a client wishes to NOT use the default identity files.

finish()

This is used as a hint to the UserKeyManager indicating that the agent connection is no longer needed. Any other open resources may be closed at this time.

Calling this does NOT indicate that the UserKeyManager will no longer be used. Identities may still be requested and operations done on loaded identities, in which case, the agent will be automatically reconnected. This method simply allows the client connection to be closed when it will not be used in the immediate future.

host_identities()

Returns an array of host identities (public keys) known to this manager. Host identities are those that identify the current host, and are used (typically) for hostbased authentication.

identities()

Returns an array of identities (public keys) known to this manager. The origin of the identities may be from files on disk or from an ssh-agent. Note that identities from an ssh-agent are always listed first in the array, with other identities coming after.

sign( identity, data )

Sign the given data, using the corresponding private key of the given identity. If the identity was originally obtained from an ssh-agent, then the ssh-agent will be used to sign the data, otherwise the private key for the identity will be loaded from disk (if it hasn‘t been loaded already) and will then be used to sign the data.

Regardless of the identity‘s origin or who does the signing, this will always return the signature in an SSH2-specified "signature blob" format.

use_agent=( use_agent )

Toggles whether the ssh-agent will be used or not. If true, an attempt will be made to use the ssh-agent. If false, any existing connection to an agent is closed and the agent will not be used.

use_agent?()

Identifies whether the ssh-agent will be used or not.

[Validate]