Xfce Forum

wrh1728

Member

Registered: 2020-12-15

Posts: 43

Controlling how xfce4-session starts the ssh agent

My understanding is that, when Xfce is launched it will invoke xfce4-session which in turn will launch an ssh-agent instance. It would seem that this can be disabled with

  $ xfconf-query --channel xfce4-session --property /startup/ssh-agent/enabled --create --type bool --set false

and re-enabled with

  $ xfconf-query --channel xfce4-session --property /startup/ssh-agent/enabled --reset

The thing is, xfce4-session invokes ssh-agent as

  /usr/bin/ssh-agent -s

Is it possible to configure the above so that, when xfec4-session gets invoked ssh-agent is launched with an extra option to specify where the ssh-agent will be created? I.e. ssh-agent would be automatically launched by xfce4-session something like

  /usr/bin/ssh-agent -s -a $HOME/.ssh/mysocket

Can this be done?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Controlling how xfce4-session starts the ssh agent

This old bug report might be of interest. Patch included to do just that but never merged. Might be a good idea to post to that bug report to see if you can get it merged.

As a workaround, you could try disabling it via the xfconf key you mention, and add a line to /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc just above the "exec xfce4-session" line to start the daemon as you need it. The actual file being used may differ based on your distro. The other potential option would be to copy the xinitrc file to ~/.config/xfce4 and edit it there, so it doesn't get overwritten with an update (see the end of your startxfce4 file for the locations being processed).

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wrh1728

Member

Registered: 2020-12-15

Posts: 43

Re: Controlling how xfce4-session starts the ssh agent

Thanks. I guess I'll wait to see whether this patch ever makes it into the official distribution - I really have neither the time nor the expertise to start messing with Xfce source code; and, as you point out, there are workarounds.

Last edited by wrh1728 (2023-08-14 22:23:32)