NAME

Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile - Read and modify ssh's authorized_keys files

SYNOPSIS

    use Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile;
        # Reads $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys by default
    my $akf = Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile->new();
    $akf->read("authorized_keys");
        # Iterate over entries
    for my $key ($akf->keys()) {
        print $key->as_string(), "\n";
    }
        # Modify entries:
    for my $key ($akf->keys()) {
        $key->option("from", 'quack@quack.com');
        $key->keylen(1025);
    }
        # Save changes back to $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys
    $akf->save() or die "Cannot save";

DESCRIPTION

Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile reads and modifies "authorized_keys" files. "authorized_keys" files contain public keys and meta information to be used by "ssh" on the remote host to let users in without having to type their password.

METHODS

"new"

Creates a new Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile object and reads in the authorized_keys file. The filename defaults to "$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys" unless overridden with

    Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile->new( file => "/path/other_authkeys_file" );

Normally, the "read" method described below will just silently ignore faulty lines and only gobble up keys that either one of the two parsers accepts. If you want it to be stricter, set

    Net::SSH::AuthorizedKeysFile->new( file   => "authkeys_file",
                                       abort_on_error => 1 );

and read will immediately abort after the first faulty line. Also, the key parsers are fairly lenient in default mode. Adding

    strict => 1

adds sanity checks before a key is accepted.

"read"

Reads in the file defined by new(). By default, strict mode is off and read() will silently ignore faulty lines. If it's on (see new() above), read() will immediately abort after the first faulty line. A textual description of the last error will be available via error().

"content"

Contains the original file content, read by "read()" earlier. Can be used to set arbitrary content:

    $keysfile->content( "some\nrandom\nlines\n" );

and have "parse()" operate on a string instead of an actual file this way.

"keys"

Returns a list of Net::SSH::AuthorizedKey objects. Methods are described in Net::SSH::AuthorizedKey.

"as_string"

String representation of all keys, ultimately the content that gets written out when calling the "save()" method. Note that comments from the original file are lost.

"save"

Write changes back to the authorized_keys file using the as_string() method described above. Note that comments from the original file are lost. Optionally takes a file name parameter, so calling "$akf->save("foo.txt")" will save the data in the file "foo.txt" instead of the file the data was read from originally. Returns 1 if successful, and undef on error. In case of an error, error() contains a textual error description.

"sanity_check"

Run a sanity check on the currently selected authorized_keys file. If it contains insanely long lines, then parsing with read() (and potential crashes because of out-of-memory errors) should be avoided.

"ssh_dir( [$user] )"

Locate the .ssh dir of a given user. If no user name is given, ssh_dir will look up the .ssh dir of the effective user. Typically returns something like "/home/gonzo/.ssh".

"path_locate( [$user] )"

Locate the authorized_keys file of a given user. Typically returns something like "/home/gonzo/.ssh/authorized_keys". See "ssh_dir()" for how the containing directory is located with and without a given user name.

"error"

Description of last error that occurred.

LEGALESE

AUTHOR

2005, Mike Schilli <m@perlmeister.com>