Why is Jenkins still asking for the ssh password after passing the key?

Question

I am trying to start the Jenkins build from the command line on OS X.

Our server has enabled authentication, so I need to authenticate from a command line call.

I registered my ssh key with the jenkins server, but I still need to enter the passphrase.

Here is the command I'm using:

$ java -jar jenkins-cli.jar -s http://localhost:8080/ -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa build 'MyApp' 

After entering the command, I get the following prompt:

 Enter passphrase for /Users/jenkins/.ssh/id_rsa: 

Why is a passphrase required when I use a private key and how do I overcome this?

Answer 1

This is because Jenkins is trying to use the default ssh verification method and is not smart enough to use your ssh agent, or figuring out that if you provide a user / password, it makes no sense.

If you want, you can disable this behavior by adding the -noKeyAuth parameter.