sshign(1)

💅 sshign(1) — the manual, but make it make sense

okay so real talk, this is sshign, from section 1 of your General Commands Manual, and it is genuinely one of the cutest little tools ever: it signs stuff and verifies stuff using your SSH keys. no new keypairs, no drama, no "please install a whole PKI bestie" — you literally already have the keys. slay. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

sshign — sign and verify data using SSH keys

like… that's it. that's the whole vibe. your existing SSH keys, but making promises about data. 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sshign secret-key-file < data-to-sign > signature

sshign public-key-file signature-file < data-to-verify

read it like a lil recipe, okay? first form = signing mode (secret key in, signature out). second form = verifying mode (public key + signature in, data on stdin). you got this. 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

🔥 signing (the "make a signature" era)

To generate a signature, call sshign secret-key-file.

It reads the data from stdin and computes the signature using the private SSH key in secret-key-file, then prints the resulting signature to stdout in text format. text format!! readable!! no weird binary blob situation. iconic behavior, honestly. ✨

🌈 verifying (the "is this legit or nah" era)

To verify a signature, call sshign public-key-file signature-file.

It reads data from stdin and checks the signature in signature-file against the public SSH key in public-key-file.

and here's the part where you pay attention because it's doing numbers:

• returns with exit code 0 on successful verification ✅
• returns with exit code 1 in case of failed verification ❌

ngl those exit codes are the whole personality for scripting. 0 = she ate. 1 = bestie, that signature did not match. check your exit status, always. 💅

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

signing 💖

$ echo "This is my message" > sign-me.txt
$ ./sshign ~/.ssh/id_rsa < sign-me.txt > signature.txt

look at that redirect game. data goes in from the file, signature comes out into signature.txt, zero mess. we love a clean pipeline. 🌸

verification 👑

$ ./sshign ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub signature.txt < sign-me.txt
verify: ok

and there it is — verify: ok — the four most reassuring characters in this whole manpage. print it, frame it, put it on your fridge. 🎀

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Maintained by Thomas Renoth <minus@mnus.de>.

up-to-date sources can be found at https://git.sr.ht/~minus/sshign, and bugs/patches can be submitted by email to ~minus/public-inbox@lists.sr.ht.

so like… found a bug? email it. got a patch? email that too. the maintainer literally handed you the inbox. respect the hustle. 🙈

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go sign something. 💜

— this has been the sshign(1) gloss, dated 2026-10-14, straight from the sshign(1) page in your General Commands Manual. no cap, that's the source and version, mwah. 💋