Near endless digging today, because I didn't understand ssh-agent, how it works, and the role (if any) of ssh-add in this (because some explanations of ssh-agent do not mention ssh-add). Finally found an example script for starting ssh-agent - which also runs ssh-add. Do those who don't mention ssh-add maybe not know how ssh-agent is started? Is ssh-add run in their startup script while they don't know about it? That would at least explain the differences! That's enough of an opening for me to call it quits today - I'm off to my #! # # # #