Copy or link the ssh-askpass script to /usr/local/bin.
Install newt, so we can use whiptail CLI prompts. (Example uses Homebrew for installation)
brew update && brew install newt
By default, macOS looks for ssh-askpass in /usr/libexec; however, this location is protected by rootless mode. Add the following to your .bash_profile, which redirects ssh-agent to look in /usr/local/bin. Note the call to ssh-add, if you wish to adjust the timeout.
.bash_profile
# Setup our SSH agent
connect_ssh_agent() {
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$(ls /private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.*/Listeners)
ssh-add -l > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ "$?" != "0" ]; then
launchctl setenv SSH_ASKPASS /usr/local/bin/ssh-askpass DISPLAY :0 && launchctl stop com.openssh.ssh-agent
ssh-add -c -t 12h
fi
}
connect_ssh_agent
You may also wish to automatically start tmux when connecting over ssh. First add new-session to your .tmux.conf, then add the following to your .bash_profile.
.bash_profile
if [ "$SSH_CONNECTION" -a -z "$TMUX" ]; then
tmux attach -d
fi